Born on the 3rd of December 1948, in Birmingham UK, by the name John Michael Osbourne, Ozzy was the youngest of a large family. He and his three sisters lived with his mother and father in near poverty. Storeys have come out of interviews about Ozzy being abused as a school child in Birmingham by a group of older boys.
“They didn’t F*** me or anything it was always more like picking on me” –
Ozzy
Ozzy was a failure in school with no talents he knew of, the result was a string of small part time jobs. “I was a dyslexic back street kid growing up, I had nothing”.
These jobs included a butcher job in a slaughterhouse in the suburb he lived in and a car horn tuner. As he once put it, his first musical job.
“I was fired from nearly all those early jobs” – Ozzy
The first interest the prince of darkness took in music was the song “You Really Got Me” by The Kinks. “Until I heard that riff I never really bothered with music”. This got Ozzy into singing, then he considered responding to a local advert for a band wanting to form with a singer required.
“He just turned up on the doorstep one night, with only one shoe on and a tap tied to his wrist and the magic words, I have a loaded PA system *laughs*, so we should have known then really” – Terrence “Geezer” Butler
The result was of course the legendry Black Sabbath, between the guitarist Tony Iommi and the newly stage named Ozzy Osbourne they invented and defined heavy metal. The band was originally named “Earth” but they changed their name to better reflect their new theme, the name Black Sabbath came from a horror movie (or so it is rumoured).
“It really got started with where we used to rehearse, it was opposite a movie theatre and we always found it strange, Ozz and me, how people would pay to be scared by a film. So we started writing scary music” – Tony Iommi
“We were often kicked out of gigs in the early days for scaring the S*** out of people” - Ozzy
While the band was complete already and Sabbath earned their merits in local blues clubs they were still shunned by critics and record labels. As result Black Sabbaths self titled debut album was an LP recorded in the back of a van. But still the loud metal anthems were spun off this record. Namely the bands faithful cover of “evil woman don’t play your games with me”. But it was their own work that betrayed their blues routes into the darker shade of “ozzified” metal. This in turn got them the attention of their first manager Jim Simpson.
And while playing the local shows they did so often Black Sabbath would truly perform like the gods they were destined to become, even if the audience was only 500 or less. But the criticism was still surrounding them even after they developed their own fan following.
Once they secured a record deal with Vertigo records and released the album “Black Sabbath”. The band achieved its first major success. Ozzy had become the prince of darkness and Iommi a guitar god. But the band never did anything deliberately. So of course their critics were very outspoken about Osbourne’s lack of vocal range and Iommi’s reliance on the pentatonic scale and power chords.
“I think at first people misunderstood us, Tony is one of the most under-rated guitarists on this planet man, he has come up with some of the most heavy riffs I’ve ever heard. They used to call us hippies *Laughs*” – Ozzy
The bands release of heavier guitar riffs and Ozzy’s wailing vocal work on Geezers occult inspired lyrics got them a new reputation. “Devil Music” N.I.B and the title song “Black Sabbath” had a particularly dark meaning to them. And this also helped Ozzy to work his way into the character of the wild man of rock.
But with this territory came the blur of recording and touring that Ozzy and Sabbath got into in the early 70’s. All of which was fuelled by class A drugs and alcohol the two biggest demons in Ozzy’s life. Amongst all this chaos however did come some truly inspired state side live shows. It was venues like Madison square gardens that truly established Sabbath as the band of their time and the godfathers of metal.
Nothing could have prepared those Ozzy critics for the release of his most successful song to date. Paranoid! This was an instant two and a half minute masterpiece of metal. Also it became the most recognisable exit a band could make from a gig.
“All of a sudden the F*** critics had loved me the whole F*** time really” – Ozzy
But as the shows went on and the albums threw put more and more classics for Sabbath (I wont name them because we all know them). Ozzy wasn’t sure if he could take the strain of being away from his first wife. This led Ozzy to drop out of Sabbath for a while and head home to face his demons of depression.
The band went on with former deep purple front man Ian Gillan releasing a single in the more bluesy style of “planet caravan”. Back home Ozzy split with his first wife around this time (her name and the exact reason/time of their split is unknown to me). Unsure of how to face this new life Ozzy returned to what he did best, rock n roll. With the release of “Iron Man” Sabbath were truly back in action.
