An interesting game of one-upsmanship seemed to be developing between the two camps. Osbourne was vocally resentful that Sabbath had carried on without him, and particularly that they were performing the songs he used to sing. Sabbath's stand was that they had had just as much hand in writing the songs as Osbourne, in many cases more so. The stakes were who would be keeper of the Sabbath legacy; the band or the singer. In 1982, Osbourne's shows took on almost wild, circus-like atmospheres; it was during the 1982 tour that he famously bit the head off a bat thrown at him from the audience, claiming he thought it was fake.

Black Sabbath decided their next release would be a concert recording, containing classics from both the Osbourne and Dio eras, all sung by Dio. However, clashes erupted between Iommi and Dio regarding the mixing of the album (one surmises each thought the other was mixed too high at the expense of their own contribution, a common enough argument in rock), and Dio ultimately quit, talking Appice with him.

Things took a bad turn for Ozzy too, when Randy Rhodes, to whom Ozzy was greatly indebted for his resurgence, was killed with two others in a freak accident when a plane in which he was riding, perhaps as part of a practical joke, buzzed the house Osbourne was staying in too low, and clipped the tour bus, causing a crash.

Black Sabbath and Ozzy Osbourne both released double live albums in 1982, as if to claim their legacy; Osbourne's pointedly did not contain any Osbourne solo material; only Black Sabbath classics. Filling in for Rhodes on the Osbourne album, Speak Of The Devil, was Brad Gillis of Night Ranger, and the band sticks to the sound and spirit of the originals. In the battle of live albums, Obsourne came out ahead, peaking at #14, while Sabbath's Live-Evil stalled at #37. Between the two albums, Osbourne's benefits from his familiar vocals, and the nearly note for note reproduction of the recordings; Sabbath's has less of a concentration of good songs, and while Dio does a good job, he simply doesn't have the emotional intensity of Osbourne.

Black Sabbath talked Bill Ward into coming back, and seemingly had a good idea when they hired Ian Gillan (ex-Deep Purple) in 1983 to handle the vocals. Unfortunately the match didn't work; Gillan's voice proved ill-suited for Sabbath's early material, and his general bluesiness and humor didn't gel with Sabbath's dark doom-laden posturing, which had divorced itself from blues completely during the Dio era. The album, Born Again, has its moments; "Trashed" is a classic piece of lumpy speed metal, and "Zero The Hero" has an anthem-like quality; however, the fans who had climbed aboard for Dio were already jumping ship, and the album managed a soft #39.

Osbourne spent 1983 touring and recording a new album, Bark at the Moon. Jake E. Lee was given the lead guitarist slot, and the album bears a strong resemblance to the first two Osbourne albums. Lee was no Randy Rhodes, where the album suffers is in the lack of originality brought to the pyrotechnics; Rhodes could command attention, while Lee merely sufficed. Still given all the turbulence of the past year, it sounded resonably good. The album reached #19. Generating more buzz than the album was reports of Osbourne's record negotiations with new label Epic, to which he brought two live white doves; one was freed, the other met the same fate as the bat.

In truth, despite Osbourne's career resurgency, he didn't have his substance abuse under control, which would mar his output for a good decade after this. Meanwhile, Ian Gillan turned in his notice to Black Sabbath; he was leaving to join the newly re-formed Deep Purple. Dave Donato was chosen as a replacement, but never got to sing on any Sabbath albums. With both sides seemingly losing hold of their comebacks, Sabbath and Osbourne did the unthinkable; they reunited for the Live Aid benefit concert in 1985. It was a surreal scene indeed on a day of bands like Culture Club and Tears for Fears to see the original metal gods of doom take the stage. They rushed through versions of "Paranoid" and "Iron Man" and departed, leaving fans to wonder if the reunion would be a one shot.

Indeed it was, and Butler shortly after left the band. Iommi decided to launch a solo career, recording Seventh Star with Glenn Hughes on vocals. Intended from the start to be a Tony Iommi album, the label refused, and ordered it to be branded Black Sabbath. While this may have tricked some purchasers into buying the disc, the ruse backfired, since the album was a decidedly un-Sabbath-like collection of soulful ballads and intricate guitarwork. While it isn't a particularly bad record, it isn't what the fans were accustomed to, and the mislabling of the artist led to harsher reviews than the album warranted. It was the worst chart showing ever for a Sabbath-credited album, only getting as high as #78.

From this point forward, serious critical analysis of both Black Sabbath and Ozzy Osbourne becomes pointless. Both would lurch on, with Osbourne outselling Sabbath considerably, but their albums took on a samey routine sound that no longer broke new ground, but merely kept old ideas in circulation a little longer. Iommi hired a new singer for Black Sabbath, Tony Martin, for the 1987 album The Eternal Idol; it peaked at #168. Headless Cross followed in 1989, again with Martin, making it as far as #115 and picking up some positive notice, but it's a minor effort. TYR, from 1990, failed to chart at all. Osbourne rode the momentum of hype for a while, releasing pedestrian, lite-metal albums like The Ultimate Sin (1986), No Rest For The Wicked (1988), No More Tears (1991) and Ozzmosis (1995); each made the top-20, but none received the attention Osbourne's early solo discs did; they were merely more of the same, each sounding slicker and more homogenized than its predecessor, while Ozzy's voice became more processed, probably to hide the damage it had been done over the years.

in 1992, Sabbath reunited with Ronnie James Dio and Geezer Butler in an attempt to reverse everyone's creative declines; the resulting album Dehumanizer did reach #44, but it is hardly a return to the glory days. Dio departed again, Tony Martin came back, and Butler stayed on board for Cross Purposes in 1994, but losing Dio killed the sales again, and the album never made it farther than #122. The next Martin-fronted Sabbath album, Forbidden, was a disaster, failing to chart. By this time even the most diehard fans were openly wishing for a final breakup to protect what remained of the band's dignity.

Ozzy established the Ozzfest package tour of metal acts in 1997, and it was the second most successful tour of the year, setting Ozzy up for essentially what has become his role to this day; a cross between master of ceremonies, village idiot, and clown. His music has become secondary to his persona, even more so once he became the unlikely star of the The Osbourne Family TV series on MTV. Gone forever is the shaman of darkness that inspired many a teen nightmare in the 70's; in his place is an affable old coot, who shambles through life looking at once bemused and befuddled.

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