Ozzy Osbourne, who died July 22 at the age of 76, was known as the singer of influential heavy metal band Black Sabbath and for his outrageous solo career that earned him the title the Prince of Darkness. Yet Ozzy also had a softer side. He was a huge fan of the Beatles.
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On Sunday, July 27, host Chris Carter paid tribute to Ozzy on Breakfast With the Beatles, heard Sundays on KLOS Los Angeles and weekdays on Sirius/XM, by playing his cover of the Beatles 1965 classic “In My Life.” Ozzy’s version of the song appears on his 2005 album Under Cover.
The album also features Osbourne’s renditions of three other songs associated with members of the Fab Four, including a version of “Go Now,” a hit for the Moody Blues later recorded by Paul McCartney & Wings, the John Lennon solo track “Woman” and Lennon’s “Working Class Hero.”
On Breakfast With the Beatles, Carter also asked his listeners a quiz question related to Osbourne and the Beatles: What Ringo Starr song features Ozzy on backing vocals?
One of the show’s faithful listeners correctly answered it’s “Vertical Man,” the title track to the former Beatles’ 1998 album.
Related: I Once Interviewed Ozzy at His Beverly Hills Estate: ‘I’m Glad It’s Coming to an End on a High Note’
Osbourne occasionally shared his love of the Beatles in interviews.
“I absolutely worshiped The Beatles,” he told Rolling Stone in 2002. “Steve Jones of the Sex Pistols once said to me, ‘I hated The Beatles.’ To me, that’s like saying you hate air.”
In a video interview for the End The Silence campaign by the Hope and Homes for Children charity, Ozzy spoke about how hearing the Beatles literally changed his life.
“I remember exactly where I was,” Osbourne said of the first time he heard the Beatles 1963 single “She Loves You.” “I was walking down Witton Road in Aston, I had a blue transistor radio and when that song came on, I knew from then on what I wanted to do with my life.
“This was so brand new and there was just a great feeling it gave me. Then I became an avid Beatles fan – they were great.”
He went on to explain that hearing that song changed his “whole world.”
“I owe my career to them because they gave me the desire to want to be in the music game,” he added.