The Aspen Tradition

Two legends passed this week. Ozzy Osbourne and Hulk Hogan. The so-called Prince of Darkness, and the so-called Real American. But reputations are often cloaks — and today we take a look under the veil.

🖤 Ozzy Osbourne: A Black Cloak, a Gentle Heart

Ozzy was tragically misunderstood.

People called him satanic, evil, dangerous — and he played into the aesthetic. Dark clothes, heavy metal music, skulls and shadows. But the real man underneath? He was gentle, fragile, and kind. The stories Sharon Osbourne has told over the years paint a picture of someone more lamb than wolf. Someone who didn’t thrive on darkness, but survived it. Someone who found peace in sobriety and found love in the quiet sanctuary of his home.

His music tells the truth. The famous Crazy Train opens with a plea to be kinder to one another:

“Maybe it’s not too late to learn how to love and forget how to hate.”

And with Black Sabbath’s War Pigs, Ozzy helped cry out for peace — calling out fascism, authoritarianism, and the worship of militarized power. The “Prince of Darkness” never glorified evil — and often worked to expose it. People can sometimes be quick to label others as dark or wicked based on what’s on the surface, but the ones who look like Ozzy — covered in tattoos, wearing skulls, decked in black — are often the most gentle, decent souls in the room.

🔴 Hulk Hogan: Red, Yellow, and Moral Camouflage

Hulk Hogan stood as a paragon of virtue — representing truth, justice, and the American way, not unlike a real-life Superman. He marched down the ramp with the American flag flying, told kids to say their prayers and take their vitamins, and carried the banner of real American heroism. Through his charisma, he transformed wrestling into modern mythology. WrestleMania became legendary because of Hulk Hogan.

But Terry Bollea, the man behind the mask, it turns out isn’t the paragon of virtue he portrayed through the Hulk Hogan persona. Many fans soured on Terry when tapes emerged showing him using racial slurs, casting a long shadow across a career built on moral pageantry. He became estranged from his wife Linda after an alleged affair he had with their teenage daughter’s friend. Linda called him a liar and a sex addict.

Bollea campaigned strongly for Donald Trump, a 34-time convicted felon who acts more like a king than an elected civil servant. Trump’s policies are often seen as racist, such as his administration’s sharply increased deportation actions, a Muslim travel ban, and the attempted removal of birthright citizenship.

Vince McMahon, former owner of WWE wrestling famously said he was “in the business of making monsters.” But for many of us, the magic of professional wrestling isn’t in monstrous personas — it’s turning ordinary people into larger than life symbols of greatness.

What we should all be unsettled by and keenly aware of is how easily charisma masquerades as character. How that same aesthetic — swagger, spectacle, self-promotion — gets repurposed into populist theater.

It’s a theme also examined in the blockbuster hit “Wicked”, which turns the Wizard of Oz story on its head when we realize the so-called wicked witch was only called that because of the color of her skin. Glinda the Good was simply popular, and the wonderful wizard wasn’t a wizard at all, just a bragadocious and self-aggrandizing charismatic charlatan and head of a fascist and authoritarian regime. Wicked warns us of what happens when people like Trump are put in power.

🔥 The Rite: Melt the Illusion, Guard the Heart

Tonight, we light two candles:

• 🕯️ A black candle for Ozzy Osbourne. Let it melt our prejudice — the fear of what looks dark or different. Let it remind us that what seems scary may be rooted in compassion, in kindness, in clarity.
• 🕯️ A yellow or red candle for Hulk Hogan. Let it burn as a teaching flame — that even flawed people are capable of powerfully inspirational acts, even when our own shadows still linger. Let that light be a call not to emulate — but to elevate.

Not everything that looks good is, and not everything that looks dark deserves our fear.

See beyond the cloak. That’s the work.

Blessed be.