Ozzy Osbourne joins Guitar Hero's World Tour on Crazy Train

by Justin McElroy { Aug 7th 2008 at 1:30PM }

If you had asked us what Ozzy Osbourne had in common with Bret Michaels just yesterday, we would have only been able to come up with "relentlessly unwatchable reality shows." But today we learn that both are members of the proud fraternity of artists featured in Guitar Hero games that aren't really known for playing guitar. G4 reported today that Ozzy would appear in Guitar Hero: World Tour, as would his tracks "Crazy Train" and "Mr. Crowley."

Arguably, Ozzy makes for a more logical addition now that the game includes singing as well as shredding. But we're still happy to hear that he'll be bringing actual guitar hero Zakk Wylde along for digitization.

[Via ScoreHero]

Tags: activision, guitar-hero-world-tour, ozzy-osbourne

Reader Comments (Page 1 of 2)

Me @ Aug 7th 2008 1:36PM

Another great song for GH:WT. It's a bitter shame that Rockband doesn't have it.

jsn @ Aug 7th 2008 1:54PM

you don't know that they don't.

dark_inchworm @ Aug 7th 2008 1:58PM

Well, the disc for RB2 certainly doesn't have it, and I'm going to assume that's what Me meant.

Travis @ Aug 7th 2008 1:39PM

great rock songs with great solos

Fernando Rocker @ Aug 7th 2008 1:42PM

Wow... really, awesome songs.

I hope we can get Symptom of the Universe, Megalomania and Fire in the Sky too.

Alex @ Aug 7th 2008 1:42PM

Confirmed for Brawl!

(sorry, had to do it).

So, no word about Zakk Wylde?

dark_inchworm @ Aug 7th 2008 1:52PM

RTFA

Me @ Aug 7th 2008 1:45PM

I guess I should have put "songs". I think it's funny that GH:WT all ready has more real legends of rock than GH3. I also think it's great that they're including more than one song from these legends.

Guess_Who @ Aug 7th 2008 1:47PM

Wait, two songs by Ozzy on disc, AND two songs by Hendrix?

Anyone else get the feeling they're kind of artificially inflating the song count here?

Ghen @ Aug 7th 2008 3:36PM

Not if Ozzy is actually SINGING this time vs. the previous covers of his stuff.

tmacairjordan87 @ Aug 7th 2008 1:47PM

Not sure how I feel about having Ozzy in the game. Maybe if some of his animations include chewing a bat's head it'll be worth it.

At least the songs are excellent.

Fernando Rocker @ Aug 7th 2008 1:50PM

Have you heard Ozielzinho playing Mr. Crowley? He is an amazing guitarrist... you should heard some of his material.

He has a very good tapping-sweep picking tecnhique.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Zi4nXSwDYTc

jsn @ Aug 7th 2008 2:02PM

seen it before, he's a good player obviously but it's just a flashy, mechanical version of the original. Lots of unneccesary stuff thrown in there because he can, forgetting that sometimes the beauty is in the simplicity.

Fernando Rocker @ Aug 7th 2008 2:07PM

Well... he is just adding some nice techiniques, but the solo parts are the same as the original version. And sometimes is really hard to create a beauty song when using for example sweep picking.

But he definitely can create Steve Vai like songs, with the same feeling using a lot of advanced techniques.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yyFWpbhsIgE

By the way... you seem to like all this classic rock. What are your favorites bands? Im listening currently to Dokken and Motorhead. Motorhead riffs are very rock and roll.

jsn @ Aug 7th 2008 2:18PM

our previous wars aside, we probably like a lot of the same music. Rhoads era Ozzy is probably my all time favorite (and has been since it was released) and most metal from that era up through the mid-90's (early pantera/sepultura, etc). I don't care for much of the new stuff, though some of it is ok musically. I can find things I enjoy in just about any kind of music, even if it's something I wouldn't choose to listen to.

Motorhead = awesome

Dokken = tooth and nail and under lock and key belong in the pantheon of great metal albums!

