The Passing of Two Rock Legends

byAdamWalker5

42 followers

2 weeks ago

We all know that this is old news by now, but since I have a website dedicated to musical genres, I thought it only fitting that I write a tribute to two men who had a tremendously profound impact not just on rock & roll, but on the world of music in general.

Paul Daniel "Ace" Frehley, 1951-2025: Ace Frehley was probably best known for being a founding member of the legendary rock band KISS. What a lot of people may not know is that Frehley was the one who designed the band's iconic logo, as well as having a hand in the makeup designs during the band's initial early 1970s inception. After a tumultuous 9-year run with KISS, and struggling with alcohol abuse, Frehley left the band in 1982 to pursue a solo career. He then formed a little-known band of the 80s called Frehley's Comet, in which he continued to showcase his legendary guitar work. This solo project also gave him an opportunity to show what he could do as a singer and songwriter. After a brief, but successful run with Frehley's Comet, he quietly stepped away from the spotlight and focused on more personal, music-centered projects before reuniting with Paul Stanley, Gene Simmons, and Peter Criss in 1996 for KISS's long-anticipated Reunion tour. The tour, however, didn't go as well as planned for the group, as old arguments and resentments resurfaced on the road, to the point where Gene and Paul considered quitting for good, as they felt they just weren't having fun anymore. Once again, the original lineup called quits and went their separate ways. Ace got together again with his former bandmates when KISS was inducted into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame in 2014 before saying their goodbyes to one another one final time. Ace continued making music, releasing his final album in 2024 before suffering a stroke, bringing his musical career to an unceremonious end. On October 16, he had a fall resulting in a brain bleed, which led to his death at the age of 74. Needless to say, Frehley's passing left an unmistakable mark on guitarists all over the world, the likes of which will never be matched. Rest in peace, Space Ace.

John Micheal "Ozzy" Osbourne, 1948-2025: The Godfather of Metal, the Heavy Metal Madman, the Prince of Darkness...these were a few of the best-known monikers that John Micheal Osbourne was known by. To most of the world, however, he was known simply by one name: Ozzy. Born to a poor, working-class family in Birmingham, England in 1948, Ozzy represented the classic rags-to-riches story that people would find in most fairy tales. Growing up with dyslexia, and having juvenile ADD, Ozzy seemed destined to a lifetime of struggle, as he dropped out of school at the age of 15, got in trouble with the law, and spent time in prison. It was in music that Ozzy managed to find his purpose. In 1969, Ozzy got together with Terry "Geezer" Butler, Bill Ward, and Tony Iommi, and formed the pioneering metal group Black Sabbath. After the group caught their first big break in 1970, Ozzy, then just 21 years old and desperately poor, the taste of success was wonderfully sweet to him. However, that success also brought about a life-long struggle with drug and alcohol abuse, which was only fueled by Ozzy's deeply ingrained sense of self-doubt. In his 2008 autobiography I am Ozzy, he was quoted as saying: "If you took me and a group of my mates from Birmingham, lined us up against a wall, and bet on which of us would survive till their 60th birthday, I wouldn't have bet on me in a million years!" But survive, he did. By 2020, Ozzy became known as heavy metal's most unlikely survivor, as he was in several motor vehicle accidents, one of them on a quad runner that almost killed him. Ironically, when these accidents happened, he was stone-cold sober. However, in spite of the terrible injuries he sustained, Ozzy still managed to rally back. Before his quad runner accident, he rereleased his hit song "Changes" as a duet with his youngest daughter, Kelly, who, as it turned out, had inherited her father's unmistakable musical talent. The single shot to the top of the charts, becoming Ozzy's first Number 1 hit in his long career. During the last few years of his life, Ozzy struggled with a plethora of health issues, including Parkinson's Disease and chronic pain. In spite of his failing health, he managed to reunite with his Black Sabbath bandmates for one final show in Birmingham. Just three weeks after his last concert with Sabbath, Ozzy suffered a heart attack and died at the age of 76. Ozzy's death shocked the heavy metal world and surprised even more the world over. What surprised everyone, me included, was that he managed to live as long as he did. Ozzy spent a lifetime defying the odds and proving he naysayers wrong. He was living proof that you can succeed at anything you set your mind to. May you finally have peace and solace, Ozzy. You will be missed the world over.