Our list of Ozzy Osbourne Albums Ranked Worst to Best shows just how quickly he found success as a solo act — and how massively influential his early LPs were on heavy metal.
The former Black Sabbath frontman struck gold — and platinum, and multiplatinum — with his 1980 solo debut Blizzard of Ozz, which sold a whopping 5 million copies in the United States, spawned era-defining songs like “Crazy Train” and “Mr. Crowley” and thrust former Quiet Riot guitarist Randy Rhoads to stardom. Osbourne and Rhoads would catch lightning in a bottle once more on 1981’s triple-platinum Diary of a Madman, featuring classics such as “Flying High Again” and “Over the Mountain,” before Rhoads’ tragic death in 1982 at the age of 25.
Frequent personnel shifts did nothing to dull Osbourne’s star, however. He scored several more commercial smashes throughout the ’80s and ’90s, including Bark at the Moon, The Ultimate Sin and No More Tears. In all, Osbourne’s first seven albums went multiplatinum, and several of his other sidemen, such as stalwart six-stringer Zakk Wylde, quickly rose to guitar-hero status.
READ MORE: Top 10 Randy Rhoads Guitar Solos
Osbourne’s pace eventually slowed down because of various Sabbath reunions and health issues, and several of his late-career albums failed to match the glorious highs of his early work, to put it mildly. Still, Osbourne gave us us plenty to chew on over the course of his illustrious career. Here’s a look back at Ozzy Osbourne Albums Ranked Worst to Best.
Ozzy Osbourne Albums Ranked
Gallery Credit: Ultimate Classic Rock Staff
Think You Know Ozzy Osbourne?
