Ozzy Osbourne taught kids to rebel by subverting Christianity | Opinion
In Ozzy Osbourne's hands, Satan gave a middle finger to hypocrisy and fearmongering. The now-deceased rock star lifted up a mirror to a society obsessed with sin, and he laughed.
- Ozzy Osbourne, known for his controversial persona and connection to demonic imagery, has died.
- Osbourne used religious symbolism to highlight what he perceived as the hypocrisy of organized religion.
- While some viewed Osbourne as a negative influence, his fans saw him as a symbol of rebellion against societal norms.
Ozzy Osbourne is dead, and some Christians may believe that the devil ushered him straight to the gates of hell. Few pop culture icons were as important, or as controversial, as Osbourne.
The British-born rocker became the avatar of American culture wars more than a half-century ago by attempting to showcase the hypocrisy of modern religion.
Osbourne launched his career in the late 1960s. Sensitive to cultural currents, he recognized what was happening not just in music, but also in religion and politics. He used it to build on the image of rock as subversive and countercultural.
Ozzy Osbourne saw society's fears and leaned into them
From the start, Osbourne understood how to bring attention to his art. Calling his band Black Sabbath sent a clear message. He aimed to subvert, not honor, Christianity.
He integrated crosses, demonic imagery and symbols of the devil such as bats into his performances to highlight what he saw as the absurdity of organized religion.
Osbourne sang lyrics in his first album about a “figure in black” that directed him, and in another song, he took on the persona of Satan himself: “My name is Lucifer, please take my hand.”
In Black Sabbath's "Paranoid" album, released at the height of the Vietnam War, he sang “War Pigs,” a song in which Satan laughed and spread his wings as political and military elites led the Western world to the doorstep of the apocalypse.
Such allusions to the demonic continued in album after album.
Osbourne’s career developed parallel to a new understanding of Satan. In the post-World War II era, the devil assumed a more prominent role in American life.
Anton LaVey’s founding of the Church of Satan in 1966 celebrated Satan as a symbol of rebellion, individualism and secular liberation.
In other words, Satan was the opposite of everything anxious Cold War parents wanted to instill in their kids.
Artists drew on this revamped Satan in their work. Films like "The Exorcist" (1973) and "The Omen" (1976) brought Satan − and fears of Satan’s ability to inhabit human bodies − into the imaginations of millions of people.
Osbourne made those themes central to his music.
In the 1980s, while Osbourne was still releasing albums, fears of satanic ritual abuse swept across the United States. Christian conservatives fretted that Dungeons & Dragons, Ouija boards and horror films were gateways to demonic influence.
High-profile cases like the McMartin preschool trial and the publication of memoirs about escaping satanic ritual abuse fueled widespread panic. Law enforcement agencies conducted seminars on occult crime, therapists uncovered repressed memories of ritual abuse and talk shows amplified claims of underground satanic cults.
The panic revealed deep anxieties about child safety, cultural change and the perceived decline of Christian values in American society.
Perhaps, parents and religious leaders wondered, was Osbourne driving kids into satanism? Perhaps his music was brainwashing the nation’s youth?
Conservative Christians − including evangelicals, Catholics and Latter-day Saints − believe in a cosmic battle between angels and demons that directly influences human affairs. They believe that unseen spiritual battles determine real-world outcomes, particularly in culture, politics and morality.
Many of them also believed they had to protect children from music like Osbourne’s.
This framework encouraged social conservatives to interpret issues like abortion, LGBTQ+ rights and the de-Christianizing of culture as evidence of demonic influence, necessitating counteraction through prayer, activism and political engagement.
Osbourne and the genre of hard rock that he helped to promote contributed to their fears. In their minds, Osbourne was encouraging youth to rebel.
And he was.
Osbourne saw the devil as a symbol of rebellion
Osbourne’s fans understood what the rock star was doing. They loved it. The more angry Osbourne could make their parents, and the more he could rile up moral crusaders, the better.
And he agreed. Playing with the devil became a hallmark of his long career.
From witch hunts in Salem to conspiracy theories driving QAnon, Americans have used Satan to facilitate a politics of fear. They have used him to justify persecution, fuel moral panics, shape political and cultural battles, and assess global crises and war.
But there has always been another side to Satan, the one Osbourne captured. His devil wasn’t the horned villain of Christian nightmares but a trickster, a rebel, a symbol of freedom from sanctimony. In Osbourne's hands, Satan gave a theatrical middle finger to hypocrisy and fearmongering.Osbourne lifted up a mirror to a society obsessed with sin, and he laughed. His life reminds us that sometimes, dancing with the devil is really just refusing to march in lockstep with the saints.
Matthew Avery Sutton is the author of the forthcoming "Chosen Land: How Christianity Made America and Americans Remade Christianity." He is the chair of the history department and the Claudius O. and Mary Johnson Distinguished Professor at Washington State University.