Bats, ballads, and brutal honesty: Remembering Ozzy Osbourne

RT评论：蝙蝠、民谣与赤裸真实-纪念奥兹·奥斯本

Will the Prince of Darkness, who dreamed of light, find peace?

这位向往光明的黑暗王子能否寻得安宁？

By Denis Lukyanov, writer, book reviewer

作者：丹尼斯·卢基扬诺夫（作家、书评人）

In the spring of 2018, I was finishing high school. With graduation looming and the state exams around the corner, I found myself preoccupied with one thing: a long-awaited concert. At the last minute, I managed to get tickets to see Ozzy Osbourne perform live in Moscow. I didn’t make it to the mosh pit, but from my seat, I felt a charge of nuclear energy – raw and unforgettable.

2018 年春天，我正读高中毕业班。随着毕业临近和升学考试迫在眉睫，我却始终惦记着一件事：一场期待已久的演唱会。在最后关头，我抢到了奥兹·奥斯本莫斯科演唱会的门票。虽然没能挤进狂热的摇滚区，但从座位上依然感受到了核爆般的能量——那种原始而难忘的震撼。

It’s a rare thing, to see your childhood idol in the flesh. My father raised me on Osbourne’s music – ‘Iron Man’, ‘Paranoid’, ‘Crazy Train’ – songs that rattled the walls of our home and shaped my idea of what it meant to be alive. That night, I saw Ozzy in his element. And now, he’s gone.

能亲眼见到童年偶像实属难得。父亲是用奥斯本的音乐把我养大的——《钢铁侠》《偏执狂》《疯狂列车》——这些歌曲曾震彻我家墙壁，也塑造了我对生命意义的理解。那晚，我见证了奥兹最本真的舞台状态。而现在，他永远离开了。

Ozzy Osbourne, the iconic frontman of Black Sabbath, the man who helped birth heavy metal, has died. Just two weeks ago, he was on stage at the ‘Back to the Beginning’ farewell concert in Birmingham, the city where it all started. Surrounded by guest stars and reunited with the classic Sabbath lineup, he performed chained to a bat-shaped chair, singing with the wild, unrelenting force that defined his career.

黑色安息日乐队标志性主唱、重金属音乐奠基人奥兹·奥斯本与世长辞。就在两周前，他还在发源地伯明翰的"重返起点"告别演唱会上登台演出。在特邀嘉宾环绕中，他与经典阵容重聚，被锁链束缚在蝙蝠造型座椅上，以贯穿职业生涯的狂野不羁之力纵情高歌。

He left this world as he lived in it – on his own terms. A rock star until the end.

他离开这个世界的方式一如他活着时——我行我素。至死都是摇滚巨星。

Most who don’t follow rock know Ozzy only as the man who bit the head off a bat – a story that became a kind of curse. He grew tired of it in later years, annoyed that a moment of shock theater had come to overshadow a lifetime of art. Others remember him as a foul-mouthed, lovable old rocker – the Prince of Darkness turned reality TV grandpa. A man who swore like a sailor and laughed like a child.

大多数不关注摇滚乐的人只知道奥兹是那个咬掉蝙蝠头的人——这个故事成了某种诅咒。晚年时他对这件事感到厌倦，恼火于一时惊世骇俗的举动竟遮蔽了一生的艺术成就。也有人记得他是个满口脏话却可爱的老摇滚——从黑暗王子变身真人秀爷爷。他骂起人来像水手，笑起来却像个孩子。

But there was more to him than the antics. He was outrageous, yes – he once threw raw meat into a crowd, and at Madame Tussauds, posed as a wax figure of himself, startling tourists for fun. He was devoted too. Even in a wheelchair, battling Parkinson’s, he kept making music. He once said he would perform until his last breath. And he nearly did.

但他远不止这些滑稽行为。他确实荒诞不经——曾向人群扔生肉，在杜莎夫人蜡像馆假扮自己的蜡像吓唬游客取乐。但他也充满热忱。即使坐在轮椅上与帕金森病抗争，他仍坚持创作音乐。他曾说会表演到生命最后一刻。而他几乎做到了。

Osbourne’s final solo album, Ordinary Man (2020), was widely seen as a swan song – romantic, tragic, and defiantly honest. One of its standout tracks, ‘Under the Graveyard’, plays like a hymn of regret. It’s an unflinching confession of the wildness and wreckage of his youth: the drinking, the drugs, the chaos. His treatment of his wife Sharon. His battles with himself. In that song, he sings:

