Pluscore Records

How did a bunch of mostly white straight right wing men somehow convince us they were the counter-culture?

by Captain Andy

So, recently Ozzy Osbourne died, and this has meant I’ve had to read way too many posts on social media about how he was “a legend” from people who either don’t know about his toxic, violent and disturbing history, do know about his toxic, violent and disturbing history and celebrate him for it or people who are determined to make excuses for his toxic, violent and disturbing history.

For the record, heavy metal as a genre doesn’t entirely lack appeal to me. I like Deep Purple, Iron Maiden, The Almighty, Little Angels etc. etc. though it became apparent to me at some point in the middle of the nineties that people were now referring to something very different when they used to phrase heavy metal. Bands with riffs, melodies and intelligible vocals were now “classic rock” and  ultra-drop tuned guitars with someone either screaming or rapping over the top were the new (or “nu”) metal.

Ozzy Osbourne, as you’ve probably twigged, falls on my preferred side of this divide, so I can assure you my distaste for him as a human being isn’t informed by bias (though his solo career was more than a bit dubious, let’s be honest).

I would say though, that this mid-nineties watershed moment does mean that I’ve never really invested much of myself in heavy metal as a sub culture, which perhaps explains my detachment. I’ve never drank the Koolaid so to speak.

Ozzy Osbourne has a horrifying history of cruelty to animals dating back at least as far as the time he bit the heads off two doves at a record company meeting, through the time he killed seventeen of his own pets in a drug fuelled rage, the time he admitted to shooting cats and birds that wandered onto his property, which he described as “good fun”. When he was a teenager he worked in a slaughterhouse and apparently used to put cows’ eyeballs in people’s pints at the local pub for a “joke”.

He was also a Zionist, having played Tel Aviv twice and having signed an open letter to the BBC accusing them of anti Israel bias (not sure which BBC he’s been watching).

He was also a deadbeat husband and father to his first wife and kids. In case you didn’t know, he had a whole other family before that collection of individuals you saw on ‘The Osbournes’ came along. After having repeatedly cheated on his first wife, he eventually abandoned that family altogether.

He cheated on Sharon Osbourne a lot as well, including with at least one teenager when he was in his sixties. And of course he was a domestic abuser, to the point where he tried to kill her once.

To me it seems pretty obvious he was a selfish, hedonistic and sadistic scumbag. Pretty cut and dry really. I mean, if I read in my local paper that some criminal had engaged in even half of the behaviour listed above, that would be my assessment. I certainly wouldn’t celebrate them as a legend. This is clearly the kind of person documentaries get made about where there’s sinister music playing and a lot of the grim details appear on the screen in text over chilling mugshots of the subject. People who knew him are interviewed in shadowy lighting and possibly have their voices disguised to protect their identities. They break down emotionally mid interview as they spill the hideous traumatic details of this individual. The viewer is quite rightly left feeling sick to their stomach with the unshakeable opinion that our subject is the sort of scum who should be locked up. If said viewer is a tabloid reader, this hypothetical documentary might even be the fuel for their latest tirade of how we should bring back hanging etc. etc.

But that’s because our subject didn’t have the right PR…

See, if you can package all this behaviour in some pantomime identity such as “the Prince of Darkness”, frame it all as though it’s either quirky, goofy behaviour or the rough edges of a flawed, tortured genius, give it a heavy metal soundtrack and it all becomes rather different.

The right wing press, far from seeing Ozzy as an example of why we should bring back hanging or such similar, are singing his praises for his support of Israel. The Telegraph are literally describing it as “The most rock ‘n’ roll thing about Ozzy Osbourne”, because the Telegraph is equal parts repugnant and cringey.

I’ve heard all the excuses… that he was an addict (so was Charles Manson, Jeffrey Dahmer, John Cooper… do you want to excuse them as well?), that he had Parkinson’s (I can’t find a single source that suggests Parkinson’s causes people to kill animals for fun), that he did things for charities (this is called moral licencing and it’s ridiculous. If I help an OAP cross the road it doesn’t mean I’ve earned the right to punch you in the balls). My absolute favourite though is that he made great contributions to heavy metal.

That’s… wow.

