Ozzy Osbourne Says Late Guitarist Randy Rhoads ‘Gave Me Hope’ in New Doc (Exclusive)

More than five decades after the genre first emerged, a new documentary from Hulu is taking a deep dive into some of the biggest stories in the history of heavy metal music. 

Into the Void: Life, Death & Heavy Metal is an eight-party docuseries premiering on the streamer Sept. 22 and PEOPLE has an exclusive first look at the trailer. 

As the trailer kicks off, Nikan “Siyanor” Khosravi of the band Confess says “the first time that I heard metal music, it was very cathartic,” before Pantera’s Rex Brown calls the music “something special.”

“Metal is often reduced to clichés, but we wanted to challenge that narrow view and show its true breadth,” executive producers Jason Eisener and Evan Husney said in a statement to PEOPLE. “The genre is incredibly multifaceted — both musically and stylistically — and we set out to reflect that diversity in the bands we chose to highlight.”

After setting the stage with clips of some of the genre’s biggest acts, Sharon Osborne, whose late husband Ozzy Osbourne rose to fame in the late ’60s as the frontman of Black Sabbath, says in an interview from June: “You don’t know how ugly this business can be.”

Each episode will focus on one aspect of the storied history of the genre and the famous — and sometimes infamous — figures who brought it to life. The first episode will dive into the story of Randy Rhoads, a friend and bandmate of Ozzy.

“Randy was a gift from God. He pulled the best out of Ozzy,” Sharon, 72, says of the guitarist who died in a plane crash in 1982. 

Archival footage of Ozzy shows the rocker — who died on July 22, 2025, at age 76, weeks after performing from a throne at the Black Sabbath farewell concert — reflecting on his friend. 

“He was the first guy that came into my life and gave me hope,” he says.  

Rhoads life and death is just one of the tragedies that will be examined in the series that discusses the backlash heavy metal received in its heyday and the violence that was often associated with the genre. 

The lawsuit against Judas Priest for allegedly inspiring the death by suicide of two men, NME’s Kurt Struebing’s killing of his mother and Dimebag Darrell’s 2004 murder will each have episodes devoted to them. 

Despite the genre’s dark side, Eisener and Husney hope they are able dispel some of the “misconceptions” that still exist.

“The fear mongering that went on in relation to heavy metal, which characterized the music as a moral threat to youth and society so often overshadowed the depth, humanity and resilience of the artists who created it,” they say. “We felt very strongly that it was important to represent the other side to the narrative and give the artists their due.”

And as Sharon puts it at the end of the trailer, at the core of these stories is the artistry. 

“Music is something that doesn’t die,” she says “After we’ve gone, it will live on.”

Into the Void: Life, Death & Heavy Metal premieres on Hulu Monday, Sept. 22.