Tune in Saturday July 26th to Faction Talk, channel 103, at 4 PM East, 1 PM West.

Phone #: 844-686-5863

If you miss the episode, you can hear it on demand on the SiriusXM app. Search: Lefsetz

In the mid 1980’s, my public junior high school in Texas brought in a presenter to speak to the entire student body. The message was basically, if you listen to heavy metal, you are going to hell.

I thought to myself, I am a really good kid, love my family, never got in any trouble, I’m fairly certain I’m not going to hell… and I love Ozzy!

That was when I realized that sometimes the teachers/preachers/media are full of sh*t.

Thank you Ozzy, RIP

Mike Antognoli

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Thank you for your tribute to Ozzy. I absolutely loved Black Sabbath. At my summer orientation to freshman year of college back in the late 80s, I felt like a fish out of water. Everything seemed foreign and I was lonely. They housed us in dorms, and one night, on the way to brush my teeth, I saw a beautiful person sitting in the frame of her door to her room, smiling and….yep….listening to Back Sabbath.  She became my best friend (now in our mid-50s, we are still very close). What first connected us was music, and Ozzy was a part of that. We listened to Planet Caravan over and over on road trips, in our dorm room. It had such a whimsical, trippy feel. It created a mood. (I’m now learning how to play the bass line all these years later).

Music connects people together. It fills in spaces that words can’t. It makes you feel seen. And I am so grateful to music and to have met my special friend who shared love of Ozzy.

Rest in Peace, Ozzy.
Jen Rothman

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When I worked for A&M in the early ‘80s, and Peter was working for Quincy Jones in the mid 80s, I had the privilege of coordinating their activities with TJ Martell events (the wonderful charity that ‘brings the music community together to fight cancer’).

In that capacity, I attended a lunch at The Bistro in Bev Hills. I unbelievably found myself sitting at a large round table with the likes of Richard Pryor, Rae Dawn Chong, Quincy J and the legendary Dizzy Gillespie – and there, sitting to my left in a very modest gray suit and plain tie, long hair perfectly combed, was an almost completely silent Ozzy Osbourne! He was sweetly polite to a fault. He sat silently and listened intently, as did the rest of us, to Dizzie Gillespie telling amazing tales from his past. Even Quincy hung on Dizzie’s every word.

As Dizzie ran on about life on the road in the old days, I kept thinking, I just met and am having lunch with Ozzy Osbourne! He spent most of the lunch gracefully picking at his chicken dish, never once calling any attention to himself. I couldn’t help but compare the infamous bat biter to this elegant chicken chewer.

RIP Ozzy…

Manny Freiser

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I read you religiously but I’ve never written to you but I feel compelled to write now after reading Richard Griffiths’ email about Ozzy. I succeeded Richard at Virgin Music. He was very reassuring during the handover but, having heard the many stories about Ozzy, I remained somewhat trepidatious before meeting him. That proved to be unnecessary. The Ozzy I dealt with for the remainder of my time at Virgin was an amiable, gregarious guy.

In my dealings with Sharon she was tough but charming and totally professional. She showed appreciation for our efforts on behalf of Ozzy and was one of the few writers who sent ME a Christmas present!

Ozzy will be sadly missed by so many people and my heart goes out to Sharon who was utterly devoted to him

Steve Lewis

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When two staff members from Ozzy Osbourne’s management came into our office in 1993 seeking a guitarist, (and maybe drummer?), they looked through our paper resumes and wrote down phone numbers of players who looked promising. Then they called these selected people and told them to play something live right over the phone.  If the person played well, they talked a bit.  If that went well, THEN they set up an in-person audition.  Effective!  I still talk to some guys who remember this audition.

Sterling Howard, founder/owner
https://www.MusiciansContact.com

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1970. I was privileged to see an amazing, albeit abbreviated Sabbath set at the Hollywood Bowl. The Bill Ward pass-out performance. I had been working with Gentle Giant and Sweathog (Frosty’s band) and had been guested by management (Meehans and Lenny Stogel).

 

The set was too short, but to hear that degree of pace, dynamic and road grading on a diet of almost exclusively mid tempos was only suggested on record. Ozzy’s subsequent body of work is a gift, there won’t be another. But history tells us there won’t be another Black Sabbath either. As great as he is, Paul Rodgers plus May/Taylor/Deacon didn’t equal Queen. The surviving Doors never got there. Unsurprisingly, Springsteen nailed it: (paraphrasing) ‘Clarence doesn’t leave the band because he died, he leaves the band when we die.’ There is a reason the term “original” has come to have so much power. Where I live, the conventional wisdom would be “just ‘cause a cat has kittens in the oven, don’t make ‘em biscuits.”

 

Ozzy will be missed for ages. As will Sabbath. The enormity of influence will continue to span generations.

