Ozzy Osbourne Recalls The Time He Noticed Metallica Was A Big Fan Of Black Sabbath

One of the best heavy metal vocalists ever, Ozzy Osbourne, did a brand new interview with Metal Hammer. In the interview, Osbourne talked about his first meeting with Metallica and shared rarely-known memories of The Ultimate Sin Tour in 1986, which was supported by Metallica.

At that time, Metallica was still on the first step of the fame ladder. But with their legendary album Master of Puppets released in 1986, they would start to climb the steps faster. Considered one of Thrash Metal’s best albums, Master of Puppets quickly peaked at number 29 on the billboard 200 and received positive feedback from the metal community.

On the other hand, Ozzy Osbourne had appeared on eight albums with Black Sabbath and was building an excellent solo career for himself. Releasing twelve solo studi albums at press time, Osbourne included Metallica as the opening act in the tour of his fourth solo album, The Ultimate Sin, and the band used this chance very well.

Anyway, Ozzy Osbourne reflected on how he met the members of Metallica in an interview with Metal Hammer. And he also shared a rarely known story in the dressing room.

“Everybody used to stay at LA’s Sunset Marquis, so I ran into them there,” he said. “Not long after, we had them out on tour with us. They came right out of their box; people loved them. They brought along a great following, which helped them take off down the line. They were all nice guys, so I was happy when my old bass player [Rob Trujillo] ended up playing with them.”

“They were opening the show. I remember walking past the dressing room and they were playing Black Sabbath – I had no idea they were big fans, I thought they were taking the piss!”

Ozzy Osbourne Says ‘They Showed Just How Big Sabbath Fans They Were’

Ozzy Osbourne mentioned that while on tour, James Hetfield abstained from asking if they wanted to play Black Sabbath‘s Paranoid song with him. When asked if Ozzy sees the bright future ahead of Metallica he said “Absolutely, you could tell just from how the crowd reacted every night.

“While we were on tour, I’d keep seeing James hanging about like he wanted to ask something. Eventually, he walked up and said, ‘We want to play Paranoid with you’, and we were like, ‘Sure!’ – then they showed just how big Sabbath fans they were. Cliff had a massive smile on his face the whole time. Of course, it all came back round when I got up to do it with them at the Rock & Roll Hall Of Fame [in 2009], which was brilliant too.”

When Ozzy was asked if he had ever partied with them, he said “No, to us they were just a nice bunch of guys! The wildest we had from them was James, who must have broke his arm three fucking times on that tour skateboarding.”

And then, the interviewer asked Ozzy whether it was obvious to him that they were going to be such a big deal.

“Absolutely, you could tell just from how the crowd reacted every night. But you know, they’re a great band – I remember it all really took off when they put out ‘The Black Album’, especially with ‘Enter Sandman.'”

Back in 2021, Ozzy Osbourne opened up about his thirteenth solo effort that is a follow-up to Ordinary Man. Saying that he feels happy to work with Robert Trujillo again, Osbourne added that Robert is a great bass player.

“Rob has always been a great friend of mine,” Ozzy says. “He’s a great bass player and a great guy; he’s the only guy who, when it came time to move, did things the right way.

“I always ask that the guys who play with me, if they get another offer and want to move on, that’s fine, just don’t drop me in the shit, give me time to get a replacement.

“Rob’s the only guy who ever did things right by me for that. I’m really happy we’ve got him playing on the new album as well.”

Ozzy Osbourne later sent respectful words for Metallica by touching on the band’s self-titled The Black Album, which celebrated its 30th anniversary with The Blacklist. According to Osbourne, Metallica released the album at the right time.

“In this business, there’s a lot that’ll surprise you and I’m forever being surprised by things,” Ozzy says. “Clearly the album touched a nerve or something, but I just know that it’s a really good album, you know?

“It’s one of those albums that came at the right time and place, then took off. If we knew exactly what was needed to make an album go off like that, we’d all do it, but they got it perfectly right and made an absolute must-have album.”