How Aleister Crowley And Tarot Cards Inspired Ozzy Osborne

The song was spurred by a work regarding Aleister Crowley which was read by Osbourne as well as a deck of tarot cards that were obtained in the studio at the time the recording of the album was beginning. Crowley who had established Thelemite religion at the beginning of the 20th century was a ceremonial magician and an English occultist. Basically, Aleister Crowley was a wicked poet, Adept, mountain climber and writer. Also, he was known as the Great Beast 666 and Master Therion. Further, he is popularly regarded to be the most powerful Occultist of all time. During his lifetime, he acquired extensive notoriety. Consequently, he was criticized in the famous press of that particular time, “the wickedest man in the world.” (Learn:How To Use Tarot For Daily Benefits)

The song assisted Ozzy in playing up his mock-Satanic image, something he usually did for effect. Essentially, this is something he performed in his band known as Black Sabbath, who equated their music to the horror movies. Ozzy misspelt or mispronounces Crowley’s second name. As a matter of fact, it is pronounced with the initial syllable sounding just like “crow” when it comes to English. As he was born (Crowley), they disbanded the afterbirth since he had a birthmark molded like an emblem. Ozzy sings of it in one line; “They scattered the afterbirth.”

In the notes (liner notes) for The Ozzman Cometh, he recorded:

I would go through many books concerning Aleister Crowley. He was a pretty mysterious guy and I invariably desired to write a song concerning him. As we were recording the album Blizzard of Ozz there was a deck of tarot cards he had created lying throughout the studio. As it appears, one thing subsequently leads to the other and therefore, the song “Mr. Crowley” came into being.

A live variant of this particular song was delivered as the second single of the album, after “Crazy Train.” This variant or version was recorded from a play on Oct 2, 1980, as Ozzy and the band performed the Mayflower Theatre while at Southampton on their initial United Kingdom tour. In the United Kingdom, the single was upheld with the song known as “You Said It All” (extracted from that concert), which was not there on the album. The single was issued as an EP in America which also incorporated a concert of “Suicide Solution” that came from that show.

While Randy Rhoads played the guitar on this record, he co-wrote it with Bob Daisley and Ozzy. “Mr Crowley” is an amazing case of both his remarkable guitar technique and artistic riff-making, talents that backed Ozzy avoid the long obscuration of Black Sabbath and build a solo profession. With Ozzy, Rhoads acted on two albums before his unfortunate demise in 1982 when he was 25. Rhoads passed on during a tour pause when he went up in a little plane and the pilot began buzzing the tour bus, attempting to take a rise out of Osbourne, who was in it. In this incident, the plane lost direction and fell, killing Rhoads, the tour hairdresser and the pilot.