Ozzy Osbourne Has No Regrets Going After Kanye West

Ozzy Osbourne talked about his recent clash with Kanye West in a new interview with Rolling Stone.

Earlier this month, West and fellow rapper Ty Dolla $ign released the album Vultures 1. On the album is the track "Carnival," which featured a sample of a live Osbourne recording. The live recording was of the Black Sabbath classic "Iron Man" from Osbourne's performance at the 1983 US Festival.

However, Osbourne did not give permission to West to use the sample. The Prince of Darkness took to social media and slammed the unauthorized use of the recording and West, himself. Ozzy wrote, "Kanye West asked permission to sample a section of a 1983 live performance of 'Iron Man' from the US Festival without vocals and was refused permission because he is an antisemite and has caused untold heartache to many."

He continued, "He went ahead and used the sample anyway at his album listening party last night. I want no association with this man!"

Following Ozzy's statement, Sharon Osbourne issued a statement via TMZ. Ozzy's wife/manager told the tabloid outlet, "Kanye f---ed with the wrong Jew this time." (Sharon was raised Jewish, and her father, former Black Sabbath manager Don Arden, was born into a Jewish family.)

After the uproar, West removed the sample. Osbourne told Rolling Stone about attacking West for his antisemitic comments, "It’s wrong if you don’t say anything about him. I don’t want any of my work in any shape or form to be associated with anything like that."

West has a significant history of making antisemitic remarks. (Rolling Stone has a breakdown of the many instances of the rapper's antisemitism and use of hate speech.) One of the most recent examples of West's antisemitism came when the title track of Vultures 1 was released in November 2023. It was immediately met with controversy due to antisemitic lyrics from Ye on the track. This led the rapper to issue an apology to the Jewish community in Hebrew.

After you get thrown out of one of the most influential bands of all time, what do you do for an encore? Ozzy Osbourne was a misfit, an unusual vocalist, he didn’t play instruments or write songs in the conventional sense… so his former Black Sabbath bandmates probably didn’t see him as someone who would rival them for popularity. Surprise, surprise: Ozzy Osbourne’s long second act has been one of the most surprising and tumultuous in the history of rock and roll.

Sure, the bottom-feeding celebrity news machine loves him as a headline-generating lunatic, but the reason why we still care after all these years is the amazing discography Ozzy has amassed over the decades. Here are our 40 favorite Ozzy jams from 1980 on. As Ozzy prepares to wrap up an incredible career, we listened to everything, from the classic ‘Blizzard Of Ozz’ (every song made the list, except for Randy Rhoads’ solo guitar piece “Dee”) to the advance tracks released from ‘Ordinary Man.’