Consequence’s Metal Week continues with another special edition of Crate Digging, a recurring feature that takes a deep dive into music history to turn up several albums all music fans should know. In this edition, Mac Sabbath singer Ronald Osbourne (we think?) shares 13 tasty metal albums he thinks every music fan should own. Keep checking back for more Metal Week features, and be sure to check out our list of the 75 Best Metal Albums of All Time.
Mac Sabbath, the world’s premier McDonald’s-themed Black Sabbath tribute band, have been entertaining fans with their hilariously clever covers of the heavy metal godfathers’ classic songs for more than a decade now.
The band recently announced a new run of US tour dates for September (pick up tickets here), and with Black Sabbath just having played their final show, we figured what better act to contribute to a feature to Consequence‘s “Metal Week.” So, we politely asked if frontman Ronald Osbourne can provide us with a “Crate Digging” list of 10 albums he thinks every music fans should own.
What we got in response was both amusing and amazing: a wildly entertaining letter informing us that Ronald Osbourne doesn’t do press, as well as a list of 13 albums (including five Black Sabbath LPs, of course). Below is the entire letter, along with that list of albums we think were selected by Ronald Osbourne.
My name is Mike Odd, & I’m the manager of Mac Sabbath. Ronald Osbourne and the gang don’t do interviews. He insists that he exists in the 1970s; only breaking certain time space continuum rules to do these live shows in order to educate and save the world from the current state of music and food — helping us all get back to a place that’s more organic in nature. Because of the amazing subject of this piece, I was trying my hardest to get some sort of tangible answers out of him on this emergency land line situation I almost never utilize. It’s kinda like the Bat-Phone, but with buns. It’s not easy trying to communicate with a sarcastic time-traveling prankster.
I explained “10 Albums Mac Sabbath’s Ronald Osbourne Thinks Every Music Fan Should Own” as many different ways as I could try to word this to try and illicit different responses, but he just kept saying 2 words: Black Sabbath. I kept trying different things and realized this might not work at all. He is only stating the obvious, and did not want to budge. As I almost gave up I said, “Is Black Sabbath the only influence you want to mention?” When the phone was about half way down, I heard him change his tone a bit and say, “Of course not, that’s just the first one.” So relieved, I straightened back up and with baited breath asked, “Oh really? What other influences then?” He starts the list: “Paranoid, Master of Reality, Vol. 4, Sabbath Bloody Sabbath” This is when I realized he was talking about the album, Black Sabbath. I guess NOT referring to the band. I realize I’m still in the middle of a bit & say, “Interesting you should bring up Sabbath Bloody Sabbath, as none of Mac’s material seems to come from that album.” He seems flustered, changes the subject, and all of a sudden starts babbling about Pentagram, Coven, a band called Black Widow, and both of us agreeing that Jimi Hendrix does not get enough credit for being one of the pioneers of Heavy Metal.
None of it was very tangible and is going to make a lot of sense to anyone firmly grounded in this dimension and time period. You have to realize this is more sense than this usually makes. That said, I do remember him talking about things like “robot police dogs” and fully automated burger joints 10 years ago, and thought it was all insanity. Now I tend to learn to trust that he is aware of things that we are not, and highly recommend really digging into his lyrics: help him help us.
As far as musical contemporaries go, I’m sure if he could some how function out of the 1970s loop he seems to be stuck in, I imagine he would give major props to bands like The Sword, Black Mountain, and the Church of the Cosmic Skull. As the manager, I would like to state that if Mac can somehow connect or commune with any of these acts, magical things would happen. The sky would open up and all of humanity might have a fighting chance to continue and live in harmony on this planet called EARTH. So with that in mind, these are the 10 13 albums I am going to list for the purpose of trying to execute the assignment.
