Talking to Ozzy Osbourne about hard rock is like talking to Tony Soprano about crime, Tiger Woods about golf, Jessica Alba about beauty -- you get the idea. The point being that the man known as the Prince of Darkness practically invented the genre with Black Sabbath, then perfected it during the past three decades, culminating with the recently released 'Back Rain' album. Osbourne has been a witness on the front lines of hard-rock history, as evidenced by his insanely colorful stories about meeting Robert Plant, Kurt Cobain and many more rock icons. Here then are Osbourne's favorite hard-rock bands as they could only be described by the Godfather of Metal himself.

1. Led Zeppelin: The first two Zeppelin albums had a magic about them. I can remember walking through Birmingham with Geezer Butler, the bass player from Sabbath, and he knew Robert Plant. Plant was walking through the subway and I'd heard his voice. And Geezer says to him, "What are you up to?" Plant says, "Well, they asked me to join a band called the New Yardbirds." And that was it. Then the next thing I know we're doing a club in London, and in between the sets they keep playing these songs. I said to [the DJ], "What's the name of this band?" He went, "Led Zeppelin." And I went, "Oh, f**k, I must be mistaken." I went back and I said, "Now tell me the name of the singer." He goes, "Robert Plant." The first two albums had such an impact on my voice, and on my life, similar to the Beatles when I first heard them, similar to when I heard 'You Really Got Me,' by the Kinks. I played it to death.

2. Motorhead: Lemmy's just great. In the '80s, anybody with, like, one blond and three black-haired guys were called heavy metal. That term "heavy metal" used to really piss me off, because it just had no musical connotations. So you're in Poison and you've got Black Sabbath on the road, or Motorhead, you're typecast. "Oh, you're one of those heavy lads, aren't you?"

3. Black Sabbath: Up to 'Sabbath, Bloody, Sabbath' -- I think it's really hard. I don't think any of us said, 'You know what? I'm going to go into the studio and make a bad album.' One of the things with Sabbath: We had full control over what we were doing and how we wanted it laid out. People would come in the studio and give us a suggestion and we'd go, "Would you f***ing get out of here right now?" We had full artistic control.

4. Nirvana: Apparently I met [Kurt Cobain], 'cause I was talking to Dave Grohl and he said, "You probably don't remember this, but when you were in Devonshire Studios in the [San Fernando] Valley, me and Kurt were in the room where they had a pool table. When you walked in we were like, 'F***ing hell.'" They'd both written "OZZY" on their fingers in indelible ink. They're playing pool and he said, "We were both trying to hide our hands."

5. Green Day: My album of the last year was ['American Idiot']. I thought it was f***ing brilliant.