15 Lessons Podcasters Can learn From Ozzy Osbourne

Today on the School of Podcasting.

Well, Ozzy Osbourne just died and man, that's a bummer.

I grew up blasting and playing in bands.

Crazy Train, Bark at the Moon.

Until my neighbors.

Probably not.

Probably my neighbors hated me.

But as I thought about it, I realized Ozzy wasn't just the Prince of Darkness.

He was a master of standing out, building an audience, and keeping people talking about him for decades.

So.

So today I've got 15 things podcasters can learn from the amazing Ozzy Osbourne.

To keep your show alive, keep your audience loyal, and make some noise in your space without biting any bats.

Hit it, ladies.

The School of Podcasting with Dave Jackson.

Podcasting since 2005, I am your award winning hall of fame podcast coach, Dave Jackson, thanking you so much for tuning in.

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And I had planned on releasing an episode of David Hooper and I talking about the behind the scenes of Dave's now on satellite radio.

And a friend of mine died.

Now you're like, really?

Yeah.

To me, I consider Ozzy Osbourne a friend.

This is a guy, I'll put it this way.

In 1982, when his guitar player Randy Rhodes was killed in a plane accident.

And I'm all of whatever, 17, I wore a black armband to school.

That's how looking back, that's so 17.

But I was really bombed and I was.

This was not a surprise.

Ozzy was not in great health.

They just did a final performance with him and his band.

And I just thought, well, I haven't done one of these episodes in a while there.

For a while, it seemed like I was just scouring the obituaries, looking for content.

But here's the thing that everybody has said.

There was only one Ozzy and there will never be another one.

And as the old saying goes, success leaves clues.

And so I thought I would talk about it.

I am listening to Ozzy's book and I've known Ozzy and his career because again, I studied his guitar player when I was growing up and his music here again, his music made me feel something.

And when you're 17 and you're misunderstood and your parents don't get you, you know, he was writing anthems, he had amazing guitar players.

And I saw him many, many, many times, and he was just Ozzy.

He would kind of what was interesting about that.

And that's really the first lesson number one, be unapologetically yourself.

Just be yourself.

And that was Ozzy.

He didn't care if you liked him or not.

He was going to be Ozzy, even to his detriment.

And when he was on stage, whether he was skinny Ozzy or slightly overweight Ozzy, he was Ozzy.

I always said he kind of looked like a walrus on stage, kind of running around, clapping his hands, going, come on, go crazy.

Let me see your hands.

And by the end of the concert, you're like, here are my hands.

See, I've showed you them like 500 times.

But he was all about getting a reaction.

And everybody said the same thing.

He was a very sweet guy.

He was extremely empathetic, very funny.

That was the other thing I heard he had generally witty guy and quick.

And just the fact that don't try to water yourself down, trying to be what other people want.

Be yourself.

And those that like you will like you.

And those that don't, well, you know, there's a name for them and they're called.

Not your target audience.

But he definitely was kind of this lovable clown.

So that when he did things that were really wrong, like urinate on the Alamo, which will not, well, got him kicked out of Texas for decades.

You know, biting the head off of a bat, biting the head off of a dove, all these things, you kind of go, well, that's just, you know, Ozzy being Ozzy.

I'm listening to his autobiography, and he's been drunk for decades and did a lot of cocaine and all sorts of other things.

So that might be.

Yeah, let's throw that in here.

Number two.

Yeah, don't do drugs, kids.

It leads to you doing really crazy things.

Number three, surround yourself with good people.

There would be no Ozzy Osbourne without Sharon, right.

His wife and his business partner.

And he wouldn't have the longevity of his career.

He will be the first.

In fact, in his book, he's like, I am not the guy you want handling the books.

You know, you kind of want to have people around you.

Not to mention the fact that you have his bass player again, he had amazing guitar players when he went solo, but his original band, Black Sabbath, was just something absolutely unique at the time.

And so when you are putting together a team of your editor or your accountability partners or your community, when you have this trusted circle, realize sometimes that that's magic.

I know.

I do a live show every Saturday called Ask the Podcast Coach.

And it's a lot of fun.

I love our live chat room there.

But part of the magic of that show is Jim Collison.

He is my co host and we've been doing that show for over 10 years.

And I got a lot going on on my end.

I am, you know, I'm mixing the sound, I'm reading the chat room, I'm playing sound effects, I'm switching camera angles.

So I'm actually kind of producing the show as I'm hosting it, which is why I say live is a completely different beast.

And.

And Jim is great at not only reading my expression, but he watches my eyes because he can tell when I'm doing things and he knows when to stretch and when to toss it back to me.

He.

It just, he knows, like, it's.

We have the, what I call the uncomfortable conversation every year where at the beginning of the year I'm like, hey, right now, you know, Jim gets a portion.

He.

He has a sponsor just for him.

He gets paid for that.