Fernando Rocker @ Aug 7th 2008 1:56PM

Heavy metal! Yeah... fuck Nirvana.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yNHC0KvEMPY&feature=related

Xoviet chiK @ Aug 7th 2008 2:04PM

Swedish Disco! Yeah... f#@k the Bee Gees.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SuB8xWeA59I

tmacairjordan87 @ Aug 7th 2008 2:05PM

I echo the fuck nirvana statement! And the heavy metal statement!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WEL6_SuQCu8

deaftly @ Aug 7th 2008 2:23PM

Nirvana Rules! Fuck Swedish Disco

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_1nzEFMjkI4

ApolloIV @ Aug 7th 2008 7:27PM

Yeah Fuck (Band name), (Band Name) is 100% better. Compelling argument, failed :(

VaultICEE @ Aug 7th 2008 2:08PM

I'm not a Rock Band or anything... but I really wish that there were more tracks like Jimi Hendrix and Ozzy in Rock Band 2. So far it looks like some really great tracks are going into the worst looking game imo. But I guess I'm perfectly fine with my Who pack =)

But, seeing as they're putting multiple songs for some artists, it does look like they're inflaiting the song count. They said at E3 that there's over 85 tracks so I wonder who else we'll see with 2 or more songs on the disc.

jsn @ Aug 7th 2008 2:20PM

Hendrix will be coming to Rock Band and I suspect Ozzy will as well. Patience!

Dr. @ Aug 7th 2008 2:19PM

I'm happy for the songs. They're awesome.

But I still think Activision doesn't quite understand what we (gaming culture as a whole) want from this genre. We don't care whose likeness you've licensed or what ridiculous ad sponsors you get. We don't want boss battles and stupid difficulty curves. We want an innovative and fun experience. Not the same rehashed, over-marketed crap you normally produce. Surely Neversoft already knows how that path ends.

Things like the music creation make me think they understand what will make a good game. But then they go flaunting 'features' like this. I really don't know...

Vcize @ Aug 7th 2008 3:17PM

What exactly is Rock Band 2 "innovating" over Rock Band 1? At least GH:WT is adding the song creator.

And if you don't like the difficulty curves, then don't play on freaking expert. GH's hard difficulty setting is the same as Rock Band's expert difficulty setting anyway. There's just no "super duper difficult" setting on Rock Band. Just pretend it's not there on Guitar Hero, and it's the same damn thing.

It's not freaking rocket science. If you think expert is too hard, then play on hard.

VaultICEE @ Aug 7th 2008 3:29PM

I couldn't have said it better.

But, sadly I assume a lot of the sales are going to be from kids who don't know crap about the game other than "LOL ITS GUITAR HERO"

Guess_Who @ Aug 7th 2008 3:59PM

"There's just no "super duper difficult" setting on Rock Band."

Yes there is, it's called playing Thrasher on expert.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=buDpsPf9yI0

Oh wait, I forgot, Rock Band is for wusses and real men prefer Through the Fire and Flames.

Dr. @ Aug 7th 2008 4:16PM

Who the hell said anything about Rock Band?

Monkeys Suck @ Aug 7th 2008 4:29PM

Both games have their difficult songs, it's just that Rock Band has more of those songs that are the same over and over, like Blitzkrieg Bop, Paranoid (in GH3 too), Here It Goes Again, and many others that I don't feel like listing. Frankly, I may like listening to these, but I really don't wanna play them.

P.S. - Thrasher isn't as hard as you may think it is. It's TTFAF without the 3 minutes of solos.

Guess_Who @ Aug 7th 2008 4:51PM

The only thing TTFAF has over Thrasher is the intro and the sheer length of the song. Thrasher's strumming is faster, which becomes a huge problem with Rock Band's tighter timing window and strum limit, and the solos are just as insane.

Vcize @ Aug 7th 2008 5:46PM

"Oh wait, I forgot, Rock Band is for wusses and real men prefer Through the Fire and Flames."

Quit being an overly dramatic douchebag. No one said that RB does not have difficult songs or that RB is not for wusses. People DO complain about overly difficult stuff and GH though, and that has to do with the expert setting on GH3 being "super duper warped difficulty".

