Suicide Solution by Ozzy Osbourne Song Info
"Suicide Solution" is a song by Ozzy Osbourne. It is track #5 on the album Blizzard of Ozz released in 1980. Guitarist Randy Rhoads wrote the riff to the song (he had previously used the riff on the Quiet Riot track "Force of Habit"), and Bob Daisley helped co-write the lyrics. Ozzy Osbourne supposedly released this track as a tribute to Bon Scott of AC/DC who died of alcohol abuse. The song was very controversial following its release. On January 13, 1986, Osbourne was taken to court by the parents of John McCollum, a teenager who shot himself in the head while listening to this song. What is mostly overlooked is that John was reported to have a depression illness. Although the court cleared Osbourne in the case, many listeners continue to wonder what Osbourne was saying part way through the song. Osbourne had a habit of talking or yelling things while recording the song, for example, singing "Cocaine" during the Black Sabbath song "Snowblind." He would often repeat these live, but sound engineers usually edited such interjections out of the records. IBAR, The Institute for Bio-Acoustics Research, analyzed the song and found that subliminal message-like noises were recorded in the song; Osbourne, however, denied anything of the sort. Lyricist Bob Daisley and Osbourne himself both claimed that Ozzy said, "Get the flaps out," referring to a part of the female anatomy. However, some claim that Ozzy said, "Get the glass shoot," "Let yourself go," "Get the fucking gun" or "Get the gun, get the gun, shoot shoot shoot shoot shoot shoot," both of which supported the court case. Either "Get the flask out" or "Get the shot glass," however, were more logical translations, since the song is dealing with alcohol. What is also overlooked is that Daisley, when he wrote the lyrics, used the word "solution" to mean a substance--in this case, an alcoholic beverage--dissolved in a liquid, not in the sense of solving a problem. Finally, Osbourne himself is a recovering alcoholic, and the song is particularly meaningful to him because it depicts the personal self-destruction he was facing before he cleaned himself out and sobered himself up. Another tragic case was that of rock music obsessed 14 year old (Eric A.) of St. Louis Park, Minnesota, who shot himself with a .22 caliber rifle. His parents blamed Osbourne, AC/DC, Judas Priest, Black Sabbath and Mötley Crüe. Osbourne, however, was the prime target, due to his song, "Suicide Solution." The song is also famous for Randy Rhoads's solo at the end of the song on the live album Tribute; this solo originated from Rhoads' Quiet Riot days in which he performed this song part way through "Laughing Gas," the original solo was over 6 minutes and contained references to "Goodbye to Romance," "Mr. Crowley," and "the overture to The Legend Of William Tell," even though the solo he performed with Osbourne was just over two minutes. The live solo features arguably Rhoads's fastest recorded playing.