Any other money that comes in, I get.

But I also then do all the.

I do basically all the post production and the editing and things like that.

And Jim's like, nope, it's your show.

And so when you have good people around you, that is a key.

And that doesn't mean that they always got along and things like that.

But in the end, after they kicked him out because of his drugs and his alcohol, he went solo.

But it was eventually they realized, hey, there is some magic of those four original guys.

And they did a farewell show shortly before he died.

So surround yourself with the right people.

Number four, focus on your audience, not the critics.

One of the things that's kind of funny as I'm listening to his show or his show, his book, is the fact that every time they come out with a new album, it just gets completely trashed by the music critics and then it goes on to sell millions of albums.

So if it's working and your audience loves it and you get that one star review, because in my opinion, you're not a real podcaster until you move someone.

Remember, that's kind of a badge of honor.

You upset somebody so bad that they got off the couch, they picked up their phone, whatever they did, and they typed in a message and they gave you a one star review.

Congratulations.

And again, there's a name for that person, not your target audience.

And that's fine because there's plenty of other people on the planet.

Number five, look at what other people are doing and do something different.

Ozzy Grew up in this, you know, just hardworking kind of English little town where everybody worked in the factory.

And meanwhile, all the music in the 60s and stuff was all about flowers and love.

And Ozzy's like, I don't see flowers and love.

I see dirt and grit.

And he said they just were like.

And he said what was interesting is they were playing.

They were kind of a blues band and.

Which kind of sounds like everybody else.

And he noticed that every time a horror movie came out that there'd be people lined up around the theater to get into that.

It's like, it's weird that people pay money to scare themselves.

And so they purposely started writing things that sounded scary.

They took the name Black Sabbath from an old Boris Karloff movie, and lo and behold, it worked.

So maybe look at your genre, whatever it is, go listen to the other shows and see if there's anything missing, and then try it.

They tried it and look, it didn't go over well at first because, number one.

Well, that's.

That's the next.

That's the next tip.

Number six.

They originally named the band Earth because It was the 60s, and it turns out there was already a band called Earth.

And so they got hired because the bar owner thought it was this other band that would sing about flowers and love and things like that.

And they come in singing War Pigs.

And that did not go over well.

And they're like, yeah, we probably should get a different name.

Not to mention the fact that if that other podcast, like, for example, there are.

I'm not making this up.

At least 20 shows named Thinking Outside the Box, which I always find ironic because they did not think outside the box when it came to their names.

So, yeah, check.

Do a quick Google search.

If nothing else, go into Apple Podcasts, search the name of your show and see if anybody else has it.

And.

And then if it is already in use, check to see are they still making the show.

And if they're not, go in and try to contact them and say, hey, can I buy your podcast?

And go that now?

If they, you know, if they're.

Whatever's going on, they don't want to sell it or whatever, you know, you're a creative person.

Come up with a new name.

Number seven, if it gets your press, go with it.

So they started calling Ozzy the Prince of Darkness.

And what was interesting about this is it was the record label that did all the upside down crosses and all of the stuff.

They just wanted to make their album scary.

And they're like, okay, and it turns out that that led to protests to people going, no, you can't have this band in the occult or whatever.

You know, you can't.

These people are evil and stuff.

Now, everybody in the band knew this was just a gimmick.

But, hey, all those people got them in the news every time they showed up.

That note to Christians here that sometimes, you know, you're like, we're gonna go protest them.

Yeah.

They kind of want you to do that because that's just more exposure.

And for all the teenage kids are going, wait, I'm not allowed to listen to this.

Yeah, I have to go listen to this.

So sometimes run with whatever the press, if it's getting your press, sure, why not?

Go with it.

Number eight, you never knew what you were going to get with Ozzy.

There are so many crazy stories of Ozzy snorting ants, peeing into ice machines, all sorts of crazy things.

And I just saw a video of his guitar player, Tony Iommi, and he said, one of the things with Ozzy, he goes, I've known that guy since I was in, you know, elementary school.

And he goes, you just never knew what you were going to get.

And so one of the reasons I saw Ozzy so many times in concert, besides the fact that I loved his guitar players, was Ozzy was a loon.

And you just never knew what you're going to get.

And that holds people's attention.

Even if he doesn't do anything outlandish, there's that kind of on the edge of your seat, what's going to happen next.

So that when you do throw your audience maybe a little bit of a curveball, they're like, oh, that was different.

Because you don't want to go too different.

Because if you do that consistently, like, you're just different, different, different, different.

They kind of want to know what to expect.

So there are pros and cons to that.

But with Ozzy, you just never, ever knew.

Number nine.

There are two songs that no matter when I saw him in concert, they always played.

One song is Crazy Train.

That's the one you're probably familiar with.

And the other one was Mr. Crowley.

Now, what do these two songs have in common?

An iconic intro.

