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Archive-name: music/ozzy-osbourne-faq
Posting-Frequency: every 30 days Last-modified: September 11, 2005 Version: September 11, 2005 See reader questions & answers on this topic! - Help others by sharing your knowledge
Ozzy Osbourne and Family FAQ/Biography
The *LARGEST* source of info on Ozzy on the Internet
Current Update: September 11, 2005
Written By Mike [ ozzyfaq@hotmail.com ]
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Disclaimer
This article is provided as is without any express or implied warranties.
While every effort has
been taken to ensure the accuracy of the information contained in this
article, the author,
maintainer, contributors assume(s) no responsibility for errors or
omissions, or for damages
resulting from the use of the information contained herein.
There are discrepancies in certain dates depending on which source is used.
I’ve attempted to
make this the most complete and accurate source of information on Ozzy
Osbourne. I believe I’ve
succeeded.
This FAQ is protected free speech.
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Author's Note
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Most web pages, which offer you information on Ozzy Osbourne, are sketchy.
Other pages are never
updated and remain the same for over a year. Even the commercial pages can't
beat the pages run
by Ozzy fans.
This text file is without a doubt the largest source of information
available on Ozzy, which can
be found on the Internet.
This file may be freely distributed in all forms, or put on your web page,
providing the contents
are not changed, though I doubt much would happen even if you did :)
It’s sad but true that the only way internet users are able to have any
contact with the members
of Black Sabbath is to throw up a web page and jump into bed with the record
companies. If you
put up a web page then the marketing team will offer you promos and help
market.
This has always been a solo effort and will remain so, with no benefits
handed to me.
I welcome any suggestions, corrections or complaints you may have.
I have been asked if it is acceptable to use this FAQ. The answer, as stated
above, is YES. The
only condition is that you DON'T MODIFY THE FILE OR REMOVE THE CREDITS.
The majority of people may not share my opinions - or they may. But they are
mine to make and
mine alone. I enjoy his music so feel free to enjoy this biography.
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Table Of Contents
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** = UPDATED September 11, 2005
[1.0] Introduction
[1.1] What was Ozzy's childhood like? **
[1.2] How did Ozzy start his music career?
[1.3] Who was Jim Simpson? (Manager Number One) **
[1.4] Who was Earth/Black Sabbath? **
NEW [1.4b] Earth concert dates
[1.5] How Black Sabbath came to be? **
[1.6] Paranoia
[1.7] An act of SABOTAGE? **
[1.8] Manager Number Two
[1.9] When and how did Ozzy leave Black Sabbath? **
[2.0] Randy Rhoads **
[2.1] What the hell is this about biting a bat? (Diary of a Madman) **
[2.2] When and how did Randy Rhoads die? **
[2.3] What is this about a dove? **
[2.4] Wife as Manager/Speak of the Devil
[2.5] Suicide Solution
[2.6] Bark at the Moon
[2.7] The Ultimate Disaster
[2.8] No Rest for the Wicked
[2.9] No More Beers
[2.10] Ozzmosis
[2.11] Why did Zakk leave Ozzy?
[2.11b] Ozzfest **
[2.12] Of Priests and Devils
[2.13] Will there ever be a reunion? **
[2.14] After Ozzmosis/Ozzfest **
[2.15] The Osbournes (2002-2003) **
[2.16] Kelly **
[2.17] Jack **
[2.18] Aimee **
NEW [2.19] Louis
[2.20] Who is Robert Marcato? **
[2.21] The Family **
[2.22] Money, money, money **
NEW [2.23] Kerslake and Daisley
[2.24] Continuing in 2004/2005 **
INFORMATION
===========
Updated Soon [3.0] Ozzy Album Discography
Updated Soon [3.1] Rare/B-sides/etc.
[3.2] Song Definitions **
[3.3] Did You Know? **
[3.4] Tattoos
[3.5] Milestones **
[3.6] Questions **
[3.7] Quotations **
[3.8] Fan Club Info **
[3.9] Ozzy and Black Sabbath books **
[3.10] Ozzy's Movie Career **
[3.11] Where are they now? **
CONCLUSION
==========
[4.0] Closing Remarks **
[4.1] Credits **
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1.0 INTRODUCTION
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1968
====
In a small German club, a band by the name of "Earth" is up on the stage.
The audience is
ignoring the band as audiences typically do. The lead singer, Ozzy, decides
to get their
attention. He goes back to the dressing room, unnoticed by the audience.
Backstage, he coats his
hands, face and feet with purple paint. He returns to the stage and then
screams at the audience.
The audience remains oblivious to this purple man screaming at them. The
band resigns themselves
to the fact that the audience is just not going to pay them any attention.
Present day
===========
Ask someone if they have heard of Celine Dion or Tom Cochrane, and even if
their answer is no,
they have most likely heard about Ozzy Osbourne or Black Sabbath. Since his
debut in the late
60's
as a blues/rock singer, this man has had a worldwide impact on the music
scene.
You may think of him as a drugged out lunatic who sacrifices animals and
eats dead frogs for
supper while worshiping Satan with dead bodies around him. This is of course
complete and utter
nonsense... I have never heard of him using more than one dead body. :)
The most common stories are the beheading of the bat, wasn't there something
about a dove?, and
what was that about the Alamo? From his childhood right on up to his current
Ozzmosis album, this
file will attempt to explain it all.
At the age of 57, this man still has the mind, and at times, the body of a
22 year old. His
records still continue to sell and make it to the charts, his concerts sell
out within minutes,
all this despite his never having followed any given 'trend' as a lot of
music groups try to do
today. When Britney Spears is 48, do you think she will still have sell out
concerts?
With the introduction of The Osbournes on MTV, a new younger generation of
Ozzy fans is heading
to the internet, exposed to the singer in a new light. The newsgroup has
never so much activity.
Unfortunately most of it comes from young people who have no ability to
express themselves
without the use of profanity.
"When I left school I wanted to become a plumber. When I heard the Beatles I
wanted to become a
Beatle" ...Ozzy
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What was Ozzy's childhood like?
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"It doesn't give me a very good reflection about the state of crime in the
country.”
Ozzy, former thief, on his English home being broken into
The year was 1948 and John Michael Osbourne was born on December 3rd in the
industrial town of
Birmingham, England to Jack and Lillian Osbourne. John was the fourth of six
children (2
brothers, Paul and Tony) and 3 sisters (Jean, Iris and Gillian) in a small
two bedroom home at
14 Lodge Road in Aston, England. Needless to say the house was more than a
little crowded.
