Home Music Music Lists

10 Classic Covers of Black Sabbath and Ozzy Osbourne

The Prince of Darkness cast a long shadow over the history of music — from metal to hip-hop to Swedish indie-pop

Ozzy Osbourne

ILYA S. SAVENOK/GETTY IMAGES

When he helped induct Black Sabbath into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, Metallica drummer Lars Ulrich mused, “On any given day, the heavy-metal genre might as well be subtitled ‘Music derivative of Black Sabbath.’” But the breadth of Sabbath’s and Ozzy Osbourne’s influence is far more wide ranging, echoing in cover versions of their songs interpreted as soul, Swedish pop rock, and industrial metal. Here are 10 of the best and most surprising covers of songs originally sung by the Prince of Darkness.

Charles Bradley, ‘Changes’

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.

T-Pain, ‘War Pigs’

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