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Black Sabbath x Skateboarding: Rest in Peace Ozzy Osbourne

Jul 2025 by Harry Stephens

Skateboarding and metal go hand in hand - always have, always will. From Jamie Thomas and Iron Maiden in Welcome to Hell, to Nyjah and Metallica in Fade to Black, crunching guitar riffs and bone-rattling stunts are a match made in heaven, forever intertwined in the videos we hold dear. And no band shaped heavy metal more than pioneers of the genre Black Sabbath, led by the one and only Ozzy Osbourne, who sadly passed away earlier this week at the age of 76.
So, to honour the passing of Birmingham’s most beloved son, the self-proclaimed Prince of Darkness, we’re taking a look back at the impact the Aston rock gods had on the world of skateboarding.

Black Label "Label Kills"

What better place to start than Label Kills, Black Label’s iconic 2001 release? As the opening riffs of Paranoid rip through your speakers, you know this isn’t a video that’s going to be pulling any punches. Featuring a heavy-hitting lineup from Jason Adams to Mike Vallely, this is raw, powerful skateboarding from start to finish; nothing captures that vibe quite like Tony Iommi’s fuzzed-out guitar and Ozzy’s unmistakable vocals, as slam after slam signals the chaos to come.

Stay Gold: Bryan Herman

Following Label Kills is no easy feat but Ozzy’s relationship with skateboarding runs deeper than Jason Dill crashing on his couch for a few days. Sole Tech has a long tradition of cutting Sabbath tracks into their videos - think Donny Barley in Emerica’s Yellow, or Muska in Etnies’ High 5 - but standing head and shoulders above the rest is Bryan Herman’s phenomenal two-song part in the seminal 2010 release Stay Gold. 
Opening with a seemingly endless kickflip nose manual down the Hollywood Walk of Fame, the Victorville native’s part begins with the gravelly brilliance of Tom Waits, but it’s when the doom-laden groove of Fairies Wear Boots kicks in that the part truly comes alive.
Expertly edited by master lensman Jon Miner, Bill Ward’s thunderous drums line up flawlessly with Herman’s textbook landings and it serves an electrifying tribute to one of the standout tracks on Sabbath’s 1970 debut Paranoid (and a high water mark in skate-video history).

AVE - Vans Propeller

Rounding off a tribute to arguably the most infamous rock star of his generation is no easy task. There are countless classic parts set to Ozzy’s voice, each one meaningful in its own right; H-Street and Chad Vogt, Tom Schaar and Vert’s Not Dead, the opening of Plan B’s Virtual Reality - all unforgettable moments we’ll no doubt revisit endlessly in the weeks to come. But if we have to wrap this up, there’s really only one place for it to end: Anthony Van Engelen’s legendary closing part in Vans’ 2015 epic Propeller. 
Receiving countless plaudits across the skate world, this part earned AVE the highest honour in skateboarding; Thrasher’s SOTY trophy. Watching it now, it’s impossible to imagine it without Over the Mountain, the blistering opener from 1981’s Diary of a Madman, ringing out as one of the most influential skaters on the planet closed out the biggest video of the decade.
Written by Ozzy and Randy Rhoads (just a year before Rhoads’ untimely death), the opening bars of this slice of peak early ‘80s metal conjure the image of AVE charging full-force and redefining what it meant to be a pro skateboarder past 30. For over a decade, it’s been a shining example of everything skateboarding should be and now, as we look back on Ozzy’s life, it stands as a fitting tribute to what the Sabbath frontman meant to all of us.
Rest in peace, Ozzy Osbourne, and thank you for the music.

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