GH on hard is just like RB on expert. On each, some of the songs are very difficult, but you can get through them with enough tries. That was the point, that if you find GH3 on expert to be too hard (because let's face it, it is) then just play it on hard and it's almost the E-X-A-C-T same as playing RB on expert.

No one is forcing you to play the super duper extra hard mode, it's just there as an option for those few ridiculously good fake guitar players you see all the time on youtube. If you're a normal guy like the rest of us, stick to GH on hard, and RB on expert.

That's just regarding GH3 by the way. GH:Aerosmith seems to have toned the difficulty on Expert down by a ton, so maybe GH:WT will do the same.

Guess_Who @ Aug 7th 2008 6:28PM

Sorry for the drama then, Vcize, I misinterpreted your comment. I don't fully agree with your opinion, but I can understand it.

ColossalHat @ Aug 8th 2008 1:07AM

"That was the point, that if you find GH3 on expert to be too hard (because let's face it, it is) then just play it on hard and it's almost the E-X-A-C-T same as playing RB on expert."

Yeah, except that in GH3's Hard mode there are still lots of uncharted notes, as opposed to RB's expert fully charted notes. Allow me to demonstrate...

Hier Kommt Alex GH3 hard:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZyhbTxhI4zw

And on RB Expert:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UwlGVqrB9PI

I will give you that the simple opening strum is the same on both games, but watch the fast strumming part in particular, GH3 is missing 1/2 the notes whereas you're playing all of them in rock band.

Now I'm not saying either is better, however, it does seem to me that Neversoft is vastly underestimating people's strumming skills on hard and vastly overestimating the players' overall skills on expert by not only making the player play twice the number of notes in some cases, but also making up a lot of chords and such just to make it harder.

I'm willing to cut them some slack since it was their first rhythm game, but I'm going to rent GH:WT before I even think about buying it. If the instruments from RB will play on it (and if they don't make things hard just for the sake of being hard) I may buy it.

Young_Nastyman @ Aug 8th 2008 2:35AM

God damn it Vcize do I really have to say it again

GH3/GHWT's expert is OVER-CHARTED

Guitar hero 1 + 2 and rock band's expert are the same.

You make it seem like Harmonix dumbs it down, when in fact Neversoft over does it.

Expert difficulty equates to this no matter what rhythm game you play, aside from GH3/GHWT obviously:

You play the song for what it is musically. note = note, chord = chord.

Neversoft however turned it into triple chords = notes and chords and lets throw notes in here even though there is nothing playing.

Thats what happens when you hire people who don't know shit about music to make the charts for a music game simply because they did crap charts for frets on fire.

And you keep saying "then don't play on expert and play on hard" who says we can't play gh3 expert? Maybe we just don't have fun playing over-charted songs and we want to experience the music for what it is. Besides according to your statement, gh3 hard = rb expert, if that was the case rb expert would be severely under-charted cause gh3 hard has too many notes missing, and that is surely not the case. Maybe the patterns are the same, but the note counts are not, rb expert has the exact amount of notes in the song played on that instrument.

your argument of "gh3 hard = rb expert" is crap

343 Guilty Fart @ Aug 7th 2008 2:22PM

Don't dis on good reality TV, you've got some hot girls getting into the craziest shit, all while pretending to love Brett. The best TV writers couldn't make that stuff up if they tried.

invaderalex @ Aug 7th 2008 2:23PM

KRAFTWERK OH YEAH!
http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=5802853659235699347&ei=8TybSIiMJ6Ow4QKGidUr&q=the+robots+kraftwerk
PLEASE INCLUDE THIS IN GHWW FOR THE DRUMS
PLEASE!!!!!!!!!
PLEASE!

Kyera @ Aug 7th 2008 2:26PM

And yet, still not the Ozzy song I want. :(

*waits patiently for Perry Mason love*

xandeR- @ Aug 7th 2008 2:30PM

Good songs of course. Ozzy is good stuff. However...

Announce.

The.

Full.

Setlist.

This is completely ridiculous Activision. What are you waiting for?

