System of a Down paid tribute to the late singer Ozzy Osbourne by performing "Snowblind". Last night on Wednesday, August 27th, the band covered the Black Sabbath classic during the Serj Tankian-fronted band's concert. The concert took place at MetLife Stadium in East Rutherford, New Jersey.
Before starting his song, the band's guitarist and vocalist Daron Malakian exclaimed to the crowd: "When we first started out, they put us on the road and we toured. And New York [and] New Jersey are some of the first places we toured in the United States. And there was one tour that never did more for System of a Down: the Ozzfest. We did a few Ozzfests. Some of you are old enough that you were there. Some of you weren't even born yet. I wanna thank Ozzy Osbourne. We wanna thank Ozzy Osbourne. We're gonna do a number now about cocaine. It's called 'Snowblind'."
The heavy metal band's rendition of "Snowblind" at MetLife Stadium marked the band's first performance of the track since 2002, according to Blabbermouth. Their first cover originally appeared on 2000's "Nativity in Black II" compilation, which was a series of Black Sabbath tribute albums. After Osbourne's death, many other artists and bands performed tributes for the singer and his music.
In an interview with Metal Injection, Malakian spoke on the influence that Ozzy and his band had on him during his formative years, saying "First riff I ever learned was 'Iron Man' when I was a kid, and I was obsessed with Ozzy Osbourne when I was six or seven years old -- just obsessed. He'd appear in my dreams having dinner with my parents and me when I was a kid. And he was this larger-than-life, crazy guy. And in the '80s, you had the whole satanic panic kind of thing."