I’m not sure if metalheads can really grasp how unimportant heavy metal is to anyone outside the fandom. It certainly isn’t important enough to even come close to outweighing the horrendous history of fucked up behaviour detailed here.

I’m a fan of a lot of things and I can’t think of a single one that’s so important that it outweighs basic human and animal rights. I’m not sure how I’m supposed to relate to this point.

I would add, for what little it matters, that Ozzy Osbourne’s contributions to the music of Black Sabbath aren’t that great. Most of the lyrics were written by Geezer Butler and the guitar riffs on which the songs tend to hang were written by Tony Iommi. Same with his solo work. Bassist Bob Daisley wrote most of the lyrics and Randy Rhoads wrote the guitar riffs.

This is the insidious genius of marketing though. Take an awful person without much creative talent, package them correctly and you can have the masses hailing them as “a legend”.

Osbourne is but one example of how heavy metal can seem counter cultural, but is anything but. Iron Maiden’s Bruce Dickinson is a conservative and a Brexiteer. Not a lexiteer or anything socialist, just to be clear. A dyed in the wool “let’s take our country back from the bureaucrats in Brussels” Brexiteer. James Hetfield from Metallica is notorious for killing bears. We also have Metallica to blame for the whole “Don’t Tread On Me” meme. Dave Mustaine of Megadeth is as batshit crazy a right wing conspiracy theorist as ever there was, believing in both the “New World Order” and the tiresome conspiracy theory that Barack Obama wasn’t born in the USA. He was even demanding a wall across the Mexican border as far back as 1988, long before the paedo president came along. Nikki Sixx from Motley Crue is a self-confessed rapist. Jimmy Page of Led Zeppelin had a fourteen year old girl kidnapped because he wanted her to be his girlfriend. Steven Tytler did worse. He convinced the parents of a minor to let him be her legal guardian so she could be his girlfriend. Lemmy from Motorhead has a weird fascination with Nazi paraphernalia and has a song openly celebrating statutory rape. Gene Simmons from KISS is a raging Zionist, capitalist and misogynist. Ace Frehley from the same band used to burn money in front of homeless people. Kerry King of Slayer is a notorious homophobe and a fan of Rush Limbaugh. ‘One In A Million’ by Guns ‘n’ Roses is ridden with racist and homophobic slurs. Alice Cooper is a Republican and a transphobe. Pantera have a documented history of racism. From the casual racial slurring of Republican Dimebag Darrell to the unambiguous on-mic cry of “White power!!!” by Phil Anselmo.

Supposedly you can’t say anything these days without getting cancelled, but declaring himself openly to be a white supremacist didn’t seem to stop Anselmo from headlining Download last year.

It’s not all like this obviously. I’m reliably informed there are feminist metal bands, LGBTQ metal bands, anarchist metal bands, vegan metal bands… and good for them for going against the grain… but the exception often proves the rule.

The most counter cultural thing about metal as far as I can ascertain is that it’s loud and your parents don’t like it… though I’m not sure how true that is anymore. Black Sabbath fans are among the parents and even grandparents of the modern age. Gone are the days when your grandfolks were fans of Vera Lynn and George Formby and thought the Beatles were a bit raucous. It has always been a niche interest of sorts though, so I guess loudness will always carry a certain amount of counter cultural weight, though I hardly think the political establishment lives in fear of it. On the contrary, heavy metal is big business. Unlike punk rock where it’s considered credible to be playing dive bars and basements while releasing records on an indie label, metal needs to be happening in stadiums and have major label deals if it wants to be taken seriously.

It comes hand in hand with a fashion aesthetic that tends toward the unusual as well, but behind a lot of this loudness and quirky dress sense, what we find is often at best, painfully ordinary and at worst, outright disturbing.

Metal isn’t the only subculture that has much to answer for. There’s not a single subculture that isn’t deserving of criticism and where there isn’t room for improvement. But heavy metal is one that seems to have convinced the masses that it is not merely counter cultural, but the most counter cultural, when the evidence suggests it is anything but.

To those who’d say I shouldn’t speak ill of the dead, I’d counter, don’t be a shitty person while you’re alive.

Now if you’ll excuse me, I’m off to listen to some music you’d probably hate.