Ozzy's father worked nights in a steel plant while his mother worked days in
the Lucas car plant
assembling electrical circuits. His family was in poor financial shape with
no money, no car and
little food. Ozzy says his childhood consisted of one pair of shoes, one
pair of socks, no
underwear, one pair of pants and one jacket. There would be a bucket at the
end of the bed to
urinate in, which sat there for months. Their beds never had clean sheets,
and sometimes they
used overcoats as bed sheets.
Ozzy was beaten quite a bit by his father; most of it was deserved for
stunts like trying to kill
his siblings. (Ed: While I don't condone the beating of a child, I also
don't think one should
attempt to kill one's siblings either. Take the above comment with this in
mind.)
One day Ozzy's friends gave his brother a used condom and told him it was a
balloon. His brother
went into the house with the condom blown up, and his father washed his
mouth out with soap.
In his spare time, Ozzy would watch television. He liked shows such as "I
love Lucy", "Lassie"
and "Roy Rogers". This was the lifestyle of Birmingham, a time where you
went to work all day and
then to the pub to drink and play darts until deciding to stagger home. For
the Osbourne family,
life was no different. It was all work and little time to enjoy the finer
moments in life. While
the Beatles were singing about flower power and loving one another, the
people of Birmingham
simply had to take a good look around them to see the reality of the world:
it was hard. Life was
no different for the Osbourne family.
While attending school at King Edward VI on Frederick Road, the other
students called John,
"Ozzie" or "Oz-brain" with respect to his last name. Quite the rebel, Ozzy
did however take part
in various school opera-plays such as H.M.S. Pinafore, The Mikado and The
Pirates of Penzance.
There was one student at school named Tony Iommi whom Ozzy did not get along
with. Tony and John
were from two different crowds and there was no love lost between the two.
Tony and his mates
would make fun of Ozzy's high voice and compared his singing to that of
girls. The two of them
would later reunite later on under totally different circumstances.
Ozzy did not do particularly well in school and wanted to get out as soon as
he could. When asked
on a school survey what his ambition was, he wrote that he wanted to become
a plumber. This was
not to happen however. Ozzy was kicked out from school. His parents argued
often, and the main
issue was their lack of money. Ozzy decided that he could fix this if he
could go out and get a
job. So at the age of 15, Ozzy took his first job as a plumber's assistant.
He proceeded to cut
the end of his thumb off, and it had to be reattached. He still bears a
scar.
His second job was as a toolmaker's apprentice. Ozzy then went on to work in
a slaughterhouse in
Digbeth for two years, killing cows. Perhaps this influenced his musical
style, I do not know.
other jobs included an auto mechanic, house painter and even two weeks at a
mortuary. His first
musical job was working in the Lucas electrical plant tuning car horns.
He later said, "I liked heavy metal better because it was louder".
Ozzy did not care for working for other people so he decided to try crime
instead. He once tried
stealing a 24-inch television set. Balanced on top of a wall with it, and
trying to keep his
balance, he fell off with the television landing on top of him. He did some
more break and enters
but used a pair of gloves with the fingers cut off. Naturally he was caught.
Ozzy also broke into his 63 year old neighbor’s home. It would be many years
later, in 2004 that
this act would be repaid to him.
Caught breaking into Sarah Clarke's clothes shop while trying to steal
sweaters, Ozzy served six
weeks of a three-month sentence at Birmingham's Winson Green Prison. His
father refused to pay
the Ł40 fine.
While incarcerated there, Ozzy tattooed the now famous letters O-Z-Z-Y on
his left knuckles and
happy faces on his knees using sewing needle and a graphite slab. One happy
face can be seen on
his left knee on the "Diary of a Madman" album cover. He would later be put
in jail again for
punching a police officer in the mouth.
Shortly after his release from prison for burglary, Ozzy wound up in the
hospital on glucose for
12 hours after being thrown through a glass window while fighting 3 men.
The current owner of Ozzy’s Lodge Road home, Ali Mubarret says that he will
either put the front
door on E-Bay and give the proceeds to charity or give it away to a hardcore
Ozzy fan. Ali is
tired of the fans that drop by looking for the house Ozzy grew up in,
leaving graffiti on the
front door.
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1.2 How did Ozzy start his music career?
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After getting out of jail, Ozzy decided he did not want to go end up going
back. At this time,
The Beatles were becoming increasingly popular and becoming the craze. Ozzy
thought that this
would be the way to go. There was money to be made in singing as opposed to
crime. In fact the
Beatles were one of his main influences. Even to this day he still listens
to the Beatles before
going out on stage. It is of interest to note that this would not be his
first musical experience
though: earlier at the age of fourteen he had already been in a band named
'The Black Panthers'.
A band by the name of "Music Machine" needed a singer because theirs was
sick. Ozzy liked the
idea of being able to travel to gigs and meeting women so he filled in.
Later on he joined a band
named "Approach" but didn't like the band so he quit. He then decided to
call himself "Ozzy Zig"
and placed this ad in the local music paper/shop: "Ozzy zig requires gig.
Ozzy's father loaned
him some money and together they purchased a 50-watt amp.
Ozzy placed an ad in a local record store reading, "Ozzy zig requires gig.
Owns own P.A.".
Another 18-year-old Brummie named Terence 'Geezer'Butler had been playing
guitar for just six
months when he saw Ozzy's ad on a shop bulletin board and decided to go look
him up. After the
two met, they decided to form a band named "Rare Breed". Rare Breed lasted
only two shows before
disbanding.
Elsewhere Ozzy's old schoolmate, Tony Iommi had teamed up with an
18-year-old assistant truck
river named William Ward who had just quit his job. Tony and Bill also
decided to form a band,
"The Rest", and recruited a singer named Chris Smith. The Rest eventually
moved north to a small
town named Carlisle where they renamed themselves "Mythology" and gained a
large following of
fans. They played mainly blues songs inspired by such groups as The
Yardbirds, Cream, The Beatles
and John Mayal.
Mythology eventually split up; Tony and Bill returned to Birmingham and went
to the music shop
where they also saw Ozzy's ad. Tony was hoping this was not the same 'Ozzy'
he had went to school
with because that Ozzy could not sing well and the two of them disliked one
other. It turned out
that it was indeed the same Oz and decided it would not be a good idea to
form a band together.
