Ozzy Osbourne helped to form Black Sabbath back in 1968 in Birmingham, England, alongside Geezer Butler, Tony Iommi and Bill Ward. With the release of their self-titled debut album in 1970, Heavy Metal was born and they changed the whole Rock and Roll scene.
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Three years later, the brothers Angus and Malcolm Young created in Australia AC/DC, which would become one of the most influential Hard Rock bands of all time. Ozzy was always a big fan of the group and he once even revealed which is his favorite album by them.
AC/DC was curiously Black Sabbath‘s opening act in the ’70s, but they were kicked off that tour after a disagreement between Geezer Butler and Malcolm Young. However, there was never any bad blood between Ozzy and the band, and he has always praised the hard rock group.
In an interview with Rolling Stone in 2017, he listed his 10 favorite Metal albums of all time. One of them was AC/DC’s “Highway To Hell” (1979).
“I love Brian Johnson but to me my good friend, the late Bon Scott, was the best singer AC/DC ever had. This album was like an addiction to me,” he said. Later on, in 2020, he told Broken Record Podcast that Bon Scott was his favorite one. “Bon Scott was a great singer. I mean, Brian [Johnson] is good. But I prefer Bon.”
“Highway To Hell” was the final AC/DC album with the late legendary singer Bon Scott, who tragically passed away in 1980 at the age of 33. Besides the famous title-track, that record also had songs like “Touch Too Much”, “Shot Down in Flames”, “If You Want Blood (You’ve Got It)” and “Night Prowler”.
Scott was replaced by Brian Johnson, who was able to even make the band more successful with incredible albums they released, like “Back In Black” (1980).
In 2011 Ozzy Osbourne recorded a special video for the premiere of the DVD “AC/DC: Live At River Plate”. He praised the band and called Angus “a machine”.
(Transcribed by Rock and Roll Garage): “I’ve met AC/DC for the first time touring in Sydney with Black Sabbath. I remember thinking ‘these can’t be around touring using so much energy at every concert, they’re (not gonna be able to do that in a few years).”
“Angus is like a machine that never stops. He keeps going and going. He still got the fucking energy, man, they are a really great bunch of guys. They are my friends, are real people. I love them all, God bless them. (…) There is no other band in the world like them. (They) are a meat and potatoes band. There is no bollocks, there is no fucking around. Whether you like them or you don’t and I’m proud to say I love them,” Ozzy Osbourne said.
In 2016, Angus Young was promoting the band’s album “Rock or Bust”. He recalled in a video at the time that Ozzy used to call them “meat and potatoes”.
“I play guitar when I feel like playing guitar. That’s how I learned to play. It was a never, ‘You must do that.’ It was a case of you wanted to do that and you felt like doing it. The music has a lot of power. It’s simple, but it’s also kind of complex.”
“Ozzy Osbourne calls us ‘meat and potatoes’. So it’s as good a description as any. You’re trying also to communicate to the whole building. You’re hoping that that sound gets to the very back of the hall. So that they’re getting the same feeling as the people who are close,” Angus Young said.
I'm a Brazilian journalist who always loved Classic Rock and Heavy Metal music. That passion inspired me to create Rock and Roll Garage over 6 years ago. Music has always been a part of my life, helping me through tough times and being a support to celebrate the good ones. When I became a journalist, I knew I wanted to write about my passions. After graduating in journalism from the Pontifical Catholic University of Minas Gerais, I pursued a postgraduate degree in digital communication at the same institution. The studies and experience in the field helped me improve the website and always bring the best of classic rock to the world! MTB: 0021377/MG