A chilled-out cover of Black Sabbath’s Sabbath Bloody Sabbath was “the creepiest thing” Ozzy Osbourne ever heard.
In 1994, Swedish pop-rock band The Cardigans covered the 1973 song and put it on the tracklisting of their debut album, Emmerdale. During a new interview with The Guardian, singer Nina Persson reveals that the Prince Of Darkness was disturbed by the lounge-esque interpretation, which she calls “the biggest compliment”.
“We were big [Black Sabbath] fans – for a heavy band there’s a real pop sentiment in the songwriting – and I think it’s interesting when a cover is a stretch away from your natural sound,” Persson says. “As a woman, I thought singing a song done by very manly men gave it a wonderfully creepy aspect. Ozzy came to see us in Los Angeles and said it was the creepiest thing he’d ever heard, which coming from him is the biggest compliment.”
The Cardigans were such admirers of Ozzy and Black Sabbath that they went on to do a series of covers. They recorded a moody take on Ozzy’s solo song Mr Crowley and made it the B-side of their 1995 single Carnival. They then put their spin on Iron Man on their third album First Band On The Moon – which became their breakthrough effort, reaching number two on the Swedish album charts – and covered Changes for a BBC Radio 2 live session in 2003.
Talking to NME in 2018, Persson revealed that Ozzy was a fan of The Cardigans, as well. “Ozzy sent us flowers and came to one of our shows in L.A. in the 90s and brought his whole family – Kelly, Jack and Sharon – backstage as guests. He was into it,” she said.
Ozzy died aged 76 on July 22, 2025, with the cause of death later being revealed as cardiac arrest. He passed 17 days after putting on his retirement concert Back To The Beginning in his hometown of Birmingham, where he played short sets with both Sabbath and his solo band. Proceeds from the event went to various local charities.
Sharon, Ozzy’s longtime wife and manager, announced last month that she’s in talks with concert promoter Live Nation to bring back Ozzfest, Ozzy’s namesake travelling festival. Although nothing is definite, she hopes for it to return in 2027 and have a lineup that goes beyond its typical niche of rock and metal. She told Billboard that the festival “was something Ozzy was very passionate about”.
