Musicians Played Ozzy's Songs Over 1 Million Times After His Passing

08-03-2025

(Muse Group) After the news of Ozzy Osbourne's death, fans around the world turned to his music to honor the metal legend. Muse Group, the company behind Ultimate Guitar and MuseScore, analyzed the most-played and learned songs to see how listeners remember Ozzy, both in his solo career and with Black Sabbath. Based on tens of millions of views on guitar tabs and scores, the data shows the most popular tracks among musicians.

Over the past year, two key events caused big jumps in daily plays of Ozzy Osbourne and Black Sabbath songs on Ultimate Guitar. The main big jump in views happened when the news of Ozzy's death broke on July 22: views skyrocketed more than tenfold, peaking at 250,000 views on July 23 alone. In Europe and the UK, traffic first increased by a factor of 5, then jumped to 20 times the usual level, revealing how many musicians returned to playing Ozzy's songs in a powerful tribute through his music.

Before his solo career, Ozzy Osbourne was the original frontman of Black Sabbath - a band that shaped the sound of heavy metal. Their farewell concert caused one more spike, with daily song views more than tripling - from about 12,000 to 40,000 during that week. After Ozzy's passing, many musicians also returned to the music he made with the band that began it all. Metal music and Black Sabbath have always been popular with the Ultimate Guitar community, which has had a thriving metal forum since the 2000s. Ultimately, in July 2025, Ozzy Osbourne and Black Sabbath became the #1 most-played artists in the heavy metal genre on Ultimate Guitar, surpassing Metallica, who had held the top spot for over a year.

Ultimate Guitar stats highlight the popularity of tracks known for their standout emotional ballads, heavy riffs, and memorable solos , such as Crazy Train and Paranoid. Here are the top 5 most-played tabs in the week since July 22:

Top-5 most-played Ozzy Osbourne tabs on Ultimate Guitar
Mama I'm Coming Home - 298,051 views
Crazy Train - 170,533 views
Dreamer - 52,926 views
No more tears - 44,861 views
Mr Crowley - 40,339 views

Top-5 most-played Black Sabbath tabs on Ultimate Guitar
Paranoid - 102,383 views
Changes - 90,381 views
War Pigs - 63,890 views
Iron Man - 53,413 views
Nib - 18,004 views

Total views of Ozzy Osbourne's and Black Sabbath's scores also jumped about 8 times during that week - this shows that fans not only revisited his guitar riffs, they also turned to the piano and full arrangements, connecting with the depth of Ozzy's songs through sheet music. According to MuseScore data, the top songs were more melodic and emotional tracks that are easy to adapt for piano, such as Changes. The fastest-growing pieces were Mr. Crowley and Mama, I'm Coming Home. Overall, since July 22, Ozzy's songs have received over 1 million views across tabs and scores.

Top-5 most-viewed Ozzy Osbourne scores on MuseScore
Crazy Train - 11,067 views
Mama I'm Coming Home - 5,089 views
Mr Crowley - 3,915 views
No more tears - 521 views
Ordinary Man (feat. Elton John) - 495 views

Top-5 most-viewed Black Sabbath scores on MuseScore
Changes - 5,481 views
Paranoid - 4,516 views
Iron Man - 2,775 views
War Pigs - 2,234 views
Sabbath bloody sabbath - 415 views

Data note:
Data was collected from Ultimate Guitar and MuseScore between July 22, 2025, and July 29, 2025. Rankings are based on total views and "Add to Favorites" activity across all versions of tabs and scores for each song.