Post Malone led an all-star band featuring Guns n’ Roses‘ Duff McKagan and Slash, producer Andrew Watt and Red Hot Chili Pepper Chad Smith in a musical tribute to Ozzy Osbourne and all the other musicians who have died in the past year at the Grammy Awards on Sunday night. Continue reading »
Benson Boone gets clowned on, but dude can sing (and, yes, backflip). “When We Were Young” is not exactly an easy song to nail. But, at a tour stop in Columbus, he did just that—one of many covers he’s been doing on the road.
Every summer comes, inevitably, more “Boys of Summer” covers. This metal-ish version comes from German power-metal vets BRAINSTORM (all caps so you know they’re serious). Singer Andy B. Franck says: “Even though ‘The Boys Of Summer’ deals with rather nostalgic themes of ‘summer love’ and the memory of a past relationship, for me – at the time a 13-year-old – it was, beyond the metal anthems of the 80s, a great song that I associated with summer, girls and the corresponding feeling for many, many years…Even today, this song still evokes great memories for me, and since it’s also a song about questioning the past, this track fits perfectly into our times.” Continue reading »
‘The Best Covers Ever’ series counts down our favorite covers of great artists.
When Black Sabbath held their “Back the Beginning” show in Birmingham this summer, no one disputed it represented Ozzy Osbourne’s way of saying goodbye. They just didn’t know how soon that final goodbye would come. Seventeen days after singing with both Sabbath and his own band to a packed stadium of superfans (and sounding not bad, considering), he was gone.
So today, we honor Sabbath in our own way, giving them the Best Covers Ever treatment. There are some heavy covers below, appropriately enough. But there are also a bunch that translate Sabbath songs into surprising genres, from slocore to bluegrass, retro soul to Finnish trad-jazz. No one, however, sings them the same way Ozzy did. Attempting to do so would be a fool’s errand. He was one of one, and will be missed.
Fozzy was pretty succinct with their feelings of Ozzy Osbourne in a press release announcing their new single: “Ozzy rocks!”
The band (which includes lead singer and wrestling legend Chris Jericho and guitarist Rich “The Duke” Ward) just released their latest cover, a take on Ozzy’s “Crazy Train.” The single marks the 45th anniversary of the release of The Blizzard of Ozz.
The cover is pretty solid, with enough of a nod to the original, but is a little heavier on the guitar in the intro. And, it goes without saying, no one else can equal Ozzy’s “aye, aye, aye” to open the song. The band are long-time fans of both Ozzy and covers. Their original name was Fozzy Osbourne and their first two records were primarily covers.
In a 2022 interview, when asked if it bothered him that people compared his voice to Osbourne’s, Jericho said, “it’s fun to know that if you’re gonna be compared to somebody… Listen, people forget — Ozzy’s one of the greatest rock and roll singers of all time, so I’ll take that comparison any day of the week, man.”
The All-American Rejects recently performed ‘Mama, I’m Coming Home’ as an Ozzy Osbourne tribute at Warped Tour in Long Beach. The original song is themed around reconnection after separation and love. It was first released in 1991, and the tune was co-composed by Ozzy and Lemmy Kilmister. The Rejects’ cover hits hard. Tyson Ritter’s voice is emotive and rich, giving meaning to each syllable. Continue reading »
The Decemberists were among the long lists of musicians honoring and paying tribute to Ozzy Osbourne on the day of his passing. At their recent show in Bethlehem, Pennsylvania at the Wind Creek Event Center, the band joined forces with opening act MELT to perform the Black Sabbath classic “Paranoid.” Usual lead singer Colin Meloy relinquished the microphone to drummer John Moen who took lead on the tribute. (Meloy took Moen’s place at the drum kit.) Continue reading »