I have been debating what to write today. Which is why my post is late getting out. On July 22 of this year, the world lost a heavy metal icon. You know, I love a lot of styles of music. Heavy metal is one of them. And so, I texted my oldest son, who is an amazing guitarist and also a metal fan and told him the following when I heard the news about Ozzy Osbourne:
“I am not gonna lie, this one hurts.”
Ozzy did life his way and he set the mold for a lot of metal bands who came after him but, and this is my opinion, none were as good or as long-lasting. And he left this world his way, on a huge high note. His final concert, “Back to the Beginning,” raised over 200 million for charities he supported. For me, I loved that he lived life on his own terms. There are times when I envied his freedom to just be Ozzy.
And for those of you who are scratching your heads wondering how this pastor could like Black Sabbath, AC/DC, Alice Cooper, and many other metal bands, well, in heavy metal I find permission to let my emotions be what they are. When I am overwhelmed by them, and I can be at times, metal music lets me release them and not inflict them on people. It is healing for me in its own way. It is the same with Blues when I am sad, I let the music of the blues wash over me and before I know it my sadness has lifted.
And so, for the past week, I have been listening to metal music. And while I have been listening to many different bands I have mostly listened to the music of Ozzy. And a lot of his music had deeper meanings that we attribute to them. One of my favorites is his song “Crazy Train.” Most think the song is about mental illness. It isn’t, although that meaning could be derived from it.
Ozzy Osbourne wrote the song at the height of the cold war, and it was about the fear and anxiety that filled the 1980s because of the potential for nuclear war. Crazy Train is a metaphor and listening to the music you can almost feel the fear and paranoia that permeates the song. It begins with words we might want to consider today: “Crazy but that’s how it goes, millions of people living as foes. Maybe it’s not too late to learn how to love and forget how to hate.”
In the world we live in today, maybe we should listen to the warning that can be found within this iconic song that is part of the world of heavy metal. Maybe we should learn how to love instead of hate. Oh…wait…that is what Jesus taught! We are here to love one another and support each other in our journey toward God our creator. Maybe there is a reason this pastor likes metal music! Love is the key to all our relationships and scripture teaches us that loving one another is our one and only job. We are not to judge others. We are not to insist people change or be what they are not meant to be. We are to love people where they are in the moment we know them, just as Jesus did.
And I think that is the thing I like about metal music. It is just there, take it or leave it. It doesn’t ask you to change or to change it, but to just accept it for what it is in the moment. Sometimes, metal music is just what I need. Sometimes I need blues or jazz or country or so many other genres I enjoy. I find Reggae to be pretty spot on when I am sitting on my deck in Florida with friends. It is chill music for a chill afternoon.
But back to Crazy Train…The song may have been written for a 1980’s world but it is almost prophetic for our world today. Maybe George Orwell had the date wrong. Maybe his book should have been titled 2025 and not 1984. I believe the same prophetic insight goes for Ozzy as well. These are the lyrics for the second verse of Crazy Train: “I’ve listened to preachers, I’ve listened to fools, I’ve watched all the dropouts who make their own rules, One person conditioned to rule and control…the media sells it and you live the role…Between George Orwell and Ozzy Osbourne, I feel like we all missed the warnings because we were too blind to see and too deaf to hear or maybe we were and still are too afraid to act. Instead, we have been conditioned to listen to the pundits and others who don’t always have our best interests at heart. We are all living on a crazy train…
I think I may just get off at the next station.
Peace,
Beth
BTW…Here is the last verse if you are interested: “Heirs of a cold war, that’s what we’ve become, inheriting troubles, I’m mentally numb. Crazy, I just cannot bear. I’m living with something that just isn’t fair.
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