Blizzard of Ozz
| Blizzard of Ozz | ||||
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| Studio album by Ozzy Osbourne | ||||
| Released | 12 September 1980 | |||
| Recorded | 22 March − 19 April 1980 | |||
| Studio | Ridge Farm Studio, Rusper, England. | |||
| Genre | Heavy metal, hard rock | |||
| Length | 39:31 | |||
| Label | Jet | |||
| Producer | Ozzy Osbourne, Randy Rhoads, Bob Daisley, Lee Kerslake | |||
| Ozzy Osbourne chronology | ||||
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| Singles from Blizzard of Ozz | ||||
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| Professional ratings | |
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| Review scores | |
| Source | Rating |
| AllMusic |   |
| BBC Music | (favourable) |
| MusicRadar | (favourable) |
| Martin Popoff |   |
| Rolling Stone |  |
| Uncut | |
Blizzard of Ozz is the debut solo album by British heavy metal vocalist Ozzy Osbourne, released on 20 September 1980 in the UK and on 27 March 1981 in the US. The album was Osbourne's first release following his 1979 firing from Black Sabbath.Blizzard of Ozz is the first of two studio albums Osbourne recorded with guitarist Randy Rhoads prior to Rhoads' death in 1982.
Much of the album was written by guitarist Randy Rhoads, bassist Bob Daisley, and Ozzy Osbourne in a live-in rehearsal facility in Monmouth, Wales, with a friend of Osbourne's named Barry Screnage performing as the group's drummer. Screnage was never considered as a candidate to be the group's permanent drummer and he was not involved in the songwriting process at all. The band recorded demos of the songs "I Don't Know", "Crazy Train", "Goodbye to Romance", and "You Looking at Me Looking at You" in Birmingham in early 1980 with ex-Lone Star drummer Dixie Lee. The band had hoped Lee would be a permanent member but "he wasn't the final piece of the puzzle", bassist Daisley recalls. After auditioning several drummers, ex-Uriah Heep member Lee Kerslake was hired as the band's permanent drummer, and the completed lineup retreated to Clearwell Castle in Gloucestershire for six days to rehearse and give Kerslake an opportunity to learn the new songs. A week later, they traveled to Ridge Farm Studio to commence recording.
The first track written for the album was "Goodbye to Romance". Osbourne has stated that the song was his way of saying goodbye to his former band Black Sabbath, as he had thought his career was over after leaving the band. After performing a show in Birmingham, the band hastily returned to Ridge Farm to remix "Goodbye to Romance" for a single. The next morning they were informed that their label Jet Records instead wanted a brand new song to release as a single. Rhoads, Daisley, and Kerslake quickly put together the song "You Said It All", with drummer Kerslake performing the guide vocal at soundcheck while a drunken Osbourne slept under the drum riser. The song was ultimately never recorded, though a live version was released on Ozzy Osbourne Live EP in 1980. The final track written was "No Bone Movies", which was originally intended to be used only as a B-side but was added to the album in order to give Kerslake a writing credit, as all the other material had been written before he joined the band. Keyboardist Don Airey claims that parts of "Revelation (Mother Earth)" as well as the intro to "Mr. Crowley" were written by him in the studio, though he never received writing credit for these contributions.
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