“I’m like the Nutty Professor!”: Watch Ozzy Osbourne work his way around a vintage ARP 2600 synthWhile Black Sabbath is rooted in a classic formula of heavy metal guitars, sturdy basslines and thundering drums, the band were no stranger to synths. The band’s 1973 release, Sabbath Bloody Sabbath, truly embraced synthetic sounds – but a clip of the late Ozzy Osbourne might have you thinking he’d never seen one before.
In a recently unearthed snippet from reality TV show The Osbournes, the Prince of Darkness seems perplexed when faced with an ARP 2600 synth. While showing the device off to his son, calling it “fucking awesome when it gets going”, there’s a clear struggle to remember how to get the ball rolling. “Come on you motherfucker!” he cries. “Why are you fucking doing this?”

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Potty-mouth aside, it’s an experience even the most accomplished of music makers faces now and again. Everything looks good to go – yet, nothing happens. All you can do is yell in frustration, as Ozzy does with gusto: “Come on you fucking thing!”
“It’s like another dimension,” he says at one point. “I haven’t used it for about 20 years!”

@synth_history
Legend Ozzy Osbourne with his ARP 2600. Ozzy used the ARP 2600 on songs like Black Sabbath’s “Who Are You?” off Sabbath Bloody Sabbath (1973), as well as “Am I Going Insane” off Sabotage (1975). Considered an icon and pioneer of heavy metal music, particularly with the critically-acclaimed albums Black Sabbath, Paranoid (1970) and Master of Reality (1971), he disliked being pigeonholed, stating in a 2023 interview with Revolver, “Well, I’ve never felt comfortable about that title that they put on me — ‘metal’, because Ozzy Osbourne plays heavy, but the bands that are [considered metal] are really heavy, and we’re all put in the same category. When you get pigeonholed with a certain [genre], it can be very difficult to do something a bit lighter or an acoustic track or whatever you want to do. Back in the day, it was always just rock music. It’s still just rock music.” RIP Prince of Darkness. References: In The Osbournes, S2E20 (2003); Revolver.
♬ original sound – Synth History

Eventually the ARP synth does gargle back to life – and Ozzy instantly toys with the sliders and keys with a maniacal look in his eye. “I’m like the Nutty Professor!” he cackles.
When Ozzy’s son, Jack, asks “what are all these then?”, Ozzy answers with a rather brilliant: “well, fuck if I know”. Yet Jack is happy with the lack of a clear answer, praising the ARP 2600 and noting its similarities to the soundtracks of filmmaker Stanley Kubrick.
Considering Ozzy’s navigation of the synth seems unfamiliar, you’d be forgiven for thinking he was a novice. However, the sticker on the back from 1979 serves as a sign of Ozzy’s previous fling with the synth.

Black Sabbath’s DIY combination of Leslie speakers and reversed flute recordings resulted in some pretty mind-bending sounds on cuts like Planet Caravan, with the band only really delving into the world of synths in 1973. Many mark Who Are You? as the first official synth-drenched Sabbath track, with Ozzy using it as a chance to experiment with a newly purchased a Moog synthesiser.
The ARP 2600 was also thrown into the mix. In Ozzy’s 2009 memoir, I Am Ozzy, he recalled: “I’d written it one night at Bulrush Cottage while I was loaded and fiddling around with a Revox tape machine and my ARP 2600.”

“[Sabbath Bloody Sabbath was] our last truly great album, I think,” Ozzy noted. “We’d managed to strike just the right balance between our old heaviness and our new, ‘experimental’ side.”
The clip serves as a lovely reminder of Ozzy’s bombastic impact on music. The singer sadly passed away on 22 July, with news of Ozzy’s passing was shared by his family. “It is with more sadness than mere words can convey that we have to report that our beloved Ozzy Osbourne has passed away this morning,” an Instagram post said. “He was with his family and surrounded by love.”

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