Ozzy Osbourne’s favourite Led Zeppelin song changed his life: “My world stood still”

Posted On February 3, 2026February 3, 2026

When it comes to new ideas, it’s often not who does it first but who does it second. We like to believe that the best musicians create something from nothing, but it’s usually those who reconfigure and cement ideas already in circulation who end up making the best music.

Black Sabbath provide the perfect example. As frontman Ozzy Osbourne explains, Sabbath needed to hear a protozoal version of the music they were striving for before they could manifest it for themselves. For that, they needed Led Zeppelin.

The members of Black Sabbath and Led Zeppelin were friends long before the latter hit the big time. “We were really good mates with Led Zeppelin,” Osbourne recalled in 2019. “Especially Robert Plant and John Bonham, who came from the Midlands. Zeppelin had wanted us to be on their label, Swan Song. But we couldn’t make it work out.”

At this time, Sabbath were struggling to work out how they were supposed to get on the radio without selling out. They were naturally heavy, were intrigued by the darkness emerging as the 1960s transitioned, and they were full of drunken spirit. But those features didn’t necessarily lend themselves to instant success.

Thankfully, Led Zeppelin were about to break the ice, and lead the way into a new era for rock ‘n’ roll music. They helped to change things forever. As Sabbath guitarist, Tony Iommi, explained, “Let’s put it this way… Can you imagine music without Led Zeppelin? Because I can’t!” Whether he could imagine his own band’s unique sound without the encouragement of Led Zep is another matter, but Ozzy certainly made no secret of their influence.

During an interview for Lauch Radio Network back in 2007, Osbourne recalled bumping into Plant, a friend of Geezer Butler’s, shortly before the release of Zeppelin’s first record. Ozzy asked him what he was up to, and he replied that he’d just accepted an invitation to join Jimmy page’s new group, The New Yardbirds, later to be renamed Led Zeppelin.

When Zeppelin I came out in January 1969, it was like a shot to the heart. Black Sabbath had been pushing for a heavier sound for years but hadn’t found a winning formula. Listening to the album, Osbourne realised that Sabbath and Zeppelin had been aiming for the same thing all along: they both wanted to achieve mainstream success without compromising their artistic values. The only difference was that Zeppelin had managed to do so, and Sabbath hadn’t.

“The first two [Zeppelin] albums had such an impact on my voice and on my life,” Osbourne told Launch Radio. “Similar to The Beatles when I first heard them.” In a 1995 interview for the History of Rock and Roll documentary, he was equally vocal about the importance of Led Zeppelin I: “I remember listening to the first Zeppelin album. It was like such a great breath of fresh air for somebody doing something acceptable but yet so different.”

Tracks like the ecstatic ‘Communication Bad Time’, the fierce ‘Good Times Bad Times’ and the deliciously doomy ‘Babe I’m Gonna Leave You’ all left Osbourne reeling. But years later, in an interview for Rolling Stone, he revealed that ‘Dazed and Confused’ had utterly altered his worldview. “My world stood still the first time I heard this,” he wrote, clearly still recovering from the impact while citing it among his favourite songs of all time.

Daringly slowed and sparse, Led Zeppelin’s rendition put ‘atmosphere’ at the forefront of rock. Osbourne was in awe. Ozzy had always seen himself as more of a performer than a musician in a classical sense, but now, with the drama of this delirious anthem, he realised that they’re one in the same – how you play it is as important to what you play. And few songs had ever been rolled out in the sedate manner of this intoxicating track.

That’s a style that Ozzy would perfect for the rest of his life.

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