Tony was also not impressed with Ozzy because he had very short hair
(really!). Since Ozzy and
Geezer still needed a drummer they later approached Tony to see if he knew
of a drummer. Bill was
at Tony's place and agreed to join them but only if they'd let Tony join
too. So along with a
slide guitar player named Jim Phillips and a saxophone player, they formed a
new band. The new
band returned to Carlisle where Tony and Bill had been a success and played
some gigs. Not being
pleased with a six-piece band, they broke up and then rejoined once the two
extras had gone. This
was a polite way of getting rid of the two unnecessary members. The foursome
them learned 18
songs in their first week together. Ozzy named the band "Polka Tulk Blues
Band" after a tin of
talcum powder. It has also been said that the name came from a Pakistani
clothing store named the
'Polka Tulk Trading Company'. Two days after Ozzy and Geezer met, Geezer
Butler said that Ozzy
defecated on a car.
Geezer Butler switched to playing bass guitar since Tony was now the lead
guitar player. Unable
to afford a bass guitar, Geezer simply took two of the guitar strings off
his guitar and re-tuned
it to make a bass guitar.
In September 1968 Polka Tulk changed their name to "Earth".
It is of interest to mention that in December of 1968, Tony left to join
Jethro Tull. While Tony
did not appear on any of Tull's albums, he did make an appearance at the
"Rolling Stone's Rock
and Roll Circus" which was never released, because the Stones were upstaged
by other acts. Tony
and Jethro can be heard on a bootleg called "Archangel Rides Again". The
movie was eventually
released in the movie festival circuit. The Rock and Roll Circus with Tony
occured on December
10th and 11th, 1968 at Wembley Arena in London.
Tony's stint with Jethro Tull was very brief (for two weeks). He left Tull
and was back with
Earth (back on Earth?) by December 14th, 1968.
"Black Sabbath makes Led Zeppelin look like a kindergarten house band"
...Advertisement by Jim
Simpson
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1.3 Who was Jim Simpson? (Manager Number One)
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Jim Simpson was a musician in a band named Locomotive who played jazz
trumpet. He was also the
manager of a Brummie band named 'Bakerloo Blues Band'. Unable to find a
place where he could
promote the band, he opened his own place called "Henry's Blueshouse".
Henry's, located at Hill
Street and Station Road was an instant success. It wasn't before long before
the club had to stop
accepting new bands. A band that was just starting out, Led Zeppelin, would
also be one of the
first bands to play Henry's.
In 1969, the four members of Earth approached Jim and asked if they could
play at Henry's. They
also wanted him to be their manager since they knew nothing of the business
sense of things. He
told them that they could open for the band 'Ten Years After', which pleased
them.
The band asked Jim on April 1, 1969 (unconfirmed) if he would become their
manager. Jim agrees.
Happy to have a manager who supposedly cared for their interests, they
recorded a song in tribute
to him, "Song for Jim". The song was a spoof of their manager and the jazz
music he played. This
elusive song is still sought after by Sabbath fans worldwide. Simpson would
also give the band
some of his jazz records to inspire them to write songs. Simpson still has
his copy of the
demo and it's unlikely he will ever decide to share it with the public.
DID YOU KNOW: Jim Simpson’s band, Locomotive hit the international charts
with a song titled
Rudi’s In Love.
As Simpson was trying to market Sabbath, he had them record some demos at
Regent Sound. One
such demo session took place on August 22, 1969. At this time the band
recorded a demo by
the name of "THE REBEL". The song, about a reclusive voyeur, is one of the
rarest Sabbath songs.
(It has also been mentioned the demos were recorded at Trident Studios in
St. Anne’s Court in Soho. Another conflicting version of events.) The Rebel
was written by Jim's bandmate, Locomotive keyboardist Norman Haines. Haines
played the organ and piano on the demo track.
Shortly after, the band also recorded another Haines song called "When I
Come Down", which
was renamed to "When I Came Down" for the Sabbath version.
Neither song saw the light of day. For those who are trying to track down
The Rebel and A Song
for Jim, the only known person who has these is said to be Pete Sarfas who
used to run the old
Black Sabbath Fan Club.
Jim Simpson is currently head of the Big Bear Music Agency. If you write to
Jim
(jim@bigbearmusic.com) regarding the demos, don’t expect a reply of any
sort.
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1.4 Who was Earth/Black Sabbath?
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BAND MEMBER FULL NAME BIRTHDATE
1) Tony Iommi [guitar] Anthony Frank Iommi Feb 19, 1948 in Aston
The In Crowd (pre 1966)
The Birds and the Bees (pre 1966)
The Rockin’ Chevrolets (1964-65)
The Rest (1965-67)
Mythology (1967-68)
Polka Tulk Blues Band (August 1968)
Earth (Sept. 1968 – Aug. 1969)
2) Bill Ward [drums] William Ward May 5, 1948 in UK
The Rest (1965-67)
Polka Tulk Blues Band (August 1968)
Earth (Sept. 1968 – Aug. 1969)
3) Ozzy Osbourne [vocals/harmonica] John Michael Osbourne Dec. 3, 1948
in Aston
The Black Panthers
Musicmachine
Rare Breed (1966-1968)
Polka Tulk Blues Band (August 1968)
Earth (Sept. 1968 – Aug. 1969)
4) Geezer Butler [bass] Terence Michael Butler July 17, 1949
Rare Breed (1966-1968)
Polka Tulk Blues Band (August 1968)
Earth (Sept. 1968 – Aug. 1969)
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[1.4b] Earth concert dates
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These are the known dates that Earth played. If you'd like to view
tour dates of the pre-Earth bands I suggest you visit Rob's Black Sabbath
page
at www.sabbathlive.com. Rob has done an excellent job researching the old
tours.
Credit for these dates goes to Rob, Joe Siegler of black-sabbath.com and
John Lero.
1968 Loreburn Hall Dumfries Scotland
9/68 Henry's Blues House (Birmingham)
9/68 Pokey Hole Blues Club (Bore Street - Lichfield, England)
9/23/68 Gretna Hall Tavern (Carlisle Cumberland (Cumbria) England)
9/30/68 Opening of Henry's Blueshouse - Station Hotel on High Street
(Brownhills, Eng.)