Mr. Crowley has this rather lengthy, organ, spooky kind of intro.

And of course, Crazy Train has Ozzy screaming all aboard.

And when those songs are started in concert and people lose their mind.

So here again, the intro of a song or the beginning of your show can really hook people and send them into a frenzy.

Number 10.

Now I mentioned being yourself.

But there's one other thing about Ozzy that I want to point out, and that is, no one sounds like Ozzy over the years.

There are musicians and you're like, hey, is that Demi Lovato?

Or is it Ariana Grande, or is it Christina Aguilera?

Because they all kind of.

Nobody sounds like Ozzy, ever.

I remember once I was listening to a band called the Infectious Grooms, because, you know me, I like to bring in the noise and bring in the funk.

And all of a sudden this song starts off and this guy screams therapy.

And I go, holy cow, that's Ozzy Osbourne.

And it wasn't like, is that Ozzy Osbourne?

It was like, that's Ozzy Osbourne.

So here again, you are you.

And in Ozzy's case, the minute you heard him, you knew it was him.

Now, I've had people say, man, I like your voice.

You have a radio voice.

There's nothing you can do about that.

But even if my voice, even if my voice was like this, you'd know it was me.

If this is how I sounded all the time.

I sound like Doc Rivers, the coach of the Celtics.

He sounds like this.

I need some water.

I don't know what's going on with Doc, but he always sounds like this.

Number 11, don't be afraid to pivot.

So he just was an absolute mess.

Gets kicked out of his band, he gets a manager, Sharon Osborne, who he later obviously married.

And she got him sobered up to a certain extent and again surrounded himself with great people and started his solo career.

And he's one of the few people.

There are a few people that have done this.

He's in the Rock and Roll hall of Fame, both as a solo artist and as Black Sabbath.

And so he wasn't afraid to pivot.

And this could be another tip, but we'll keep it all in this one, because it's the same thing.

In the 80s, the late 80s, especially, when grunge came on the scene, a lot of the hard rock that was popular was overshadowed by grunge coming in.

And that's when Ozzy.

They came to do Cribs.

And it was so.

Because, again, he's just an entertaining person.

When they came to shoot his house, the crew, the cameramen were like, this guy is hilarious.

And that led to the Osbournes, which.

Between the Osbournes and the Real World, those were the first true reality TV shows.

And that, he said that went from making him famous for his music to.

To really being Famous worldwide.

And so he didn't turn that down.

And they did that for many seasons.

And he realized that while it, you know, in this case being on MTV and the Osbournes made them super popular, which then led to more ticket sales when he came in concert and more sales of his music.

So don't be afraid to pivot and be on a different stage to grow your audience.

So if you're thinking of being on YouTube, it's definitely another stage that can grow your audience.

Now we have found that being on YouTube typically doesn't lead to people going to listen to your podcast.

It's a different medium and they want to learn on the medium.

I just heard my buddy Courtney Elmer on her show was talking about getting people to leave any kind of format.

So if you're on social media trying to get them back to download your show, that's a tough gig.

And so you just got to realize you have to deliver value in whatever, you know, platform you're on.

So if you're going to be on YouTube, deliver the value on YouTube for those that want to have that value on YouTube.

But don't be afraid to pivot.

If you've got the time and the budget and the desire, try something new.

You might grow a completely second audience.

Now number 12, let your passion shine through.

Now this is also kind of Ozzy being Ozzy.

But what's interesting is heavy metal is often seen as, or just hard rock, as seen as primarily a male based music.

And it's hard and you know, that whole nine yards.

And Ozzy would very sincerely at the end and through the concert say I love you all, God bless you, I love you all.

Which kind of doesn't really fit that kind of music because he's not singing love songs on stage.

But he, it was obvious that he loved to entertain.

That's what he loved to do.

And it was very obvious.

So let your passions come through.

And consequently, this last concert that just happened, yes, it was for Ozzy because he wanted to do kind of a farewell show.

But more importantly, it was a show for his true fans to kind of say thank you.

Because Look, Ozzy was 76 and he sounded okay, but he was not the Ozzy of the past.

In fact, it was somewhat frustrating because Ozzy was always running around on stage and now he was combined to or confined to, to a chair.

And you could tell he wanted so bad to get out of that chair that it was kind of hard to watch.

But that was again just, it was so obvious what he wanted to do.

He put his heart out on his sleeve and he just loved his audience.

There are numerous videos that I've seen where he's met children backstage or just meetings with fans.

He was never a jerk and always treated them like just the treasure that your audience is.

He never forgot that it's the audience that we serve, not advertisers.

It's the audience because the.

The advertisers are trying to get in front of your audience.

So take care of your audience.

And so I've seen that multiple times where somebody meets him and he would always stop and say thank you and sign or whatever it was because he loved his audience and it was obvious.

And he let them know it because.