ColossalHat @ Aug 8th 2008 1:13AM

They're waiting to see if Harmonix is gonna drop a megaton such as Led Zeppelin (fat chance for anyone), Pink Floyd (even fatter chance), or The Beatles (don't see it happening any time soon).

Or, they could still be scrambling for songs.
/sarcasm

Xoviet chiK @ Aug 7th 2008 2:30PM

I guess I'll feign some interest in GHWT when they get Diary of a Madman. That would be wicked fun to play.

But really, who want's to play as Ozzy or Jimmy Hendrix when you can play as yourself and your best mate? Or, make Ozzy or Jummy Hendrix... And Ronald McDonald, and Randy Rhodes, and Terry Bogard...

Nevers @ Aug 7th 2008 2:46PM

Long time reader - 1st time poster

Uh.. So these tracks are with Zak Wylde and not Randy Rhoads? Hmmmm... I would rather have the tracks from R.R. "Tribute". Randy Rhoads was a GOD!!!!

... and I didn't get this bit of the article >

"Arguably, Ozzy makes for a more logical addition now that the game includes singing as well as shredding."

... not necessarily EPIC... but FAIL!!!!

Ozzy might not play guitar but he has surrounded himself with Guitar Heroes since day one, dude. Anything Sabbath or from his solo days would be a MUCH needed inclusion to GH's previously disappointing/lackluster tracklists IMHO.

jsn @ Aug 7th 2008 3:21PM

where is that mentioned? Why wouldn't they be Randy?

Einhanderkiller @ Aug 7th 2008 2:46PM

e|--------------------------------------|
B|--------------------------------------|
G|--------------------------------------|
D|--------------------------------------|
A|------4---5---4-----2-------2---------|
E|--2-2---2---2---2-----5-4-5----5-4-0--|

rockency @ Aug 8th 2008 6:33AM

Great riff!

Ranko @ Aug 7th 2008 2:50PM

http://video.aol.com/video-detail/family-guy-ozzy-osbourne-eating-sandwich/4047632775

snarfoogle @ Aug 7th 2008 3:02PM

Was it polemically sent? I wanna know what you meant

Ranko @ Aug 7th 2008 3:07PM

po·lem·ic
1. a controversial argument, as one against some opinion, doctrine, etc.
2. a person who argues in opposition to another; controversialist.
–adjective
3. Also, po·lem·i·cal. of or pertaining to a polemic; controversial.

B @ Aug 7th 2008 3:47PM

first Hendrix... and now Ozzy? Fuck me.

Mike918 @ Aug 7th 2008 4:03PM

Holy shit they are eating harmonix alive! :O

Kris K @ Aug 7th 2008 6:08PM

I wouldn't be suprissed if these songs are the Master Traxx from the Blizzard Album (Hence: Rhoads original Recordings) but the digitization of Zakk Wylde is a good thing as he has been the face of and a GUITAR HERO for OZZY since 1988 (Not looking up dates just guessing) or so.

He truely is a Guitar Hero, while he is not Randy Rhoads, he has taken alot of cues from him as well as the influence of Randy's style and mechanics, they have rubbed off on Wylde. Remeber Ozzy passed on WYLDE because he was a Randy Clone and he did not want that, It's wasn't until Wylde played from him Live that Ozzy Took him. His Demo/audition Tape originally got thrown to the bottom of the pile.

Also Black Label Society has Music in GTWT - so Wylde as a DIgital charater makes sense on a few levels. One cause Wylde IS Black Label and 2 becuase he is Ozzy's only legendary Guitar player since Iomi and Rhoads (Jake E Lee and John Holmes don't count) Wylde is as popular as Ozzy, Dimebag and even Hendrix (in circles) he is truely a Guitar hero and it would make sense for a OZZY GUITAR PLAYER to be on the Crowley and Crazy Train Traxx not just IZZY SParks or REV RUN (GH: AREO) -
I rather see a Rhoads Look Alike (and True Ozzy Guitar Player) then a Rapper riffing out some Crazy Train.

I hope they do a Younger Digitization (late 80's early 90's) look for Wylde as his new look is alot like Dimebag and very rugged - not the look he used to get mostly famous.