11/22/68 Mother's Club (Erdlington - High Street Birmingham) w/Ten Years
After
11/24/68 Mother's Club (Erdlington - High Street Birmingham) w/ Jethro Tull
12/21/68 County Ballroom (Carlisle, England) w/guests Smokey Blue (Neil
Marshall's band)
12/68 possibly a school hall (Cumbria, England)
12/68 Buccleuch Hall (Langholm, Scotland)
1/1/1969 Opposite Lock (Birmingham, England) w/guests Locomotive, Bakerloo
Blues Band, Tea &
Symphony
1/3/1969 The Marquee London (England) w/guests: Jon Hiseman's Colosseum
1/11/69 The Polytechnic (England) w/John Mayall's Bluesbreakers
1/25/1969 The Polytechnic (same as above)
2/6/1969 The Marquee London (England) w/guests: Locomotive, Bakerloo Blues
Band, Roy Everett,
Tea & Symphony
2/28/1969 The Marquee London (England) w/guests: Bakerloo Blues Band
3/3/1969 The Bay Hotel (Sunderland) w/guests Van Der Graaf Generator, DJ
John Peel
3/11/1969 The Marquee London (England) w/guests Bakerloo Blues Band,
Locomotive, & Roy Everett
3/13/1969 The Marquee London (England) w/guests Terry Reid
3/14/69 County Ballroom (Carlisle, England)
3/21/69 The Pokey Hole (Frog Lane Lichfield, England)
3/28/69 Wigton Market Hall (Cumbria, England)
4/69 The Star Club (Hamburg, Germany)
4/69 The Speakeasy Club (London, England)
4/69 Banklands Youth Club (Workington, England)
4/1/1969 Birmingham (England) possibly Zurich, Switzerland
4/21/69 Caves Club (Walsall, England)
5/11/69 Pennycliffe Club (Brownhills, England)
5/23/69 Pokey Hole Blues Club (Robin Hood Public House - Frog Lane,
Lichfield)
6/5/69 Westfield Welfare Centre Workington Cumbria England
6/7/69 Village Hall Low (Hesket England)
6/20/69 The Star Club (Hamburg, Germany)
7/5/69 County Ballroom (Carlisle, England) w/guests Tambourine
7/8/69 Banklands Youth Club (Workington Cumbria, England)
7/11/69 The Pokey Hole (Frog Lane Lichfield, England)
7/25/69 Market Hall (Wigton Cumbria, England) w/guest: Weight
8/01/69 The Pokey Hole (same)
8/03/69 Manchester, England
AUGUST 9 - EARTH BECOMES BLACK SABBATH
8/10/69 The Star Club (Hamburg Germany) w/guests: Junior's Eyes and Tremors
(same venue as above right through to August 16th)
8/23/69 Y.M.C.A. (Kilcaldy, Scotland)
9/01/69 Midlands Art Centre w/guests Tea & Symphony, Locomotive
9/27/69 Drill Hall (Dumfries) w/guest: Timothy Park
10/1/1969 Tow Bar Inn - billed as "Black Sabbath"
10/18/1969 Birmingham (England)
10/29/1969 Birmingham (England)
11/1/1969 Tow Bar Inn (Nethertown) w/guests: Society's Child
11/11/1969 John Peel's 'Top Gear' (Radio Session in London)
11/14/1969 The Marquee (London)
11/16/1969 Rugman's Youth Club Whitesands (Dumfries, Scotland)
11/20/1969 The Star Club (Hamburg, Germany) might be June 20th venue
11/26/1969 Carlisle Earth
11/29/1969 Birmingham University
12/26/1969 The Pokey Hole
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1.5 How Black Sabbath came to be
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"When we hit America we were the wild bunch. We bought dope and f***ed
anything that moved" ...Ozzy
While waiting to go into a rehearsal one day, they noticed a Boris Karloff
movie playing named
"Black Sabbath" (1935). Geezer mentioned it was strange that people would go
to a movie to scare
themselves silly. Until this time they had only played other artist's
material. They decided to
use the name of the movie as the name for their first original song.
One day the band showed up to do a gig at Henry's. There, someone mentioned
they liked the bands
single. The only problem was the foursome hadn't ever released a single!
They then realized that
there were two bands by the same name. The audience was upper class and
expecting a totally
different type of music. Unable to back out of the show, the scruffy four
played blues and rock
to the audience. It was a disaster! The band however did have some fun in
watching the crowd try
to dance to their type of music.
As a result, Geezer came up with the idea to change their name to that of
the Karloff movie,
'BLACK SABBATH' to avoid being confused with the other band named Earth.
They now had a song and
a band name taken from the movie's title. This would also reflect the groups
interest in the
occult.
It has also been said that the name Black Sabbath came from Geezer's
interest in occult writer
Denis Wheatley.
Not having any money, the band relied on Tony's mother who owned a chocolate
shop, for the use of
a van, food and cigarettes. Sometimes the group would get gigs on their own,
other times they
would show up at a place where another band was to be playing. In the event
that the scheduled
band failed to show up, the Sabs would take their place. They played the
Star Club in Hamburg in
Jan. 1969, a place the Beatles had made famous.
They were so popular that they were booked to come back for 5 more shows.
They would play 7 shows
a day, and write new material as they went along. This would also explain
why their early songs
had different lyrics than the final album versions.
As Black Sabbath made news, a group of Satanists asked them to play at their
"night of Satan" at
Stonehenge. They refused. The head witch of England, Alec Sanders who was a
regular fan of
Sabbaths, informed them that these Satanists had placed a hex on the band
members. Ozzy asked his
father to make aluminum crosses, which he did, and then had them blessed.
They wore these crosses
24 hours a day for protection. The cross remains a well known Black Sabbath
symbol even to this
day. You see, Black Sabbath as Satanic and dark as the name sounded, had
nothing to do with the
devil when they chose their name.
An independent producer named Tony Hall paid for the band to record some
demo songs at the Regent
Sound studio on Tottenham Court Rd. These were produced by Roger Bayed,
whose name appears on
many of their albums. One demo cut, a single called "Evil Woman", was
released on the Fontana
record label in Jan. 1970. This was a cover song from a Minnesota band named
Crow, which did
quite well unbeknownst to the band.
In January of 2005, Black Sabbath fans were shocked to learn that a rare
Black Sabbath song had
been discovered. Sabbathlive.com broke the news that Joe D'Agostino, a music
collector and Black
Sabbath fan purchased an acetate (record) containing a song called “When I
Came Down”. The song
is believed to have been recorded between March and October 1969. The B-side
of the acetate
contained an alternative version of The Wizard. Joe transferred the acetate
to CD and cleaned up
the sound. Despite rumors that he would one day release this song to the
fans, it’s highly
unlikely it will ever see the light of day. The song features all original
members of Black
Sabbath in the Jim Simpson era.