 

Murray Krugman

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I was very sad to learn that Ozzy Osbourne had passed away. I knew Ozzy when he lived directly across the street from me in Beverly Hills on Doheny Road. He was always a gentleman and a riot to be with, along with his beautiful wife Sharon and their kids. My late husband and I were invited to many of their crazy parties and I performed a piece on my guitar at one of them! I send my deepest condolences to Sharon and his family. I’m glad he had the opportunity to offer such a beautiful musical farewell to his millions fans earlier this month at his amazing “Back to the Beginning” concert in Birmingham. Rest in peace dearest Ozzy. You were a true pioneer and one of a kind.

Liona Boyd

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My first big rock concert was Diary of a Madman with Randy Rhoads on Jan 1, 1982 at the Veterans Memorial Coliseum in Phoenix. That concert was life-changing for a 14 year old kid. Ozzy and Randy were instant gods. I never watched The Osbournes (wasn’t a big fan of “reality” tv back then), but his show Ozzy & Jack’s World Detour, really showed Ozzy’s humor. He was friggin hilarious! Especially if you could understand his Brummie accent. ;0))

Cheers,

Bill Lackemacher

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On May 22nd of 1982, Ozzy appeared on stage at the Cumberland County Civic Center in Portland, ME, produced by Frank J Russo, who I was working with at the time.

During his legendary stay at the Eastland Hotel, in the days when the famed stay had a roof-top pool… “The Prince of Darkness got a little too rowdy at one of his parties at the hotel’s rooftop pool which led to him chucking pool furniture off the roof and down onto High Street. ‘Cause why not? If you’re Ozzy Osbourne, you can do whatever you want.

Well, not quite. Ozzy was police escorted out of the city and the pool was closed because everyone wants to be a rockstar and guests started hurling furniture off the roof just like their idol.”

Thanks Ozzy for the songs and the history.

 

Mike Flanagin

From the Atlantic accounting department to the head of Emerson, Lake & Palmer’s Manticore Records, Mario Medious is a legendary record executive.

Apple: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/mario-medious/id1316200737?i=1000718834384

 

 

 

https://music.amazon.com/podcasts/9ff4fb19-54d4-41ae-ae7a-8a6f8d3dafa8/episodes/c714432d-29c3-4db2-a965-b32874c7df6f/the-bob-lefsetz-podcast-mario-medious

COWBOY CARTEL

This is an imperfect documentary from 2024 but I recommend you watch it. Because the IRS helped bring down the Zetas and now it’s been crippled. All this institutional expertise eviscerated.

But you can love “Cowboy Cartel” without being a lefty.

Turns out the Zetas, a legendary Mexican drug cartel, are laundering their money via horse racing.

I was familiar with the Zetas from Don Winslow’s book “The Border,” the final installment of his  Cartel Trilogy. Although not as good as the initial installment, “The Power of the Dog,” it’s necessary reading if you’ve read the first and the second, “The Cartel.” I absolutely recommend you read “The Power of the Dog,” it may be pulpy but it’s highly readable and will educate you on the drug trade to a degree you heretofore didn’t know existed.

So this is a doc. But since it’s done for Apple, it’s done on a very high level. As in the re-enactments can be easily confused for actual footage.

Furthermore, the arc does not resemble fiction. Just when you’re getting all excited, when the momentum builds, it then dissipates, and then ultimately renews.

So what you’re watching here for is the story. And it’s utterly fascinating. How a newbie FBI agent discovers the ruse and then enlists the rest of the government to help him with the bust.

It’s the characters that are so interesting. We’re used to entertainment celebrities, whereas these are just regular people doing their jobs. But they have character and are dedicated, they’re the stars of their own movie. Whether it be the IRS agent or the cops or the… It takes a village to bring down a cartel, and this documentary tells you how it is done.

“Cowboy Cartel” shows what we’re up against in the drug trade. It shows how evil the Zetas are. You wonder whether this battle can ever be won. But one thing is for sure, by shrinking our government willy-nilly we’re going backwards.

Not that this is a political show, that’s just one of my takeaways.

Watch it and tell me what you think.

BUG HOLLOW

I would have listed this first but it’s much harder to get someone to read a book as opposed to watch a TV series.

But I want to recommend this book. Because it’s highly readable. It’s about a family and the stuff that happens to it and those they encounter.

The thing about life is it is unpredictable, and that is what this book represents so well. You’re on one path, worrying about something, and then you’re hit with a brick from the left and your earlier thoughts don’t matter.

And then there are choices.

And then there are relationships.

Life is messy, it is not linear. You can try and force it to be organized, but you always fail. You can get a professional degree and then the firm you work for closes, or is eclipsed by technology. You can find the love of your life and then they die.

Good things happen too.

And oftentimes what looks bad, a near disaster, can end up becoming good.

I just don’t want to give away any of the plot. I just want to say once again that this is a highly readable book, you can finish it in days, because you want to marinate in the world of the Zillers and find out what happens. “Bug Hollow” is an antidote to today’s troubled political landscape.

People will surprise you.

Actually, that’s what life is about.

What is that overused John Lennon quote?

“Life is what happens to you while you’re busy making other plans.”

That’s utterly true. And “Bug Hollow” is a perfect example of that.

If you’re looking for a summer read, this is it. Not because it’s lowbrow genre fiction, but because it takes you away and is easy to read.

I just wish it continued.