What Does 'Under The Graveyard' By Ozzy Osbourne Really Mean?
Ozzy Osbourne is a heavy metal legend. He's been making music for more than 50 years as both the frontman for Black Sabbath and as a solo artist, and he has given us countless hours of reality TV (and thus, countless memes). Though we can agree that Osbourne is anything but ordinary, he released his most recent album "Ordinary Man" in 2020 a full decade after his last album.
At 72, Osbourne is still rocking our faces off. And what's more, he's already working on his next album, which is good news for fans worried that his recent health scares would be the end of his career. "I've done 15 tracks," Osbourne told Metal Hammer. "It's kept me alive you know. These past two years I've been in a terrible f***ing state between the accident and then the pandemic. It's kept me sane — I've needed the music." Now, his song "Under The Graveyard" has just been nominated for Best Rock Song at the 2021 iHeartRadio Music Awards.
"Today I woke up and I hate myself / Death doesn't answer when I cry for help," Osbourne sings on the track. "No high could save me from the depths of hell / I'll drown my mind until I'm someone else." Very grim — and classic Ozzy.
Though the themes have quite a bit in common with Osbourne's previous tracks, it actually has a lot to do with recent events in his life. Keep reading to find out what "Under the Graveyard" is really about.
Ozzy Osborne is facing his own mortality in "Under the Graveyard"
Ozzy Osbourne has had a rough couple of years. He was forced to cancel his entire 2019 tour after falling at home. On "The Talk," said, "At the beginning of [2019] he had a bad flu that went to bronchitis, that went to pneumonia," Sharon Osbourne explained on "The Talk" (via Louder Sound). "He came out of hospital and he had a bad accident at home — he fell in the middle of the night."
When Ozzy fell, he dislodged metal rods he had in his body from a 2003 accident. Then, in 2020, he revealed he had Parkinson's Disease. Then he had a serious staph infection. Then the pandemic hit.
Given all of this, maybe some doom is warranted. In "Under the Graveyard," it's pretty clear that Ozzy is dealing with his own mortality with lyrics like "Death doesn't answer when I cry for help" and "My misery owns me now" and "We all die alone." The song sounds like classic Ozzy/Black Sabbath while sounding fresh at the same time, which might have something to do with the inclusion of Andrew Watt, Post Malone's producer, on the track, per Rolling Stone. And after more than a year of living through the isolation of a global pandemic, who doesn't feel this way, at least a little bit?