THE sad passing of Ozzy Osbourne yesterday reminded many locals of when Black Sabbath lived briefly in a cottage on the Deri during the early seventies.

The Deri is often described as the ‘Magical Mountain’ because of the otherworldly woodland leading to its summit, but also because in Autumn it is abundant with a bumper crop of mood-enhancing mushrooms.

In 1971, Black Sabbath rented a cottage on the Deri to write and rehearse their third album, ‘Master of Reality.’ How much the classic Sabbath song ‘Sweet Leaf’ was influenced by this little Abergavenny hill, we may never know.

What we do know is that the poster photo on the band inside the album of Ozzy and the boys looking like outlaws on the run chilling beneath an ancient tree was apparently taken in the woods on the flanks of the Deri.

Ozzy Osbourne and Black Sabbath’s brief sojourn amongst the seven hills of Abergaveny is well remembered by those long enough in the tooth.

The band’s stay was kept on the low-down, but apparently a lot of youngsters still made their way up the hill to sit in the trees and listen to Sabbath jamming the new tracks.

The album they were rehearsing was later recorded in Island Studios in London. Some have hailed it as the foundation of doom metal and stoner rock, and it is widely regarded as one of the greatest metal albums ever to get a headbanging.

Sabbath would never return to live on the lonely hill, but they would spend time later that decade recording at Rockfield Studios in Monmouth.

According to The Independent, Ozzy Osbourne once terrified the children of staff who worked there after they found him dancing in the graveyard and howling at headstones.

Yet as Alice Cooper said in a statement, when he found out about Ozzy’s passing a few minutes before performing in Cardiff last night, “I always saw Ozzy as a cross between the prince of darkness, which is the persona his fans saw, and the court jester, that was the side his family and friends saw. The whole world is mourning Ozzy tonight.”