The haunted farm in Wales that inspired Ozzy Osbourne to write some of his greatest hits

Emily Price

As the world says goodbye to music legend Ozzy Osbourne, Emily Price explores the star’s links to Wales and the haunted farmhouse where the Black Sabbath frontman wrote some of his greatest hits.

News of the rock icon’s death on Tuesday (July 23) came just weeks after he had reunited with Black Sabbath to perform one final show in their hometown at Villa Park in Birmingham.

The 76-year-old entered the stage by rising on a large black throne encrusted with skulls through a trap door, wearing his signature black attire and thick eye make-up.

The band performed some of their greatest hits – including War Pigs, N.I.B and Iron Man – ending with a rendition of Paranoid.

Legendary

The breakthrough hit and several other Sabbath songs were fine tuned on a farm in the Wye Valley in Monmouthshire that had been converted to a music studio.

Dubbed the birth place of heavy metal, the legendary studio became a key location for the band as they developed their heavy metal sound.

The former dairy farm was founded in 1961 by brothers Charles and Kingsley Ward.

Their vision was to create a recording studio in an inspiring and tranquil environment outside of London where stars could live whilst working on iconic albums.

In 1965, Rockfield was acknowledged to be the first residential recording studio in the world.

58 years on it’s still making hits.

The studio has played host to some of the world’s biggest artists – it was the place where Freddie Mercury recorded the piano section of Bohemian Rhapsody while his Queen bandmates played frisbee in the garden.

Noise

Oasis, the Stone Roses, Manic Street Preachers and Coldplay have also spent time creating albums at the south Wales location.

Osbourne first stayed at Rockfield in the 1970s with Black Sabbath to record songs from the band’s iconic second album ‘Paranoid’.

The up and coming singer’s stay at the rural studio was the first time he had visited the countryside.

Osbourne said that the location gave the band the freedom to play loudly and immerse themselves fully in their music.

He said: “We all lived together, someone came in and fed us and we could make as much noise as we wanted.”

Force

The music rehearsed by Sabbath at Rockfield established the band as a major force in the heavy metal genre.

During his time there, the Prince of Darkness drank alcohol, took illegal substances, shot guns, built a raft to row on the river and terrified the children of staff by dancing in a graveyard and howling at headstones.

The young singer was said to have later arranged for Harrods to deliver a van load of toys to Monmouth as an apology to the children.

Osbourne described the residential studio as a “magic” location that would always be a part of him.

He talked about his time in Wales in the 2020 BBC Documentary ‘Rockfield: The Studio on the Farm’.

Speaking on the programme, Osbourne said: “Rockfield will always be a part of me because we started Black Sabbath there.

“I started my solo career there. I can go and live in Beverly Hills, but for some reason, I end up back in Rockfield. It’s magic.

“Just to go from Birmingham to Monmouth was an adventure.

“You don’t understand, we’d never been in a studio, we’d never been on a farm.”

Osbourne’s stay in Wales coincided with the beginning of his alcohol and drug addiction.

It eventually saw him fired from Black Sabbath over his unpredictable and violent behaviour when inebriated.

Believing his career to be over, the star hid himself away in hotel rooms where he would abuse alcohol and drugs for months at a time.

But with the help of his wife Sharon Osbourne, he went on to forge a successful solo career for himself despite his ongoing addiction.

After leaving Black Sabbath, he worked on some of his solo hits at Rockfield Studios including his debut solo single – Crazy Train.

In the liner notes of his greatest hits album – The Ozzman Cometh – Osbourne said the chart-topper reflected everything he was going through at the time.

He said: “We wrote this in Monmouthshire, Wales at a residential studio.

“The studio was rumoured to be haunted by a poltergeist.

“Most days we would wake up and the windows would be smashed, crockery shattered, doors were broken off they hinges and our clothes would be floating in the stream outside.

“The studio owner was insisting it was us getting drunk every night and tearing up the studio.

“But we stuck by our story that it was always the poltergeist.”

Séance

Bassist and songwriter Bob Daisley was part of the crew that stayed at Rockfield with Osbourne in the 1980s to record their debut album ‘Blizzard Of Ozz’.

In his 2013 memoir ‘For Facts Sake’ Daisley recalled a night at the farm when himself, Osbourne and heavy metal guitarist Randy Rhoads decided to hold a séance with a Ouija board.

Daisley wrote: “After a while of asking questions and getting Y-E-S and N-O answers, the glass spelled out R-A-N-D-Y followed by Y-O-U A-R-E G-O-I-N-G T-O D-I-E.

“We didn’t like the vibe and stopped.

“We broke the glass, threw the paper letters of the alphabet into the fire and poured salt on the table.”

Rhoads – considered to be the greatest guitarist of his generation – died three years later in a plane crash.

Parkinson’s

Ozzy Osbourne has always traced his fame and fortune back to Rockfield Studios in Wales.

The unlikely location is credited as the place the Prince of Darkness invented heavy metal.

In the lead up to his death, Osbourne was suffering from Parkinson’s disease – an illness that caused him to finally bow out of his performing career.

He died at his mansion in Welders, Buckinghamshire with his wife Sharon and their children by his side.

Over the last two days, tributes have poured in for the late rock icon.

Sir Elton John remembered Osbourne as a “huge trailblazer” who “secured his place in the pantheon of rock gods”

Singer Yungblud, who sang Black Sabbath’s Changes at Sabbath’s Back To The Beginning farewell concert on July 5, said he was “heartbroken” and called Osbourne “the greatest of all time”.

Rockstar Alice Cooper dedicated his performance in Cardiff on Tuesday to Osbourne.

In a post to social media following the gig, Cooper said: “The whole world is mourning Ozzy tonight.

“Over his long career, he earned immense respect among his peers and from fans around the world as an unmatched showman and cultural icon.

“I always saw Ozzy as a cross between the prince of darkness, which is the persona his fans saw, and the court jester. That was the side that his family and friends saw.

“He was and will continue to be a rock and roll legend. Rock and Roll is a family and a fraternity.

“When we lose one of our own, it bleeds. I wish I would have gotten to know my brother Ozzy better.

“A titanic boulder has crashed, but rock will roll on.”