Sabbath’s first completed album was released on Friday, Feb. 13th, 1970. It
took them only eight
hours to record and cost a mere 800 British pounds (approx. $1200 US). The
album was recorded in
four tracks on an 8 track machine. The band was not that popular at this
time, they simply wanted
to do what they liked best... sing about the darker, more depressing things
that surrounded them.
It was not likely they ever intended to make the big time, in fact Ozzy has
said he was just
happy to show his mother that his voice was recorded on a piece of vinyl. It
was not as easy as
it sounds though, it took them 14 tries before Jim Simpson found a record
company (Vertigo) that
would carry the album.
The record company chose to put an upside down cross on the gatefold of the
album and thus people
readily associated the band with Satanism. The band knew nothing about this
and did not want the
upside down cross. They backed down from the record company's "wiser and
higher" marketing
methods. Inside the inverted cross was a poem.
The poem seemed to correspond with the album's cover showing a woman
standing in front of the
17th century Mapledurham Water Mill. The poem is called "Still Falls the
Rain". Due to requests
by fans, it is shown below:
*** STILL FALLS THE RAIN ***
"Still falls the rain,
the veils of darkness shroud the blackened trees,
which, contorted by some unseen violence,
shed their tired leaves, and bend their boughs
toward a gray earth of severed bird wings.
Among the grasses, poppies bleed before a gesticulating death,
and young rabbits, born dead in traps,
stand motionless, as though guarding the silence
that surrounds and threatens to engulf
all those that would listen.
Mute birds, tired of repeating yesterdays terrors,
huddle together in the recesses of dark corners,
heads turned from the dead, black swan
that floats upturned in a small pool in the hollow.
There emerges from this pool a faint, sensual mist,
that traces its way upwards to caress the feet
of the headless martyr's statue
whose only achievement was to die too soon,
and who couldn't wait to loose.
The cataract of darkness forms fully,
the long black night begins, yet still
by the lake a young girl waits.
Unseeing she believes herself unseen, she smiles faintly
at the distant tolling bell, and the still falling rain."
The first album contained the following songs:
1) Black Sabbath (a dark doom sounding song)
2) The Wizard (a song about a wizard who walks through towns cheering
people up through the use of magic)
3) Wasp/Behind The Wall of Sleep
4) Bassically/N.I.B. (a song about the devil falling in love with a
mortal woman and changing to a good person)
5) Wicked World (society, and our struggle to survive)
(Euro versions had 'Evil Woman' instead, another great single)
6) Sleeping Village/Warning (a very blues influenced song that is an
easy listener, about found/lost love)
This was definitely NOT a satanic album! Today there are still people who
hear the words "Black
Sabbath" and think hard rock devil music. This is sheer ignorance. Remember
the band was
originally a blues band, and there is a definite blues sound in their debut
album.
Ozzy brought the album home to proudly show his parents. The Osbourne's were
the type of people
who would sit around the phonogram with a beer and merrily sing alone to the
records. This was
not to be though. When Mr. Osbourne heard the album he asked John, "Are you
sure you were just
drinking alcohol?, this isn't music, this is weird." The first song began
with a church bell
tolling and the sound of rain falling in the background, and was eerie to
say the least. Ozzy too
had not heard the final product until now. It would reach #8 in the UK
charts and #23 in the
United States.
The four unknowns were now finally making a name for themselves with the
release of an album. It
is of interest to note that their album followed the release of Led
Zeppelin's first album. Both
bands knew one another personally since they both played in the same club
and the music scene was
a close knit group. It came in the form of a surprise to the Sabs when
someone put on a brand new
album from Led Zeppelin.
Bill Ward was close to Zeppelin's drummer, John Bonham. He talks about the
relationship between
the two bands in the book, "The Story of Black Sabbath".
It is of interest to point out that in February of 1970, the same month
their debut album came
out, they broke the attendance record at Simpson's club which had remained
untouched for over a
year by Jethro Tull. Tony had made the right choice in returning to Sabbath
it would seem. With
an album comes touring, and with touring comes America. America would have a
great impact on them
as well. Ozzy has said that people would go around saying, "if you go to San
Francisco be sure to
wear a flower in your hair". This mystified him because he did not know what
or where San
Francisco was. When the band eventually did tour America, it took them by
storm. They had never
seen anything like it. They had their share of groupies and took in the
marvelous sights of
America. They played one of their first shows at the Fillmore East. Some old
8mm footage of their
first trip overseas can be seen on the commercial video, "The Black Sabbath
Story - Volume 1". It
must be said, that on this particular videotape, Bill Ward the drummer
relates an interesting
story: While playing in New York, the audience was still at the stage where
they would simply sit
there and listen to the music. The band wanted a stronger reaction from the
audience since they
were putting 150% effort into their songs. Ozzy would often yell at the
audience to get up and go
crazy (as many bootlegs can attest to). At one particular show they were
growing fed up with the
audience just sitting there and Bill picked up his drum set and threw it at
the audience. Bill
says that as a result, that night they did SEVEN encores. Can you think of
any band in today's
scene which does seven encores? By the time they reached Los Angeles, people
had already heard
about this "Black Sabbath".
-----------------------------------------------------------------------
1.6 Paranoia
-----------------------------------------------------------------------
While working on their next album the band released a single called
"Paranoid". The single was
very popular, maybe too popular: On October 23, 1970 the band attempts to
play the Mayfair
Ballroom in Newcastle. The crowd is very drunk and all over the stage and
equipment. The band,
unsuccessful in trying to get them off the stage, starts playing their hit
single Paranoid. 70
minutes later the show is done and the band is very upset. Someone put their
foot through one of
their big PA speakers, Bill's drum sticks and cymbals were stolen and a bass
drum mic destroyed.
The audience had gone crazy over their new single and Ozzy says, "If it
means us having to give
up putting out singles then we will. We want people to listen to us, not try
to touch us. I was
really terrified, shocked out of my mind."
This would also be the gig that would give birth to their new song,"Fairies
Wear Boots". While
walking down a street some time after the show, the band was attacked by a
group of skinheads.
Tony's arm was badly hurt and this forced them to cancel their next show.
Due to the fact the
skinheads wore boots, they decided to make fun of the punks in the song.
Ozzy has claimed that
the song had nothing to do with this incident, however Ozzy also falsely
claimed that there were
no recordings from the Jim Simpson era.
