KILLSWITCH ENGAGE's JESSE LEACH: Discovering BLACK SABBATH 'Changed Everything For Me'

In a recent interview with WMMR's Brent Porche, conducted just prior to Ozzy Osbourne's passing, KILLSWITCH ENGAGE frontman Jesse Leach was asked if he had a chance to check out any of the footage of the "Back To The Beginning" concert, which marked Ozzy and BLACK SABBATH's final performance. Jesse responded (as transcribed by BLABBERMOUTH.NET): " Yeah, just the clips that I've seen online. I haven't sat and watched the whole thing. And it's rock and roll history, really. At the end of the day, without SABBATH, where would any of us be? I'm a massive SABBATH and Ozzy fan, so it was nice to see people pay tribute to them, to the legacy, really. It's beautiful."

Asked if he had any memorable Ozzy or BLACK SABBATH moments to share, perhaps about seeing them live for the first time or sharing the stage with them, Jesse said: "[I] never got to see SABBATH or Ozzy live — ever. Never. Never. I would say the big turning point for me was seeing Ozzy on MTV when I was a kid, and the first song I saw was his duet with Lita Ford, 'Close My Eyes [Forever]'. And just the way he looked. As a kid, I was, like, 'This guy's crazy. Who is this guy?' Because I had no idea. I grew up a very sheltered Christian life. My dad's a minister, so I was not allowed to watch that stuff. So seeing it for the first time, I was so intrigued of who this guy was, and I became obsessed with Ozzy Osbourne, and, of course, I heard about the bat head and all that stuff. So, to me, it was Ozzy first, and then I knew about BLACK SABBATH after. BLACK SABBATH was huge for me, discovering them later in my life, just 'cause they're godfathers of heavy metal. The sound of the guitar, everything about it, it just changed everything for me and they changed rock and roll when they came out."

In a separate interview with Meltdown of Detroit's WRIF radio station, Leach was asked what BLACK SABBATH has meant to him personally. Jesse said: "The music world owes a great debt to both Ozzy as the solo artist and BLACK SABBATH. The majority of the bands that are kicking it right now owe a debt to BLACK SABBATH… And I'll always be a massive fan of both Ozzy Osbourne solo and BLACK SABBATH. Very important stuff."

When Meltdown noted that BLACK SABBATH had a rare chance to "say goodbye" to the fans before one or more of the original bandmembers was no longer with us, Jesse concurred. "Yeah, I think that's cool when bands [were] able to do that," he said. "And it's also good to know when the time has come. And I hope that we have the wherewithal to know when it's just probably not the best look right now. But you look at a band like IRON MAIDEN — I mean, [MAIDEN singer] Bruce Dickinson, to me, is still prime. He's still peak. The guy is in his sixties. We've done two tours with him now, and every night he's just on it. And I'm, like, I wanna be even just a quarter that good at that age. So it can be done, but it is smart to know when to call it and to be able to have your final say in how your legacy ends."

Leach's KILLSWITCH ENGAGE bandmate, guitarist and producer Adam Dutkiewicz spoke to Heaviness In Metal Music Production about how the perception of heaviness in metal production evolved from the rumbling power of BLACK SABBATH to the technical aggression that defines modern metal. He said: " Well, I guess it more started with aggressive music. My brother exposed me to a lot of punk rock, hardcore music like that. So it was always about the attitude, the aggression and the push. And then I guess just slowly over time, I was introduced to more things like — obviously, when you hear SABBATH for the first time… I think if you think about it, SABBATH is probably one of the first things out there in the modern guitar-based heavy kind of vibe that started the whole thing. And then when I got to the combination of that metal sound with the aggressiveness with METALLICA, that really changed my life with like what the way I wanted to play guitar and what I looked for in the music that I wanted to write."

Ozzy died the morning of July 22, his family announced in a statement.

"It is with more sadness than mere words can convey that we have to report that our beloved Ozzy Osbourne has passed away this morning. He was with his family and surrounded by love. We ask everyone to respect our family privacy at this time," the family said.

No cause of death was given, but Osbourne had battled a number of health issues over the past several years, including Parkinson's disease and injuries he sustained from a late-night fall in 2019.