U.K.'s Birmingham Post recently conducted an interview with legendary heavy metal singer Ozzy Osbourne. A few excerpts from the chat follow below.
On being a technophobe who can't even send an email:
I don't even know how to turn a computer on. I dictate my e-mails and my assistant Tony loads songs onto my iPod.
I know how to turn on the iPod, adjust the volume and sort out what I want on it but the rest of it, I'm lost. And they've all got iPhones now. I can't even make a call on one of those. I touch the screen and something else happens!
On how, after spending the best part of 40 years on drugs and drink, the alcohol and pharmaceuticals began to take their toll:
I had to come to a decision — do I want to kill myself with drugs and alcohol?
In the old days, whenever I stopped boozing, I always used to think about the good times I was missing. Now all I think about is how the good times always turned bad.
I couldn't tell you how much a pint of beer costs now, and I don't want to know. Which is amazing, considering how much my life used to revolve around the pub. I just ain't interested anymore.
On how the book "I Am Ozzy" came about:
I didn't actually put pen to paper, I got someone (writer Chris Ayres) to ask me questions — what I remember about my childhood, and whatever.
He would zone in on a specific thing that I was saying and he'd ask me to elaborate on it. Once it started coming out it was quite easy. At the end of the day, it only took about six weeks. It seemed to fly by.
On the possibility of a second volume being released in the future:
I'd like to do something more in-depth later on,. How can you put my life in 400 pages? I've had such an amazing existence over the years.
I remember saying to Chris, 'Have you got enough?' He said, 'I've got more than enough, there's a lot of stuff I haven't got room to put in so I'm going to save it for another day.'
Once I'm talking, it flies out of me.
On going back to Birmingham for last week's book signing where he took to opportunity to look again around his old house and school, Prince Albert, in Albert Road, and Winson Green Prison where he served three months for robbing Sarah Clarke's, a clothes shop in Aston:
My son, Jack, is doing a documentary film on me and my life. I went down to my old house — it's still there but it's changed so much. The guy who owns it now has done a great job renovating it. It's nothing like it used to be.
On the fact that he has not given up on another Black Sabbath reunion despite on-going legal proceedings between him and guitarist Tony Iommi over the use of the band's name:
With Black Sabbath, there's always some litigation going on. We're always having a go at each other, it's like being married, I suppose.
As for getting back with the band, I never say never anymore. Just not right now. If something came up and it was worth doing it'd be stupid not to do it.
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