The Terrys have stepped into triple j’s Like a Version studio to pay tribute to the late Ozzy Osbourne, delivering an emotional reimagining of Black Sabbath’s 1972 ballad Changes.
The performance comes only weeks after Osbourne’s passing and finds the Gerringong outfit stripping the song back to its bones. Jacob Finch’s vocals carry the weight of the moment, paired with a sombre acoustic arrangement and reverb-laden steel string that gradually swells into a powerful crescendo.
Speaking with triple j, Finch said the choice of song was never in question. “We chose to cover Changes for a tribute to Ozzy, it just felt like we had to do it,” he explained. While other Sabbath songs may have offered more immediate recognition, Changes matched both the band’s beach-rock sensibilities and the depth of feeling they wanted to express.
“It’s one of those tracks that gets you right in the heart,” Finch added. “If I’m singing and I start thinking about what I’m saying, you can kind of get lost in the moment.”
Drummer Cameron Cooper called Osbourne “a trailblazer” whose raw energy shaped generations of rock. “It paved the way for a lot of bands at the time,” he said. “We look up to those sort of guys.”
Both musicians admitted they were nervous about tackling such an iconic track, aware that it’s been covered by everyone from Young Blood to Charles Bradley. When asked whether Ozzy himself would have approved, Cooper was unsure. Finch, however, was hopeful. “I reckon he’d be stoked,” he said.
The Terrys’ rendition strikes a balance between homage and reinvention. It captures the vulnerability and melancholy of the original while making space for their own style to shine through. In Like a Version, it is easy to fall into either imitation or total detachment from the source material. Here, The Terrys manage neither. They inhabit the song, letting its emotional core stay intact while also demonstrating why it still resonates half a century later.
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