It was not uncommon for the band to be verbally abusive if the audience was
not responding
properly. If they were talking, the band would just crank up the music some
more. Bands were so
loud during this time the Leeds City Council introduced a "96 decibel law".
If any band's music
was to rise above 96 decibels the amplifiers would cut out. Sabbath did not
consider their
night's work complete unless they hit at least three cut outs a night.
PARANOID
--------
The album, 'Paranoid', was recorded in four days once again at Regent Sound
and then released in
Jan. 1971. The cover shows a person running out of a forest with a sword and
shield in hand. This
seemed to listeners, a strange representation of being paranoid. The truth
is that the album was
to originally be named "War Pigs" (mans constant desire to have weapons of
destruction and
killing). The record company objected to the album title and so it was named
after one of the
songs. The song "War Pigs" came about when Sabbath was told tales of horror
and war from soldiers
while playing an American air force base. The Paranoid album reached FIRST
place in the UK charts
and 12th in American charts. It was during the span between the Paranoid and
Master of Reality
albums that Jim Simpson was fired as the band's manager. Patrick Meehan and
Wilf Pine would
replace him. The reason for Jim’s firing is discussed in a later chapter.
MASTER OF REALITY
-----------------
In 1971 "Master of Reality" was released, charting 5th place in UK
and 8th place in USA song charts. Ozzy also married his first wife, Thelma
Riley and became a
stepfather to her son, Elliot. This album would take an interesting turn
with the release of
"After Forever" which was clearly a religious, believe in God, song. The
church called this
blasphemy. People disliked the band, perhaps for their After Forever song or
perhaps for what
they represented. In any event, 1971 saw some strange events: At a show in
Memphis, their
dressing rooms had crosses painted in blood on the walls.
During the show a Satanist jumped on stage with a sacrificial knife. The
local witches coven
later gathered outside the band's hotel and Geezer tried to scare them away
with a fake hex. It
was also the year that threats were made that the band would be shot
sometime during their US
tour. At one show the lights suddenly failed into their 3rd song and Ozzy
stood frozen solid with
fear. The band also included a song titled "Sweet Leaf" which openly talked
about the band's
usage of marijuana. The song begins with a coughing sound (as if someone had
just inhaled the
drug). In actual fact, Tony had just finished smoking drugs in a water pipe
and the sounds were
included in the final version.
VOLUME 4
--------
The following year "Volume 4" was released. As with the inverted cross case
and the "War pigs"
album title, the record company would again take authority over the bands
wishes. Volume 4 (hence
the fourth Sabbath album) was to have originally been called "Snowblind",
another drug reference.
The record company thought this was too controversial and so they had to
change it. The band was
becoming involved in hard core drugs by this time (including cocaine).
During the recording of
Volume 4, the band sat around in a Jacuzzi snorting coke all day and would
get up every so often
to record a new song. We can see why Snowblind was an appropriate album
title. Not being allowed
to use it as an album title, they came up with this amusing line on the
cover sleeve of the
record: "Thanks to the COKE-Cola Company". It was also during this year that
Ozzy and Thelma had
their first mutual child, Jessica.
-----------------------------------------------------------------------
1.7 An act of SABOTAGE?
-----------------------------------------------------------------------
"For the first part of their career they were managed by two of the biggest
crooks in the
business. They made nothing, I mean nothing." ...Sharon on Sabbath's early
management
The year is now 1974. The band is living a good life of drugs, sex, cars,
etc. If they wanted a
car or a house they would ask for it and receive it almost the next day.
Ozzy even owned a Jaguar
which he smashed while backing out of his driveway, the same day he was to
sell it. What the band
never saw though, was money. They became very successful especially in the
UK charts. Their
material possessions were provided by their new management of Patrick Meehan
and Wilf Pine. What
happened was this: During the same year that Paranoid was soaring up the
charts, Pat and Wilf
left their management company (which was Don Arden's, more on him later).
The duo offered the band a chauffeured limo, champagne dinner at the
Speakeasy, and filled the
Sab's heads with ideas that Jim was mismanaging them and they could do a
hell of a lot better
with them instead. The Sabs agreed and on Sept.4, 1970 Jim Simpson found out
he was history. The
man who had turned the four nobodies into a juggernaut was dismissed. The
Sabs were also not
happy that with Jim they were being paid a lot less than what they should
have been getting. The
reason was that Jim insisted they perform at the shows they had already been
booked for, even six
months prior. These older bookings were for a lot less money than the usual
fee, now around 2000
pounds per show.
Simpson launched lawsuits against them for of breach of contract. Some
concerts later, Ozzy was
handed a subpoena on stage for Simpson's lawsuits. The resulting court case
would last years.
California saw the Cal Jam concert take place in Ontario on April 6th. This
was a televised
concert to millions of viewers as well as over 450,000 audience members. It
featured bands such
as Electric Light Orchestra. In the middle of the night, their management
threatened the band
with a lawsuit if they did not play the Cal Jam concert. The band had not
practiced for months
and was not ready for a show, especially one with over 450,000 people in
attendance. It has been
said that the band did not even know they were to play the show. This would
be one of the final
straws for the band and they soon began the process of getting rid of their
second management.
Ozzy talks a bit about this in the documentary, "The Decline of Western
Civilization II" where
the band questions how much money they are really making if their managers
could afford houses
and cars.
[[ The California Jam is available on audio as well as hard to find video. I
was sent a VHS of
the entire show but it's poor quality. I forget the name of the person who
sent it to me long ago
but he told me his room mate had a quality copy. While others have made
claims to having the
entire set, it's always lip talk. ]]
Once again the band gets rid of their management and decides to form their
own management. This
allowed them to have more control and say into what decisions were made for
the band. It would be
a learning experience as well since they had never dabbled in the management
aspects before. They
decided a rest was in order since they were exhausted. Their next US tour
would be in three short
installments rather than one big tour to further save them exhaustion and
nervous breakdowns. Oh
yes, remember all the flashy cars and houses they were given? They were
never really theirs, and
when they dumped the management duo they lost everything. They still had the
Warner Bros. label
in America though, and stayed with WB during the management change.
SABOTAGE
--------
In September of 1975, the band released their "Sabotage" album. The last
song on the album, "The
Writ", would reveal their feelings towards their previous management and all
the problems they'd
encountered:
The Writ
========
The way I feel is the way I am
I wish I'd walked before I started to run to you, just to you
What kind of people do you think we are?
Another joker who's a rock and roll star for you, just for you
The faithful image of another man
The endless ocean of emotion I swam for you, yeah for you
The shot troopers laying down on the floor
I wish they'd put an end to my running war with you, yeah with you
Are you metal, are you man?
