Hi Reader,

🍄 Laws of Living: What We Can Learn from Ozzy

Last week, the world lost a behemoth.

Ozzy Osbourne passed away a couple of weeks after playing a charity show, the same one that prompted me to share a live Black Sabbath video in the last newsletter.

I feel connected to both Ozzy and Sabbath. Even though I didn’t grow up listening to them and discovered their music later (they’re a generation before me), they were part of the landscape I grew up in. They’re from Birmingham, a 30-minute train ride from my hometown, and the city where I went to see all the shows of touring bands growing up.

Most of the bands I saw were American, but I remember once at a gig, in between songs, the singer of one band said: “This is Birmingham — so this is where Ozzy’s from, right?”

It stuck with me. Even in recent years, I’ve seen American bands on tour making the pilgrimage to the Black Sabbath Bridge and posting it on their Instagram. Because this isn’t just music history — it’s history.

In recent years, when I’ve travelled and people ask where I’m from, I say I’m from near Birmingham — “where Black Sabbath are from.” It’s probably the most legendary thing to come from here. It makes me proud to be a Midlander.

As the tributes poured in last week, I was moved to tears. And at the weekend, I went by the pub where Sabbath played their first ever show.

Being there and reading the words of people around the world, I reflected on what we leave behind.

'Legacy' is a grand word, but really for me it's as simple as the lives we touch, the ripples we send out, the people we move and the influence we have. That, to me, is part of what brings meaning to life.

Ozzy is someone who was no stranger to drugs. This is a man who probably consumed more substances in his 76 years than the combined total of this mailing list (and there’s over a thousand of us here).

But I’m not here to glorify the rock-and-roll excess. Yes, Ozzy had wild tales — but a lot of it was destructive, harmful to himself and to those around him. He wasn’t always the easiest person to be around. He was fired from Sabbath for drug use. He fired bandmates while drunk and forgot about it the next day. He hurt himself and others. He once strangled his wife and killed animals gratuitously. However, he’s since spoken on all of that with some degree of reflection and remorse.

So rather than pretend his lifestyle was perfect, today I want to touch upon what we can learn from the life of John Michael "Ozzy" Osbourne.

Lessons for all of us on the path, trying to live well.

Lessons from the life of Ozzy

Authenticity

Ozzy wasn’t afraid to be unique. He wasn’t afraid to be a freak. To be a wild man. More than that, he embraced it.

I don’t think that degree of wildness exists in everyone — I know it doesn’t in me — but there’s still a lesson there.

By being himself fully, by embracing his weirdness, Ozzy found his people. He was real. And through that, he created a unique expression that made him one of the most influential musicians in the history of rock.

Communion

Through Sabbath, and then Ozzfest - the festival he helped create - as well as the genres he helped spark, he was part of musical communities that brought people together. He helped created spaces where they could find their people and be with their tribe.

Even in the last month alone, people travelled across the world for that final Sabbath show. People gathered in Brum after his death. When I was outside that pub, there were two guys playing Sabbath from a phone, singing along together in the street. Someone poured a beer out to the street below a shrine. Others were snapping pics. There were flowers and tributes. It was beautiful.

That’s connection, community, and communion.

Courage

Longtime guitarist Zakk Wylde once said that Ozzy had "a very special kind of fortitude that's bigger than King Kong and Godzilla combined".

Ozzy had courage.

To be ridiculous, to be different. And to keep going, even when things got hard...

Persistence

Ozzy fought substance abuse all his life. He went on and off the wagon, but he kept battling. And I love that he didn’t go out in flames, not in overdose or tabloid tragedy, but as someone who’d pulled the pieces back together.

He died surrounded by loved ones. He reunited with his bandmates he'd fought with. He played one last show. And in the run-up to that show, he had a live-in personal trainer and vocal coach to get him in shape. At nearly 80. That’s grit and persistence.

Finding Your Own Path

Like many of my heroes, Ozzy didn’t take the route laid out by society.

He left school at 15. Got fired from job after job. But he found his way. An unlikely, yet exceptionally successful path. He carved it out himself. Not one that was handed to him. Not one prescribed by anyone else.

There’s something we can learn from that. About not being afraid to deviate from paths well-worn. About having the courage to take the path less travelled.

Transmutation

Ozzy suffered sexual abuse from school bullies when he was 11. He attempted suicide multiple times as a teenager.

But Ozzy turned pain into power.
​
Alchemy.

This is one of the core lessons of the psychedelic path, and it’s one I see in heavy music, too.

Many of Ozzy’s lyrics channel grief, rage, confusion. And they alchemise them. He turned them into anthems. Into something that you can bang your head to, shout to, feel in your gut. That’s magic.

Innocence and Play

There was an innocence to Ozzy. A weird joy. Which is kinda wild when you think about the way he was branded — a so-called Satanist known as the Prince of Darkness (he was actually apparently a Christian, and prayed before shows).

In my favourite live videos, he is the essence of play.
In my favourite interviews, he’s smiling, laughing, and making jokes.

He’s not some tortured soul in a pit of darkness. He looks like a man having fun.

For a godfather of heavy metal, I think there’s something pretty powerful in that.

---

Thank you to Ozzy and the Sabbath boys.
Nothing lasts forever, but your influence lives on.

Rest in power, Ozzy.

---

🎵Psychedelic Supplements

Rollins on the topic...

​

Did you know the horns are actually a yoga mudra for warding off evil?
Hat tip to Daniel Tam Shankin for this discovery.

​

​

---

📚 Microdose of Wisdom

---

❤️ Love and mettā,

John

John Robertson​
​Psychedelic Facilitator & Educator​
​Maps of the Mind​

Webdelics' Top 100 Psychedelic Thought Leaders and Content Creators​ 2025
Buzzfeed Top 20 Psychedelic Blogs and Websites 2025

Enjoy my newsletter and want to show your appreciation?
I will gratefully receive if you'd like to buy me a coffee :)

---

Lantern Mews, Leamington Spa, Warwickshire CV32 4AP
​Opt-out of receiving the Newsletter only and keep receiving other mail from Maps of the Mind

or

​Unsubscribe from everything.