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OZZY OSBOURNE Donates $10,000 To Student Musicians Who Covered 'Crazy Train'

May 8, 2015

After watching a video of Louisville Leopard Percussionists perform a cover version of the Ozzy Osbourne classic "Crazy Train", the BLACK SABBATH singer donated $10,000 to the group.

"Myself, my whole family and my fans all loved your rendition of 'Crazy Train'," Ozzy wrote in the note accompanying the check. He added: "Keep up the good work."

Louisville Leopard Percussionists are a performing ensemble comprised of more than 60 student musicians ages 7-14, who reside in 26 different Louisville zip codes and attend 48 different schools in and around Louisville, Kentucky.

Back in February, when Jimmy Page saw a clip of Louisville Leopard Percussionists performing a version of LED ZEPPELIN's "Kashmir", he gave them a shout-out online, explaining it was "too good not to share."

Diane Downs, the elementary school teacher who runs the Percussionists after school and on weekends, told NPR that the new-found attention for the small group was "pretty cool." She added: "I want them to feel like rock stars. I want them to realize, 'Oh, this is why we work so hard in rehearsal.' I tell them that when you're presenting something to the public, you don't want it to be okay — you want it to be great. So hopefully they're going to carry that over into their lives once they grow up, too."

Downs started her first percussion ensemble, The Fabulous Leopard Percussionists, in 1993 after she found some old instruments in a storage closet in the school where she taught in Louisville. After ten years as artistic director of The Fabulous Leopard Percussionists, Diane began to explore how she might make the Leopard Percussionist experience available to children throughout the Metro Louisville community. In the fall of 2003, The Louisville Leopard Percussionists launched as a freestanding community 501(c)(3) non-profit organization, committed to providing the exciting and enriching Leopard Percussionist experience to all children in the Louisville community.

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