10 Classic Covers of Black Sabbath and Ozzy Osbourne

The Texas band’s 1987 song “Sweat Loaf” is barely a cover of Sabbath’s “Sweet Leaf.” Guitarist Paul Leary gives the original riff a spidery vibe as drummers King Coffey and Thersa Taylor pound away and singer Gibby Haynes ignores the lyrics in favor of yelling…something weird that’s buried in the miasma. But the tune’s comparative catchiness makes the song the perfect gateway drug into the Surfers’ psychedelic noise, a sound nearly as influential in Eighties underground rock circles as Sabbath was to metal. As Haynes says in the iconic spoken intro, “By the way, If you see your mom this weekend, will you be sure and tell her…SATAN SATAN SATAN!!!!”–Joe Gross      

Years before Public Enemy hooked up with Anthrax, Sir Mix-A-Lot teamed with fellow Seattle noise-bringers Metal Church on his 1988 debut Swass, blazing through a rap-rock rewrite of Black Sabbath’s perennial “Iron Man.” The Bumpasaurus drags the song’s sci-fi themes back to earth — “I got childhood scars and the streets are my life/Girls laughed, now they beggin’ to be Mix-A-Lot’s wife” — but the rock-hard Tony Iommi riff makes the trip mostly untouched. “[Run-D.M.C.’s] ‘King Of Rock” was a big deal, but I wanted to do something harder, metal stuff. I love heavy metal, hard shit,” Mix told the Onion A/V Club. “I’m the guy you see at Ozzfest.”–Christopher R Weingarten

If there was one thing Al Jourgensen of industrial-rock icons Ministry liked as much as partying, it was starting side projects with goofy names. This one resulted in a couple of bangers, but none more banging than their cover of Sabbath’s Vol 4. classic “Supernaut.” The enormous drums, samples, and squiggly guitar solos are a blast. Jourgensen ended up singing the official version, but label politics kept the version with terrific vocals from Trent Renzor of Nine Inch Nails off the market for years. Both remain goth club catnip.–J.G. 

It’s well known among metalheads that Motörhead frontman Lemmy and Ozzy were great pals; at SXSW in 2001, Sharon Osbourne noted that Lemmy and Ozzy, both history buffs, loved watching World War II documentaries together at the Osbourne house. The two gents wrote this song with Ozzy’s guitarist Zakk Wyld. Ozzy’s version (on his 1991 album No More Tears) is solid fist-pump, but on Motorhead’s 1992 take feels heavier, with Lemmy’s bass swinging like a wrecking ball. Fittingly, it appeared on the soundtrack to Hellraiser III: Hell on Earth.–J.G.

When Pantera’s Far Beyond Driven dropped in 1994, it became the heaviest record to ever terrorize Number One up to that point. The Cowboys From Hell naturally adored the Masters of Reality — they would record naturally ripping covers of Sab’s “Electric Funeral” and “Hole In the Sky” at different points in their career. However Driven closed with the band covering 1970’s “Planet Caravan,” on acoustic guitar and congas, a dark-hazed psychedelic drift at once closer to Sabbath’s hippie roots and Pantera’s Uplugged grunge competition. Pantera bassist Rex Brown cites Dimebag Darrell’s impassioned first take as his favorite Pantera guitar solo of all time.–C.W.

Coming out of Jönköping, Sweden in the early Nineties, the Cardigans were a charming indie-pop band who scored a surprise hit with their cute disco-pop tune “Lovefool.” On paper, they were about as far from Sabbath as you could get. In fact, the band’s core members got their start playing heavy metal, and paid tribute to the genre’s founding band with their loving lounge-pop cover of “Sabbath Bloody Sabbath” on their 1994 debut Emmerdale. Two year later they showed how deep their Ozzy love went when they did “Iron Man” on their breakout album First Band on the Moon, the same record that had “Lovefool.”–Jon Dolan

When the most famous metal band that ever existed released a covers album in 1998, they couldn’t resist paying tribute to the blokes that started it all. Frontman James Hetfield always loved the riff of 1973 album track, and the band chugged it out in the lean, groove-centric style they had adopted in the late ’90s, even adding a little bit of fellow Sabbath, Bloody Sabbath A-side cut “A National Acrobat.” While inducting Sabbath into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 2006, James Hetfield recalled discovering the band as a shy nine-year-old. “Those monstrous riffs lived inside [me] and spoke the feelings [I] could never put into words, sending chills of inspiration through [me], from those gloomy lyrics and outlaw chords and all. They helped crack the shell [I] was stuck in.”–C.W.

The winding, coke-addled cut from 1972’s Vol. 4 has been a long-time favorite, covered by Converge and Jason Molina. But the most unexpected version is the handiwork of System of a Down, who morph the high voltage crashes of the original and flip it into a stewing slow-burn that’s almost unrecognizable. Serj’s deadpan, almost eerie delivery ends up working so well because it sounds like a lunatic quietly railing during a bender that’s kept him awake for days on end. The off-kilter approach apparently charmed Ozzy and co.: They asked SOAD to play the cover before them during an opening set in Birmingham.--Julyssa Lopez

The piano ballad “Changes” is a striking moment of vulnerability amidst the miasmic heaviness of songs like “Snowblind” and “Supernaut” on 1972’s Vol. 4. It’s the kind of song that leaves a deep emotional mark, as Brooklyn soul singer Charles Bradley demonstrated when he covered it on his third album Changes. Bradley was in his mid-sixties, a devotee of the classic Stax Records sound with a style that brought to mind Otis Redding, and he delivered a river-deep rendition of “Changes,” turning a song that had been about romantic abandonment into a tribute to his late mother.--J.D.

Black Sabbath’s thunderous 1970 anti-war anthem is one of their most beloved songs — covered by artists from Judas Priest to Faith No More to Gov’t Mule, and many others. But it’s sheer magic when the song travels from Ozzy whipping his hair on stage in 1970s Paris to singer-rapper T-Pain doing it live in a West Hollywood club in 2023. It’s so good, in fact, the Prince of Darkness himself called it, “the best cover of ‘War Pigs’ ever.”–Charisma Madarang