The myth of myths

"Better start writing about Ozzy ☹️"

It wasn't the first I'd heard, but it was how The Navigator chose to tell me that The Price of Darkness had left the mortal coil last Tuesday. 

But I wasn't quite ready to share my thoughts then. I'm not really sure I am now. 

I don't know that I remember "discovering" Ozzy Osbourne, or for that matter, Black Sabbath. They've always just been there. I'm not sure I ever adored Ozzy as a singer, but more as an icon or as a character. He never made me cry like Gord Downey or brought me euphoria like Maynard James Keenan, but he was always there. 

Ozzy's celebrity was unavoidable in the 1990s, but at the same time, something was missing. You never heard Sabbath songs on the oldies station - only on the rock stations. My parents listened to 1970s music, but they never had Sabbath records. I never saw Sabbath or Ozzy records when I bought old records at garage sales. 

All that to say, I certainly knew Ozzy, many of my favourite bands are disciples of Sabbath, but I wasn't exactly a nut about him. 

So why have I felt so weird about Ozzy's death? 

I saw a video the other day talking about how music just isn't special anymore. It's perfect and overproduced. Some of that makes sense, I suppose, but it doesn't quite hit the mark. I think it's more about how everything around music has changed. 

How we get the music has changed. Outside of an algorithm or a YouTube video, what was the last thing you discovered that really grabbed you? We never get our music from our friends, from the music shop or from someone on the street anymore. 

And with that, we've lost the myths of our music. I mentioned it in my comment on The Navigator's post from last Friday, but there are no real legends anymore. Like, we don't pass these stories down orally anymore. No one whispers stories about Lemmy bedding 100 women or Alice Cooper dining on bats. There's always a website with fact-checking backing up everything being said. 

In a "post-truth" world, I suppose looking for the facts is a good thing. But the only way a singer becomes a legend or a myth is if legendary stories or mythical events surround them. Not to mention, sharing what they're up to is how bands (or anyone in media) promote themselves these days. There's a statement I hear repeated often when I'm looking for how to promote my music project: "Document the process." So everything is videotaped. 

There are no more myths. Only evidence. 

Maybe that's the way it needs to be. But it sure takes the fun out of rock n' roll.

Rest easy Oz. I hope you're having a blast with Randy and Lemmy and all the rest of your rock n' roll buddies who left us with the last true myths humanity may ever know.