Writers: Ozzy Osbourne, Bob Daisley, and Randy Rhoads
Producers: Ozzy Osbourne and Randy Rhoads
Recorded: Spring 1980 at Ridge Farm Studios in Monmouthshire, Wales
Released: Fall 1980
| Players: | Ozzy Osbourne–vocals Randy Rhoads–guitar Bob Daisley–bass Lee Kerslake–drums |
| Album: | Blizzard Of Ozz (Jet, 1980) |
Ozzy Osbourne left Black Sabbath in late 1979 and quickly formed a solo band with former Quiet Riot guitarist Randy Rhoads, ex-Rainbow bassist Bob Daisley, and Uriah Heep drummer Lee Kerslake.
The group quickly repaired to the studio to record Osbourne's first solo album, Blizzard Of Ozz, which was released in the fall of 1980 in the U.K. and the following spring in the U.S.
“Crazy Train” was Osbourne's first solo hit, reaching Number 49 on the U.K. pop chart before making a substantial impact on U.S. rock radio.
Osbourne said the song “reflects everything I was going through at the time…The studio was rumored to be haunted by a poltergeist. Most days, we would wake up and windows would be smashed, crockery shattered, doors were broken off their 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.”
The Blizzard Of Ozz album reached Number Seven on the U.K. chart, then Number 21 on the Billboard 200. It's sold more than four million copies in the U.S.
As fans were going crazy for “Crazy Train,” Osbourne made his notorious May 1981 visit to Jet Records' corporate headquarters in New York City, where he bit the head off a dove in front of label executives.