KICK OUT THE JAMS

Thursday, March 20, 2003
Copyright © Las Vegas Mercury

Kick Out the Jams

Ozzy Osbourne at the Joint, March 14

History has been kind to the Ozzman. Once reviled as the dark lord of a burgeoning legion of pimple-popping Satan worshippers, Ozzy has evolved into nothing less than the foul-mouthed Everyman of the new millennium. In the process, the selective memory of pop culture has gradually forgotten his transgressions (besides chomping the head off a dove, he also relieved himself on the Alamo) and enshrined him as the befuddled ringmaster of heavy metal's evil circus.

Not that he didn't sorta deserve it. After all, Blizzard of Ozz and Diary of a Madman--Ozzy's first two solo albums after being fired from Black Sabbath--were hard rock masterpieces, yielding classics such as "Crazy Train," "Suicide Solution," "Over the Mountain" and "Flying High Again." Of course, the rest of Ozzy's catalog doesn't shine so brightly, most of it mired in a coke-and-booze-induced miasma that progressively worsened after the death of guitarist Randy Rhoads in 1982.

Nevertheless, the 52-year-old Ozzman can still pack 'em in. Apparently willing to forgive the sonic belly flops that were The Ultimate Sin and Ozzmosis, the metalheads flocked to the Joint Friday, each laying out a sawbuck and a half to partake of a 90-minute stroll down metal memory lane. Unfortunately, it looked like Ozzy might need some kind of wheeled conveyance to get him there.

Reunited with lesser guitar god and Ted Nugent wannabe Zakk Wylde, Ozzy took the stage with the swift, diminutive steps and hunched back of a spinster cashing in a bingo ticket. "Let's go fucking crazy," he said as Wylde dipped into the familiar opening to "Paranoid" and followed up with "War Pigs"--both Sabbath classics and the clear highlights of the evening. From there, the band ranged through middling renditions of "I Don't Know," "Mr. Crowley" and "Suicide Solution" while Ozzy alternated between headbanging and resting his rickety frame against the mic stand.

But things didn't go terribly awry until mid-set when Wylde took center stage and regaled the indifferent crowd with a 12-minute guitar solo that included a lengthy jaunt through "The Star-Spangled Banner." After that, a shirtless Ozzy returned in all his loose-skinned, liver-spotted glory with "Bark at the Moon" and "No More Tears," but his crazy train had long since derailed.

Still, Ozzy was his typically clueless, charming self (at one point declaring, "I'm suffering tonight because I was fucked up last night"), and in the end people will probably remember it as a good show--perhaps not Ozzy's best but certainly a passable performance. Hmm, isn't it funny the way we choose to remember things?--Newt Briggs