Ozzy still rocking his throne of darkness

By Kristi Alexandra [culture editor]

Many might have had the impression that seeing The Prince of Darkness perform at Rogers Arena on Nov. 14 would be a novelty. The guy’s a washed-up old acid head, you might think. He’ll never be as bad ass as his facade implied in the ‘70s. He’s a reality-show has-been, for satan’s sake. But at least you’ll get to say you’ve seen Ozzy Osbourne live.

And to illustrate just how seriously some of the show-goers were taking him–well, let’s just say there were more than a couple DIO shirts walking around the place. In the words of Michelle Tanner: How Rude!

But if you did, indeed, enter the arena doors with the notion that you’d end the night shrugging your shoulders and saying “ehh, I saw Ozzy before he died,” you left a changed Ozzy fan.

The 61-year-old metal legend has managed to stay quite contemporary during his long reign as the prince of darkness.

Opening his show with reel-to-reel clips of himself superimposed into clips of Jersey Shore, Iron Man and Lady Gaga’s video for Telephone elicited  a ton of laughs but the crowd went especially wild during a clip of popular culture’s favourite vampire film, Twilight. The ever-boring Kristen Stewart opens the dialogue saying “I know what you are…”, cue clip from Ozzy in grim-reaper attire responding “say it.”

“Vampire,” Stewart whispered.

“VAMPIRES ARE PUSSIES,” Ozzy retorted. “I”M THE PRINCE OF FUCKING DARKNESS!”

At that point, any doubt that Ozzy wasn’t still totally bat-shit crazy was squashed, and the night launched into hell-inspired mayhem with “Bark At The Moon.” Most people got out of their seats to give the leading man the headbanging nod that he deserves for his years in service to the metal genre.

And his backing band wasn’t bad either, with guitarist Gus G leading the group in panty-melting riffs. Yep. Completely panty-melting.

The night turned out to be quite a treat for Sabbath fans as Ozzy and his band paid tribute by playing a few numbers off of Paranoid. Kicking off his Sabbath-inspired set with “Iron Man” and “Fairies Wear Boots,” members of the audience from 15 to 65 screamed out the lyrics with the legendary singer taking breaks to drench his fans with a regulation firefighter’s hose.

Screams were aplenty throughout the arena, although Ozzy kept hyping the crowd by yelling “I CAN’T FUCKING HEAR YOU!”

An interlude showcased the talents of Ozzy’s band members, including a lengthy and impressive wailing solo from Gus G which had every girl and her mom swooning. Jesus, that guy is good with his hands.

Ozzy came back with the much awaited “Crazy Train” and played many more, showing that he’s still got the vocal chops and the attitude to stay on his throne. Nearly capping the band’s set at two-and-a-half hours, the second encore was the heartfelt ballad “Mama, I’m Coming Home,” which the Oz dedicated to the late DIO, showing that there were no hard feelings between he and Ronnie James, nor the attendees who decided to wear his shirt.

The screaming audience managed to nick one more off the legendary Iron Man, when he came back a third time with “Paranoid.”

I’ll say it again, if you thought you were going to come out of Ozzy Osbourne’s concert at the Rogers Arena with a novelty experience, you left with much more.