奥斯本的最后一张个人专辑《平凡人》（2020 年）被普遍视为天鹅绝唱——浪漫、悲情又带着桀骜的坦诚。其中主打曲《墓园之下》宛如一首忏悔圣诗，毫不掩饰地坦承他年少轻狂的放纵与沉沦：酗酒、吸毒、混乱不堪。他对妻子莎伦的伤害。与自我的搏斗。歌中这样唱道：

Don’t take care of me, be scared of me

别照顾我 该惧怕我

My misery owns me  

痛苦已将我占有

I don’t want to be my enemy

我不想与自我为敌

My misery owns me now

此刻的苦痛已将我吞噬

The man behind the myth emerges here – not Ozzy the bat-eater, but Ozzy the broken soul who somehow stitched himself back together.

神话背后的真实在此显现——不是那个生吞蝙蝠的奥兹，而是那个破碎后又将自己缝合的灵魂

He joked once that his gravestone should read:

他曾戏言自己的墓志铭该这样写：

“Ozzy Osbourne. Born 1948. Died… when the f*ck you know.”

"奥兹·奥斯本。生于 1948 年。卒于…他妈谁知道什么时候。"

But later, he softened. He didn’t want to be remembered just for his mistakes. And yet, it’s in those very mistakes – how he faced them – that we find the heart of who he was.

但后来，他变得柔和了。他不想只因为自己的错误而被记住。然而，正是在这些错误中——以及他面对它们的方式——我们看到了他内心的本质。

Many would ask for pity in his place. Osbourne never did. He owned his flaws. “Don’t care for me, fear me,” he sang. He accepted the love of his fans and his family as the greatest grace life had given him. In return, they never left him. Not his sons. Not Sharon. Not the 45,000 fans who cheered him through his last performance. Not the millions who watched the broadcast from home.

换作他人或许会乞求怜悯，奥斯本却从未如此。他坦然接受自己的缺陷。"不必怜悯我，畏惧我吧"，他这样唱道。他将粉丝与家人的爱视为生命赐予的最大恩典。而他们始终未曾离去——无论是他的儿子们、莎伦，还是四万五千名为他最后一场演出喝彩的观众，抑或家中收看直播的数百万人。

Despite the dark image – crosses, bats, devils, and all – Ozzy was a man of faith. He often said that Satanism frightened him. The symbols were theater, not creed. In truth, he hoped for the light. Not eternal party-in-hell nonsense, but peace.

尽管满身黑暗意象——十字架、蝙蝠、魔鬼应有尽有——奥兹实则是个有信仰的人。他常说撒旦教令他恐惧，那些符号只是表演而非信条。事实上，他始终向往光明。不是地狱永聚的荒诞，而是平静。

In his later years, he lent his voice to characters in video games and cartoons. He voiced himself in Trolls World Tour. He was a character in Brütal Legend. And he was, always, a character in the great rock opera of life.

晚年时，他为电子游戏和动画角色配音。在《魔发精灵 2》中本色出演，在《暴力摇滚》中化身游戏角色，而他始终是人生这场宏大摇滚歌剧中最鲜活的角色。

I’ve read and watched a lot about Ozzy. But one quote sticks. In an interview, asked about his faith, he said he hoped that when his time came, it wouldn’t be fire and brimstone waiting for him, but something gentler. Something merciful.

我读过看过许多关于奥兹的报道，但有一句话挥之不去。当被问及信仰时，他说希望当那一刻来临，迎接他的不是硫磺烈火，而是更温柔的存在。一份慈悲。

I think he found it.

我想他找到了。

He was a prince of darkness, yes – but he dreamed of light. And maybe, in the end, that’s what we’ll remember: a man who learned. Who stumbled, fell, and staggered forward anyway. A man who clawed his way back from himself, through the haze of fame, addiction, and regret.

他确实是黑暗王子——但始终向往光明。或许最终我们会记住的正是这样一个领悟者：那个不断跌倒又踉跄前行的男人，那个从名声、成瘾与悔恨的迷雾中挣脱重生的男人。

Peace looks different for different people. For Ozzy, maybe it’s the roar of a stadium, the crash of drums, the lift of 100,000 voices singing his name.

不同的人对平静有着不同的理解。对奥兹来说，或许体育场的喧嚣、鼓点的轰鸣、十万观众齐声呼喊他名字的声浪才是他的平静。

Or maybe it’s quiet now. Maybe, finally, silence. 

又或许此刻归于寂静。也许，最终，万籁俱寂。

But even silence, when it follows a life like his, sounds like music.

但即便是寂静，在他这样的人生之后，听起来也如同乐章。