You've changed in life since you began, yeah began
Ladies digging gold from you
Will they still dig now you're through, yeah you're through
You bought and sold me with your lying words
The voices in the deck that you never heard came through, yeah came through
Your folly finally got to spend with a gun
A poisoned father who has poisoned his son, that's you, yeah that's you
I beg you please don't let it get any worse
The anger I once had has turned to a curse on you, Yeah curse you
All of the promises that never came true
You're gonna get what is coming to you, that's true, ah, that's true
Are you Satan, are you man?
You've changed the life since it began, it began
Vultures sucking gold from you
Will they still suck now you're through
The search is on, so you just better run
And find yourself another way
Probably dead, they don't feel a thing
To keep you living for another day
You are nonentity, you have no destiny
You are a victims of a thing unknown
A mantle picture of a stolen soul
A fornication of your golden throne
A smiling face, it means the world to me
So tired of sadness and of misery
My life it started some time ago
Where it will end, I don't know
I thought I was so good I thought I was fine
I feel my world is out of time
But everything is gonna work out fine
If it don't I think I'll lose my mind
I know, I know, I know, yeah yeah I know
Listen to me while I sing this song
You might just think the words are wrong
Too many people advising me [managers, lawyers]
But they don't know what my eyes see
But everything is gonna work out fine
If it don't I feel I'm lose my mind
The anger is very strong in both the lyrics and the tone of Ozzy's voice.
After hearing the song
one cannot help but feel sympathy for what the band had been enduring. Some
album labels (Warner
Bros. for example) have a hidden tune following the song, you need to really
turn up the volume
to hear it. It features the band playing piano and singing an old 'Nitty
Gritty Dirt Band' song
called "Blow on the Jug". A sound engineer caught this during a recording
session and it was put
on the album. Sadly, there are a lot of other Sab cover songs which we will
never get to hear.
You can hear the 'Blow on the Jug' song by clicking right here!
Reporter: "Do you have a drinking problem?"
Ozzy: "Yes, I can't find a bar."
-----------------------------------------------------------------------
1.8 Manager Number Two
-----------------------------------------------------------------------
Needing a new manager, Don Arden was hired. Don's management was the same
company that their last
management had parted from. Don managed Black Sabbath while his daughter,
Sharon (then 18) was
his receptionist. Ozzy and Sharon met when Ozzy walked into his office
wearing a tap faucet
around his neck and sat on the floor - refusing to use a chair. Sharon was
terrified of Ozzy upon
first sight. She even tried to get another woman working in the office to
bring him a cup of
tea, rather than bring it to him herself.
The two of them would get to know one another quite well over the years as
Don and the Sab four
conducted business.
Money and fame were no longer problems for the four of them, instead the
only challenge was how
to come up with another best selling album. A very audible change in the
bands musical direction
began to show in their 1974 album, "Sabbath Bloody Sabbath". Despite the
title, the album
contains deep lyrics with many different musical arrangements. The songs
seemed more uplifting
and vibrant than their previous dark, gloomy sounding material and a more
energetic sound.
Electronic instruments also changed the way they were able to record songs.
This album, probably
their best album with Ozzy as vocalist, placed 4th and 11th respectively in
UK and American
charts.
TECHNICAL ECSTASY
-----------------
"Technical Ecstasy" was released in 1976. This album was considerably less
heavy then previous
albums, and perhaps was due to the band just being fed up with it all. They
had succeeded in
making a lot of money, owned as many cars as we own socks, and were getting
burned out from
constant touring. T.E. would contain a song titled, "It's Alright" featuring
Bill the drummer on
vocals, a very gentle song. The album cover also set the stage for something
entirely new from
the band. No more dark images, this artistic cover showed two robots having
sex (or so it has
been said). Sadly, Technical Ecstasy did not sell very well.
The late 1970's also saw some deep trouble for the band. On January 20,1978
Ozzy's father passed
away. Here is a small portion of an interview with Ozzy regarding his
father:
"In England, they don't tell you, y'know. What they did to my father was, he
hadn't eaten a
fucking thing because of his -- whatever the fucking tube -- he had a lump
here like a fucking
black ball, in his sagophagus or whatever the fuck it is; he couldn't eat
any food. Plus the fact
that he had cancer of the fucking intestines, the bowels, so he couldn't
shit. He never ate a
thing for thirteen weeks.
They operated on him about a fucking week before he died. They took the
whole tube out and put a
plastic one in. I don't know what it's like in the states, but in
England...they put him in a
fucking closet with the fucking mops and buckets, because he was on the
death ward and it was too
distressing for the rest of the patients so they put him in a cot, sort of a
crib thing, a giant
crib. They strapped him...like a boxer, fucking bandages on his hands, with
a glucose drip going
into his arm. He was stoned out of his head. You know, the most amazing
thing he said to me. I
told my father one day, "I take drugs. I said to him, "Before you go, will
you take drugs?"
He says, "I promise you I'll take drugs." He was on Morphine. Totally out of
his mind on
Morphine, because the pain must have been horrendous. They had the operation
on a Tuesday, and he
died on Thursday...No one could understand what he was talking about,
because he was so out of
it. He says to me -- he only understands drugs as "speed" -- he says,
[whispers, a drawn-out,
rattling imitation] "ssspeeeeed." And he died in my arms (note: Ozzy says in
another article
that the hospital phoned him when his father died, thus putting him outside
of the hospital)
I haven't got over it yet. The twentieth of January, I'll go freaking like a
werewolf. I'll cry
and I'll laugh all day long, because it's the day my daughter was born and
the day my father
died. Like a fucking lunatic.
When they go, they're out of their misery. But what freaked me out more than
anything else was
the funeral. I was singing fucking "Paranoid" in the church...Seconal,
drunk... it blew me away.
All the family came that I'd never seen for fucking years, and they were
making comments. In
England, it's a weird scene at a fucking death. My father hated his brother
Harold – my whole
family's fucking nuts."
This took a toll on Ozzy and he decided to quit Black Sabbath. Ozzy's
father, Jack, who thought
his son would either end up in prison or end up being someone very special,
died knowing his son
had made something out of himself. While on his leave of absence, Ozzy asked
Glenn Hughes
(another vocalist who would eventually spend some time in Sabbath) about the
two of them forming
a band. Oz was fed up with Sabbath by this time, though he kept his feelings
about this to
himself. Glenn did not join Ozzy in his desire. Meanwhile the band had to
continue work on its
upcoming album, "Never Say Die".
