Thoughts about Ozzy and mental illness

[dsvensson1995]

Absolutely one of the greatest albums that year (1980), the riffs and solos of Ozzy Osbournes dear beloved friend Randy Rhoads that he was contributed many songs with, was never before seen on the musical seen. One particular song in the "blizzard of ozz" album is Crazy Train, which is really a masterpiece not just from a guitaristic perspective but, but Ozzy's voice range does clearly fulfill this great song. 

From my my perspective, Crazy Train have helped me so many times, from quit addiciting, i almost feel like i'm Ozzy when i hear this song and it means so much more to me than a song, it have saved my life a few times. The metaphore "I'm going off the rails on a crazy train" in the song lyric describes really how bad Ozzy felt with his on going addicition and was "going of the CRAZY TRAIN". That lyric have literally pushed me off the crazy train or else i would have been on a bad side. I listen to this song in every daily thing i do, raise up in bed, train, calm down, when i have anxiety attacks, so about 20 times a day and i never get tired becaused as i said, when i'm in the "dark" this help me get out of it. 

For the background i suffer from severe depression and panic attacks, which my quick solution was to eat sleeping pills, anxiety pills because i was bullied as a child, feeling unsecurited and has social phobia. This led me to overdose several times where i should have died. OF course i hated been called shy becaused i didn't talk so much and so on in my younger age, SO what i did was to drink alcohol, which turned out to that i could drink enourmos amounts of liquor without puking or anything, i did always felt the need for more alcohol. Eventually i wanted to become a "rockstar", cause i didn't want people to look at the me and se me as a shy boy, so i became i clown/crazy guy. Of course when the rockstar came into my world, cocaine, speed, sleeping pills, alcohol etc. i realized im gonna die if i keep doing it: You might think when i did listening to Ozzy's "Crazy train" and "suicide solution", i wanted to get **bleep**ed up, but it somehow reminds me of that little shy Ozzy as a boy which also was bullied in school. It reminds me that i and Ozzy has a lot i common besides he is actually a rockstar, but the same personalities. It feels like he singing to my inner soul or something. Music can really be something else than just "music". I want to thank Ozzy for the amazing stories and songs he gave me.

IS there anyone else that feels like me when listening to particullary "Crazy Train"s lyrics, or am i the only one who doesn't thinks he is "mental crazy".

In other words has someone other: get's the metaphor behind the lyrics of the song (struggle with the depression/feeling like going crazy)? And being helped in i a way like myself by listenting to the song or something similarity?

Friendly whishes, Daniel.

[AdamDam]

I think that “Crazy Train” is a great song too, and I love Black Sabbath as well. I have schizophrenia, and I have to take antipsychotic medication for it. I did some irrational things in the worst of my condition (when I was undiagnosed and starting to have symptoms that I didn’t recognize were from a mental illness), e.g. believing that my family and friends, and random people alike were all part of a plan to send me subliminal messages to control my actions; I’m almost certain that music in general helped keep me from doing more crazy stuff when I was in the worst of my condition. I would just put on my headphones whenever I wasn’t talking to people or in class or something, and somehow if I just listened to music that I liked, it seemed to keep me feeling more uplifted and less hindered by irrational fears. Even now that I’m on a medication that has pretty much eliminated my schizophrenia symptoms, I think that music continues to help me to feel less anxious and more motivated. I’m not sure if Ozzy suffered from mental illness as well, but I feel like I can relate to his “Crazy Train,” as well as Sabbath’s “Paranoid.”

[Sebasty]

I haven't listened to Crazy Train yet, so I will have to look that up asap. 🙂

The thing about music is it helps me keep myself grounded as well, or live it out instead when I feel like it.

I am rather fragile at times emotionally /  mentally and need to take care of myself.
Often when I'm in an unpleasant environment, I just listen to radio. Even the pop rap tunes I generally despise for their lyrics help me because I'll concentrate on the faults and goods of the currently playing tune instead of the environment, and as a result I calm down. Can't fear anything or think about some negative things that way.

Sometimes I feel like music is happy pills for me, and I am an addict. lol :')
Makes me feel a little weird... but hey, if it helps me cope with things, why not?

I am not a very lyric-centered being, I'm more concentrating on other things in a song.. Melodies, atmosphere, the beat (if present.. if not, then rhythmic values), the sounds. The way they work together, and how they affect me...
I do listen to lyrics, love great lyrics (even if it's just one sentence), I just don't need a song to have lyrics.

: )

Anyway, I am really grateful there are good radio stations without ads (they're government-funded) and with great fm coverage. I can't take Spotify with me yet. : )

[MadmanOnWheels]

I may come back to this, but I just wanted to let ya'll know that Ozzy wasn't the song writer. Bob Daisley wrote most of the songs, as far as I know, from what I read. Ozzy has written a few songs, including his song about him being kicked out of Black Sabbath, "Goodbye To Romance".

Also, I thought you, dsvensson1995 and TreyAnastasio might like this playlist. TreyAnastasio, you mentioned being anxious, So, this might be fitting. You can read the details, by swiping from the cover art.

https://open.spotify.com/playlist/0nR4wfuH92MCCbMJf11VRa?si=pY-cyYFWR2egrpJ72OkuwQ