Ozzy Osbourne released Diary of a Madman on November 7, 1981. Before the band had written the follow-up to Blizzard of Ozz, bassist Bob Daisley had a name for it. He remembered a 1963 Vincent Price horror film called Diary of a Madman and suggested borrowing its title. Osbourne loved it. When it came time to write the lyrics for the song that would close the record, Daisley drew on his own life.
Daisley had carried the phrase “Flying High Again” around for a while, too. He traced it to a question someone had asked him about drugs back when he played in bands in Australia. Randy Rhoads came up with the opening guitar riff, and Daisley wrote the middle section where the song shifts to F-sharp. Rhoads singled it out as one of his favorites in an interview before the album came out. In 2021, photographs from Ross Halfin’s book about the guitarist became the basis for its official music video.
Osbourne’s voice often shaped a song before it had words. Daisley recalled fitting lyrics to the sounds and phrasing Osbourne sang as he worked out a melody. Rhoads described the exchange from the other side of the room. Sometimes he had a chord progression that fit something Osbourne was humming. Other times Osbourne would overhear him practicing and ask him to remember a particular riff. Rhoads knew how easily he could lose track of what he’d just played, so they’d start working on the song right there.
“Diary of a Madman” posed a different problem for the singer. Rhoads had adapted part of a classical piece one of his teachers had given him. While Osbourne was away for a couple of days, Rhoads, Daisley and drummer Lee Kerslake worked out how to play the music together. Daisley told Total Guitar that when Osbourne returned and heard the shifting meter he was supposed to sing over, his first response was to ask whether they thought he was Frank Zappa. The arrangement stayed. What had started as a guitar lesson became the six-minute finale to an eight-song record.
The deadline at Ridge Farm Studios left Rhoads with mixed feelings about his playing. A U.S. tour was booked, and on the first album he’d had time to listen back to a lead, decide what bothered him and try again. On Diary, he was still working out leads in the studio. In an August 1981 interview with John Stix, he pointed to “Little Dolls.” He’d played along with the backing track to sketch where his solo would go. The session ended before he could cut the part he had in mind.
Diary of a Madman reached No. 16 on the Billboard 200. It was Osbourne’s final studio album with Rhoads, and even its original sleeve left a misleading account of who played on it. Bassist Rudy Sarzo and drummer Tommy Aldridge received credit for parts Daisley and Kerslake had recorded. The 2011 Legacy Edition gave listeners a way to hear both rhythm sections with Rhoads. The first disc restored the original studio recordings. On the second, Sarzo and Aldridge played behind Osbourne and Rhoads onstage.