Because he.

He shown that sincerity.

You couldn't.

You couldn't help but tell, wow, this guy really, really loves to entertain.

Number 13, partner with good people.

And this is a little different than surround yourself with good people.

That was their band.

But Ozzy always had amazing opening acts.

I remember one year it was Motley Crue.

Another year was the first time I saw Metallica.

It was opening for Ozzy Osbourne.

And so over the years, Ozzy always took his, you know, spotlight and shared it with up and coming bands.

And it really came in handy because later when some people thought Ozzy was over the hill and kind of a.

Has been in the.

I'm not sure if this was the 90s or the 2000s, but Sharon approached the Lollapalooza tour and they kind of went, yeah, Ozzy's kind of, you know, has been ish.

And maybe that's.

Maybe that's Lesson number number 14.

Yeah, never piss off Sharon Osborne.

But again, sticking with partnering with people.

So when he wasn't allowed on Lollapalooza, they said, fine, I will make my own festival.

And Ozfest was born.

And who were some of those bands that then would go, not on Lollapalooza, but join the Ozzy camp?

Yeah, Metallica and Motley Crue or whoever else.

The.

These bands that they got together would join his festival.

And the other thing was he also, again, gave people an actual stage of brand new bands.

And this is where Ozzy was listening to his son, like, who are the new up and coming bands?

And he forged relationships with these people so that when you do a thing like the final concert that they did, everybody just loved Ozzy because all that he had done, not just but for his fans, but for the entire space that he operated in.

So partner with other people, don't see them as competition.

See them as potential partners, because we're all trying to reach everyone with great content and get more people listening to podcasts.

Number 15.

Don't let perfection stop you from recording.

Now.

Like every other human on the planet, Ozzy was not perfect.

And I'm not talking about his infidelity.

I'm not talking about his attempted murder.

I'm not talking.

I'm talking about his singing.

And if you see clips of Ozzy singing live online, there are times he's a little bitchy.

Yeah.

You're like, ooh, that's not the record.

Yeah.

And so I say that because he was focused on his audience.

He always gave it everything he had.

But there were times when you're like, that wasn't exactly the right note.

And so he wasn't perfect, but he had 20,000 people in that arena that were still going crazy.

Because I always say, if you shoot for perfect and you miss, you land on really, really good.

And for being the, quote, Prince of Darkness, that guy brought a lot of light into the world.

Because, again, one of the things, if you really want people to share your stuff.

In fact, I'll give you a classic example of this today.

My friend called me up.

I've known him since I was 11, and we talk probably three or four times a week.

And he said, man, I was listening to an old Kiss record called Sonic Boom, and there's a song on there.

He goes, I'd never heard it.

He goes, I probably didn't make it to the end of the album because we're talking about how some bands don't just hold up over time.

And he said, but there's a song called say yeah.

And he goes, I haven't done this in a very long time.

He goes, but I listened to that song probably two or three times in a row.

He goes, like, the minute I got done listening to it, he goes, I hit play again.

He goes, there's a thing at the end.

And the lead singer of Kiss is Paul Stanley.

He goes, he did something that was just so Paul Stanley.

He goes, I felt like a teenager listening to Kiss records.

And I'm like, dude, there it is.

And I go, what?

I go, people share things, which is what you're doing.

I go, because of how you made it feel.

I'll give you another one.

Yesterday was my brother's birthday.

My brother, if we were the odd couple, he's the neat one.

I am the messy one.

And I had bought myself a battery, this case that organizes all your batteries.

And when I used mine I was like, this is really cool because I was kind of proud of myself.

I'm like, look, I don't have this drawer filled with endless batteries, and the ones you always need are way in the back and they're buried.

And so I'm like, man, you know who would love this would be my brother.

And so it was how I knew he would feel.

And so yesterday I finally gave it to him and.

And immediately he's like, oh.

And he went and grabbed his.

He had this tub of just, you know, strewn batteries everywhere and we put him in and he's like, man, this is so cool.

He's like, man, he's like, that was a really good gift and that made me feel good.

So I always say sometimes you share things because of how it makes you feel when, you know, like, in this case, my brother loved that gift and that made me feel good.

So if you really want people to share your stuff, make stuff that either makes them feel a certain way or they will feel they'll know somebody.

This is why we say, ask your audience to share it with a friend, because you might have just given them the ultimate battery organizer.

And they're like, oh, you know who would need this?

And they're going to share it with that friend.

So, RIP Ozzy, thank you for getting me through high school and for all the great performances that I saw you.

And it was everything from, you know, the biggest arena that we had here in, in my case, Cleveland, Ohio, was where I would go see him.

But he did come to Akron once and played what was basically the Akron U Gymnasium, and he still gave it everything he had.

So rest in peace, Ozzy.

And So those are 15 things every podcaster can learn from Ozzy Osbourne.

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