Black Sabbath’s final live concert rocked Birmingham’s Villa Park last Saturday. But scattered amongst the jaw-dropping lineup of groundbreaking live bands supporting Birmingham’s heavy metal pioneers, were a number of pre-recorded clips from celebs paying tribute to Black Sabbath – the band who changed music history forever.
Jack Black, a pal of Ozzy Osbourne, dedicated his own music video to the band — a comedy-clad recreation of Ozzy’s “Mr. Crowley” music video, performed with a bunch of outstanding teen musicians, channeling pure School of Rock vibes. After being posted on Ozzy’s official YouTube page, Jack’s hilariously heartfelt viral video racked up over 1.2 million views in just one day! Readers can jump straight into the action in the clip below.
This performance is peak Jack Black: every bombastic, ridiculous trope of the Tenacious D star brought out in full force; his eyes glazed with the feral madness of an occultist, blending acting skills with his primal, radiant adoration for classic rock and all its ludicrous clichés. Unhinged, shamelessly absurd, Jack captures the raw essence of metalhead mayhem.
Jack seems to come into his full power when he’s thrust into a School of Rock-style performance — obscene joy radiating from the star, beaming manic smiles, galloping across the stage, and utterly throwing his soul into this outstanding high-energy cover. And his vocals are legitimately mind-blowing: his voice practically identical to Ozzy, crafting the ultimate tribute cover.
Once Jack’s got his main verses out of the way, this clip truly takes off. Teen guitarist Roman Morello absolutely slays the guitar solo, Jack Black headbanging like a madman beside him, beer belly hanging from beneath his camp, navy-diamante shirt. Then, the camera cuts to Jack circle-headbanging to the plush organ tones of teen keyboardist Hugo Weiss, then strutting the stage with a devilish, crazed smile across his face to serve another madman’s verse.
We can’t believe how professional Jack’s teen band is; mastering each and every instrumental intricacy of Ozzy’s hit without being completely thrown off by Jack’s extravagant frontmanship.
Rock fans were quick to steal the limelight in the YouTube comments, writing their own hilarious takes on this instantly viral video:
“Looks like Jack Black finally remembered The Greatest Song in the World”
“You can take the man out of the School of Rock, but you can’t take the School of Rock out of the man.”
“Four grown up children and one childish grown up… Love it!”
But one viewer spoke for thousands of rock fans when they wrote, “Sometimes it’s really easy to forget how talented Jack Black is, truly on the level of the all-time greats. He pulled a whole generation into heavy music. Thanks for everything, Jack!”
