Tribute (1987)In 1987, I was not a heavy metal fan...until I started hanging out at a friend's house. Darren was a big metal fan and I got pulled into it after listening and finding out that not all of it was the "devil's music." I got a fuller appreciation for the musicianship in certain bands and the lyrical content, which could be surprisingly complex...or just sometimes very stereotypical...almost Spinal Tap-ish in nature.
The album that cemented my interest in metal was this one: Tribute, by Ozzy Osbourne and Randy Rhoads (no, not the pathetic Air America lamebrain). Being of a conservative Baptist upbringing, I had been taught that Ozzy was the worst of the worst. I disagreed vehemently at that time. Twenty years further down the road...well, Ozzy isn't a Christian singer, but he's also not the devil incarnate. His reference to himself as the "Prince of Darkness" is more showmanship than anything else.
Randy Rhoads was a singularly-talented guitarist who is still one of my favorites over 25 years after he died in a tragic plane accident. After Ozzy left Black Sabbath, he embarked upon a solo career and one of the first orders of business was to find a spectacular guitarist. He found that in the young guitarist for Quiet Riot. Randy left the band to join Ozzy, recorded two awesome albums (Blizzard of Ozz and Diary of a Madman) and then died. This live album captures the energy from the live shows immediately following these two albums and actually includes most of the songs from both albums, including "Mr. Crowley," "Flying High Again," and Ozzy's signature solo song, "Crazy Train." Also included are a handful of Sabbath covers, including "Iron Man" and Ozzy's signature song from that period, "Paranoid."
From here, my tastes in heavy music ranged everywhere from Motley Crue and Bon Jovi to Metallica and Megadeth. At the same time, though, I refused to let go of the other music I liked: Genesis, Peter Gabriel, Bruce Springsteen, etc. These days I don't listen to a lot of heavy metal, but I can still appreciate much of it and I haven't made a concerted effort to get rid of old albums. I am glad to have it as one of the many genres of music in my collection.
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