Less than three weeks before he died, Ozzy Osbourne performed his final show with Black Sabbath at the Back to the Beginning farewell concert. His roots with Sabbath were solid, despite the fact that the bulk of his career was devoted to his solo work with albums such as Blizzard of Ozz, Diary of a Madman, Bark at the Moon, and No More Tears.
Osbourne’s early success as a solo artist was boosted by the addition of guitar player Randy Rhoads to his band. But Rhoads, who died tragically in a plane crash while touring with Osbourne in 1982, didn’t like playing Osbourne’s old songs and wanted to pursue other interests just before his death, according to fellow Osbourne musician Bob Daisley.
In an August 2025 interview on the Artists on Record podcast, Daisley revealed that Rhoads wanted to go back to school after recording two albums (Blizzard of Ozz and Diary of a Madman) with Osbourne’s classic solo lineup.
“It was getting to the point where Randy didn’t want to be in a rock band, because he wanted to pursue his studies and get his master’s degree,” Daisley recalled. “So, he wanted to leave anyway, whether we would have gotten another album, or maybe two, out of that lineup before Randy left.”
“Randy… He didn’t like playing the Black Sabbath songs. He was not a Black Sabbath fan,” Daisley added. “We used to do a medley of Sabbath songs at the end of the set when we did the UK tour, ‘Paranoid’, ‘Iron Man’, and I think ‘Children of the Grave.’ He didn’t like doing those. But yeah, Randy was becoming more and more serious about his classical playing, so it may have lasted a third and a fourth album. I really don’t know.”
The original Ozzy Osbourne lineup consisted of Rhoads on guitar, Daisley on bass, and Lee Kerslake on drums.
Randy Rhoads Respected Black Sabbath But Wasn’t a Fan
In the 2022 documentaryRandy Rhoads: Reflections of a Guitar Icon, Rhoads talked about Black Sabbath in a vintage interview. “I wasn’t a big Sabbath fan, to be honest,” the late guitarist said in the interview. “I mean, they were great, what they did, obviously – did it and made it huge. Gotta respect them.”
His brother Kelle Rhoads added that the guitarist also didn’t get Osbourne’s “Ozzy” knuckle tattoos. “He used to go, ‘I don’t like Black Sabbath very much,” Kelle recalled. “‘Who the f— would write his name on his hand?’ He goes, ‘I don’t understand that.”
Ozzy Osbourne Said He Owed His Career to Randy Rhoads
Rhoads became an instant guitar icon thanks to his appearance on Osbourne’s debut 1980 solo album, which included songs such as “Crazy Train” and “Mr. Crowley.” The album came one year after Osbourne was fired from Black Sabbath, ultimately saving the singer’s career.
But Rhoads was killed in a freak plane accident in Leesburg, FL, on March 19th, 1982, at age 25. At the time, the band was touring in support of the newly released Diary of a Madman.
In an interview with Rolling Stone, Osbourne described Rhoads as “a gift from God.”
“He was a great player. …He’s probably the truest musician I’ve ever played with,” Osbourne said in 2021. “The way he died was a terrible thing. I owe my career to him.”
Osbourne also revealed that his last conversation with Rhoads was about the guitarist’s desire to move on. “On the last journey we had together, going from Knoxville, Tennessee, to Orlando, Florida, I was on the bus, and he said to me, ‘I want to quit rock & roll,'” Osbourne recalled. “I said, ‘You want what?’ …I said, ‘Are you joking?’ He said, ‘No. I want to get a degree at UCLA.’”
“That was the last conversation I had with him,” Osbourne said. “And 12 hours later, he was dead. …I knew him for a very short amount of time. But what he gave me in that short amount of time was immeasurable in f—ing greatness.“