“I didn’t know where to go, so I went to the only thing I called home” – Ozzy
It is rumoured that during this time in the technical ecstasy days after the volume 4 tours Sabbath and Ozzy helped to pen the famous saying “sex, Drugs and rock n roll”. From what I have heard from people in the music industry, Ozzy passed out as the band came off stage for a break during a live show. Tony (also fuelled by cocaine at the time) thought Ozzy’s heart had stopped and took him to an ambulance. Ozzy woke up half way between the hospital and the arena and talked the medics into turning around, while on the way back to the gig Ozzy is said to have shagged a nurse in the ambulance and continued with the second half of the gig when he returned to the arena.
Who could have guessed at the time that Ozzy was about to be dumped in LA shortly after the tour for the album "Never Say Die" in 1978. There could be many reasons for this.
“Ozzy was too messed up at the time, the rest of us were relatively clean, not Ozzy, I wouldn’t say I ever thought it would be the same without him, but we needed to carry on and go our separate ways” – Tony Iommi
As many of you will already know Sabbath moved on making new albums with Ronnie James Dio, but in my opinion was never the same.
As for Ozzy, he was locked up in a 6 month spending spree at the Le Parc Hotel in LA. This blurred time of drugs alcohol and depression messed Ozzy up worse than ever before. Thankfully for Ozzy he was met with the surprise of his ex-managers daughter Sharon.
“She had come to collect money I owed her father from my Sabbath days” – Ozzy
This did of course lead to the new management deal with his new wife Sharon. It is said that it is largely through her efforts Ozzy cleaned his act up and went solo. This lead Ozzy to search for a guitarist who could match up to Tony Iommi while at the same time writing material for the “Blizzard Of Ozz" album. Depending on which story you read it was either the last or the first audition for this guitarist that turned up Randy Rhodes.
With all the promotion and work on a record deal Sharon had done Ozzy was invited to meet some executives around this time (I’m not exactly sure when). During this meeting journalists were present and the idea was to get rid of the Satanist image Ozzy once had buy having him let lose doves from his pocket during the meeting. This was however “Too f***ing fake” for the Ozzman. While sitting on the lap of a record executive woman Ozzy pulled the dove from his pocket and bit the head off it.
“I just took the F***ing thing between my teeth and broke its neck, *laughs* then I threw it on her lap and spat the head on the table” – Ozzy
This lead to more spin off headlines of Ozzy being an animal killer. More famously it led to the bat-biting incident when Ozzy beheaded a bat with his teeth on stage. This was all an accident, Ozzy was assuming a real bat couldn’t have gotten into the arena. None the less no publicity is bad publicity, the prince of darkness was still alive.
The recording of “Diary Of A Madman” soon followed, with Ozzy and Rhodes developing a musical metal chemistry that had not been known since Jimmy Page and Robert Plant, or indeed Ozzy and Iommi. Ozzy was cut clean and on the road with a new band and a new family. However he seemed unable to resist the temptation to re-release Sabbath classics with Rhodes’ re-styled guitar work and the original vocal masterwork from the Ozzman these versions were formed into the album “speak of the devil”.
“Randy and Me would often see Sabbath on the T.V., and I remember thinking that’s my song why is this F***er singing it. So Randy came up with the idea of re recording them ourselves” – Ozzy
With the legendary Paranoid back on the set list the prince of darkness was truly here to stay. But in 1982 tragedy struck for Ozzy again as his good friend and guitarist Randy Rhodes was killed in a freak plane crash on the tour for the diary of a madman album in the states.
“I seriously thought of giving it up after the tribute album, it didn’t seem right to go on without Randy” – Ozzy
But Ozzy decided he couldn’t stop there “not while I’m still breathing”. He met the guitarist Jake E. Lee and released another album and toured once again. Ozzy was somewhat un-happy with the new partnership. So he began searching for another lead guitarist soon after the tour finished.
This lead Ozzy to another meeting with a guitar god in the making. 19-year-old Zakk Wylde, with whom Ozzy recorded the no more tears album, his most successful since paranoid. With 5 singles and a top ten hit with “mamma I’m coming home” Ozzy was off on another tour.
With Zakk’s masterful stage presence at his side and the ever-present hell raising on the tour there seemed to be no surprise Ozzy could have left. But as he himself said about Black Sabbath “we are all still alive, and we are all still friends even after all the S*** that’s happened between us”.
