Watch: Lost Ozzy Osbourne cassette unearthed after 45 years in an attic

A previously unheard cassette of Ozzy Osbourne, recorded just weeks after he was fired from Black Sabbath, has been found sitting in an attic for more than 45 years. 

The tape, labelled in fading ink “Ozzie Last Day”, was finally played publicly for the first time, Sky News reports.

The recording dates back to early 1980, right after Ozzy’s messy exit from Sabbath and just before he kicked off his solo career. It was captured during rehearsals in Ilketshall, Suffolk, and handed to local worker David “Chabby” Jolly, who promptly forgot about it for four decades.

When the tape was dusted off and loaded into a deck, expectations were low. The first sound out was Lynyrd Skynyrd’s Free Bird, blasting away like someone had taped over the good stuff. Then it stopped. A guitar came in. Vocals followed.

“That’s Ozzy!” was the reaction in the room.

The cassette features around 12 minutes of loose, bluesy rehearsal jams, with Randy Rhoads’ guitar and Ozzy’s vocals, faint but unmistakable. At one point, you can hear Jolly say, “That’s Randy Rhoads… and that’s Ozzy in the background.”

It’s not a lost album or polished demo, and it’s not pretending to be. What it is, as Sky News puts it, is “a small window into a pivotal time in his life and career - the beginning of his second act.”

Considering Ozzy once described himself at the time as “unemployed and unemployable”, it’s pretty unreal to hear the moment before everything clicked again.