Ozzy Osbourne Explained the Weird Reason There’s a Cat on the ‘Blizzard of Ozz’ Cover

The best classic rock albums inspire great stories. A mysterious black cat graces the cover of Ozzy Osbourne’s Blizzard of Ozz. Osbourne discussed the origin of this cat and joked it was a message from a dark historical figure.

Ozzy Osbourne jokingly connected the ‘Blizzard of Ozz’ cat to the real ‘Mr. Crowley’

With his band Black Sabbath, Osbourne merged horror fiction and rock like no rock star had ever done. The cover of his debut solo album, Blizzard of Ozz, lived up to his earlier image. The image shows Osbourne wearing a Dracula-style cape and holding a cross like he’s exorcising a demon. In the background, there’s a black cat. One might assume that the black cat was an intentional part of Osbourne’s Gothic look — but it wasn’t.

During a 2019 interview with Rolling Stone, Osbourne discussed the photo shoot behind the album cover. “Because of funds, we had to do it ourselves,” he recalled. “I think the cat was just there.”

Osbourne joked about the origin of the feline interloper. “Maybe the cat was a message from Aleister Crowley,” he said. Osbourne was referring to the mystic and magician who inspired him to write the Blizzard of Ozz tune “Mr. Crowley.”

What Ozzy Osbourne left Black Sabbath

During a 2020 interview with Rolling Stone, Osbourne discussed striking out on his own with Blizzard of Ozz. “I was done with Black Sabbath,” he said. “It needed to me to leave or one of us to go. We were tired of fighting everything and everyone; we were fighting management, record companies, all that side of it. It became depressing for me, and it showed in the music. When you start making music to pay your lawyers’ bills and f****** taxes, you know you’ve got a problem.”

Furthermore, Osbourne remembered that the title of Blizzard of Ozz predated his solo career. “When I was in Black Sabbath, I wanted to do a solo album,” the singer recalled. “I wanted to call the album Blizzard of Oz. You know, The Wizard of Oz? Stroke it up with cocaine, and it becomes your coke name. So The Wizard of Oz became The Blizzard of Ozz.’ It works. When we were young, we were lunatics.”

‘Blizzard of Ozz’ played by its own rules

Blizzard of Ozz became one of Osbourne’s biggest hits. It reached No. 21 on the Billboard 200, staying on the chart for 107 weeks. It lasted on the chart longer than any of Osbourne’s other albums.

The most famous track from Blizzard of Ozz is the Cold War commentary “Crazy Train.” That classic tune didn’t chart at all. The second most famous track is “Mr. Crowley,” which didn’t chart either.

Heavy metal is a genre that abides by its own rules. Pop stars and rappers need to reach the Billboard Hot 100 to be successful. Many heavy metal acts seem to do very well without ever impacting the pop charts. Maybe it’s all the black magic they do. In the end, Blizzard of Ozz became one of the most acclaimed and influential albums in the history of heavy metal music.

Blizzard of Ozz is an excellent album and its cover wouldn’t be the same without that black cat.