During the tour finale show in Costa Mesa California the original Black Sabbath were re-united onstage for the four-song encore, much to the delight of fans and the band. But this was all to be a one off appearance at the time. Ozzy was working non-stop for so many years he decided it was time to take a break.
After taking 1993 – 94 off from the stresses of tours and recording Ozzy released the long awaited album “Ozzmosis”. For the tour Ozzy’s manager (Sharon) tried to get him onto a popular stateside festival. The promoters apparently laughed at the offer of Ozzy being a headline act.
The result of course was the biggest touring festival the world had seen, Ozzfest, this was a totally original idea cantered around Ozzy as a headline act, with other big name bands playing on the larger stage during the day. But unlike most other festivals ozzfest had a smaller part of the show for the up and coming bands.
Ozzy’s idea for this festival has been a huge success through time and still continues to date. However as many of you are aware reading this the controversy surrounding the 2005 Ozzfest. This is the story as I have heard it from un-biased members of the music industry.
The incident involving Bruce Dickinson and Iron Maiden at the 2005 Ozzfest had nothing to do with Ozzy, Black Sabbath, Zakk Wylde or Black Label Society. This was however set up by Sharon Osbourne suggesting the idea of humiliating Iron Maiden. Kelly and her friends along with two bands from the smaller stage and a rodie by the name of big Dave, “smuggled” the eggs into the front row, where they were handed out amongst the crowd.
The reason for this is the apparent disrespect from Bruce about Ozzy and the festival, it is alleged that on more than one occasion Bruce has Re-named the festival after himself and has also made claims that he is better than Ozzy.
As we all know this has many different sides but the story is the same of sabotaging iron maidens set. Weather this was deserved or not Ozzy would rather have discussed this with the band rather than allowing the smaller bands such as “As I Lay Dying” to take matters on.
Though there is talk of Ozzy retiring from the Ozzfest in the next year it has undoubtedly been the stage for many of rocks greatest moments. Including the biggest Black Sabbath reunion to date. Ozzy was back with the whole original line up of Sabbath to play a complete headline set this year and others past.
Still being the hell raising wild man of rock and the prince of darkness who would have guessed Ozzy would become the dysfunctional family dad. Well as ever this was all an accident, during filming for the MTV show cribs the crew noticed what great TV the family made.
Through the endless mayhem of the house filled with wild animals, and their many pets, the Osbourne’s won the world over as great fly on the wall TV. Even though filming the TV show was the priority of his family Ozzy wasn’t about to hang up the Rock n Roll life on the road either.
He went on tour again during the first season of the show for his classic styled, merry mayhem Christmas and New Year tour. The tour was a huge success but as the TV show continued through a second and third season it became clear that Ozzy’s old demons were still present in his life. Depression became more evident when the rock stars wife developed cancer and his kids fell into the old traps that had caught him.
“Right then I would have given it all up, said f*** you to the TV guys and quit, all of it, just to be plain old Ozzy again” – Ozzy Osbourne
But it was one turmoil after another for Ozzy at this time, with his son only just out of rehab and his wife now clean of cancer, Ozzy suffered a near fatal quad bike crash on his estate in England. He was incredibly lucky to survive at all but since the accident Ozzy has suffered from short-term amnesia and neck difficulties. Shortly after this Ozzy’s youngest daughter Kelly also entered rehab to kick another old habit.
The TV show had made Ozzy and his family national stars, while this came as a shock it did have its good points. The family were asked to host an award show for MTV, Ozzy was asked to an audience with George W. Bush and most importantly for him, he was asked to play at Buckingham palace for the Queens jubilee.
“It was excellent to see him accepted like that, usually only Elton and who ever's left of Queen get to play those shows, but Ozzy was proud to play for his fans and for his country” – Sharon Osbourne
After all the ups and downs and talk of retirement for Ozzy what do the fans get as a souvenir?
The Prince Of Darkness box set sold multi platinum earlier this year and the huge UK show at Donnington park’s “download” festival as well as all the memories and headlines created by this rock god. Ozzy will truly live forever as a legend of music but at the rate he is going…
“It’s gonna be F*** hard to kill me!” - Ozzy
Well that's it guys, sorry it took so long but with a guy like Ozzy it takes a long time to get to the true stories.
This article was peiced togeather from interviews news and biographys I have read and seen on TV.
Hope you like the article as always I look forward to the feedback.
Peace Out
-RAVEN
/ my profile 
i hope not