NEVER SAY DIE
-------------
The band took in Dave Walker (who used to be with Fleetwood Mac) to write
new material for their
album. Ozzy decided he wanted to rejoin the band, but he refused to sing any
of the songs written
with Dave Walker. So Dave left and the band had to rewrite all of their
songs. Tony booked a
studio in Toronto, Ontario because it was where the Rolling Stones had
recorded one of their
albums.
The band traveled up there in the middle of winter to record the album. Ozzy
has since said it
was a stupid thing to do and that it was freezing up there. Tony was just
trying to keep the band
together in a time of turmoil.
Ozzy had this to say on the album:
"The fucking studio's a pile of shit, the fucking -- we had two songs half-
written before we'd
gotten into the studio. The reason we'd gone to Canada was because of the
tax-exile thing,
because the taxes are so high in England. In the end, it cost us nearly 500
fucking thousand
dollars to make that album, and it was the biggest pile of horseshit that
I've ever made in my
life. I'm embarrassed with that album."
There is one song titled "Junior's Eyes" which is available on the
"Archangel Rides Again"
bootleg, featuring Sabbath with Dave Walker on vocals. Junior's Eyes was
kept for the final album
with the same music but Ozzy rewrote the lyrics in a way as to say goodbye
to his father.
Junior's Eyes
=============
Junior's eyes looked up to the skies in tears
He prayed that his maker, the giver and taker, would `pear
Junior sighed, as his hands reached out to the sky
Junior cried, the day that his best friend died
(chorus)
You're coming home again tomorrow
I'm sorry it won't be for long
With all the pain I've watched you live within
I'll try my hardest not to cry
But it is time to say goodbye
Junior's eyes, they couldn't disguise the pain
His father was leaving, and Junior is grieving again
Innocent eyes watched the man who had gave everything
Junior's sorrow, who knew what tomorrow would bring?
(chorus)
Junior's eyes looked into the skies once more
Now he knew well, this life was hell for sure
He desperately tried, his fingertips stretched to the stars, yeah
Reaching for reason, along with the time and the stars
(chorus)
-----------------------------------------------------------------------
1.9 When and how did Ozzy leave Black Sabbath?
-----------------------------------------------------------------------
By now, all four members of the band were staying in their rooms all day and
doing hard drugs and
booze. They had cars, success, and perhaps little motivation to release
another album. Ozzy
himself has said he only wanted to release an album to make money and get
fat off of beer. Ozzy
would subsequently not show up for weeks at a time for practice. They were
to begin work on their
next album, "Heaven and Hell". Tony, having met Ronnie James Dio
(ex-Rainbow) by this time, then
asked Bill to get rid of Ozzy.
Tony was fed up with Ozzy and was interested in having Dio as a vocalist.
After the 1978 NSD
tour, Ozzy was told by Bill, that they no longer wanted him in the band.
Bill feels bad about
doing this because him and Oz were best of friends and yet Bill wanted Ozzy
out of the band as
well. People still ask how Ozzy left, the truth is that both him and Tony
Iommi say he was fired.
Ozzy also adds that he was relieved at this. In actual fact Ozzy was asked
many times on the last
day to leave before being fired. For some time now Ozzy wanted to go into a
new musical direction
and perhaps was unable to do so with the politics of the band being the way
they were.
Tony, being the transportation, would never be spoken against by the other
members of the band.
1978 saw the end of the original Black Sabbath. Their last tour would be the
"Never Say Die"
tour. Appropriately named.
-----------------------------------------------------------------------
2.0 Randy Rhoads
-----------------------------------------------------------------------
After being fired from Sabbath, Ozzy spent three months staying in the Le
Parc Hotel in Los
Angeles. He would order out for pizza and booze and have his dealer drop off
cocaine for him. He
basically thought his life was over. It was around this time that his friend
Sharon Arden came to
collect a debt from Ozzy. Sharon saw Ozzy in a state of despair and
suggested to him to form
another band. Ozzy went about this with the help of Dana Strum. The
auditioned many guitarists,
one of whom was 23 year old Randall William Rhoads.
Randy was born to William Arthur and Delores Rhoads on December 6th, 1956 at
St. John’s Hospital
in Santa Monica, CA. He had an older brother Doug and a sister named Kathy.
Their father was a music teacher while their mother ran a music school named
Musonia. Delores
graduated from UCLA with a bachelors degree in music and taught in the Los
Angeles School system
before starting the school.
When Randy was about the age of 6 he began attending his mother’s music
school. At this time he
received his first guitar, an acoustic Gibson that had belonged to his
maternal grandfather.
At the age of 12, Randy began taking lessons from Scott Shelly, a guitar
teacher at Musonia.
Eventually Shelly would approach Delores and explain that she could not
teach Randy anymore, he
knew everything that she did.
At the approximate age of 14, Randy then joined his first band named Violet
Fox. The name Violet
represented his mother’s middle name. Randy played rhythm guitar while his
brother Doug playing
drums, The band lasted about half a year.
In May of 1975 Kevin Bubrow of Quiet Riot met with Randy and the two began
working together.
Randy remained in Quiet Riot for less than a year. After leaving the group
he approached Karl
Sandoval to create a custom guitar for him. The end result after several
meetings was the black
and white polka dot “V” guitar. It cost Randy $738 to make and he took
possession of it on Sept.
22, 1979.
In the latter part of the 1979, at the suggestion of a bass player from a
band that used to open
for Quiet Riot (Dana Strum), Randy went to audition for a band being put
together by Ozzy.
Randy met with Ozzy for an audition and was told, “you’ve got the job”.
Ozzy then decided to tour, with his first solo concert in Glasgow, Scotland
on September 12,
1980. What you probably don't know is that Ozzy had two shows before his
debut under the band
name of "Law". The opening day of his first solo concert he and Sharon paced
the streets
nervously. Since people in Scotland usually showed up at the concert without
prepaying for
tickets, they had no way of knowing how many people would show up. As it
turned out it was a big
success.
Ozzy played all of his Blizzard of Ozz album and some Sabbath songs.
Eventually he broke down and
cried because he realized that he could make it on his own without the other
three Sabbath
embers with whom he had paved the road to success. You must realize that
when Ozzy was in Sabbath
he was really not a contributing member of the band. Geezer wrote most of
the song lyrics and
Ozzy would come by and sing the words, but he had little to do with the
actual contributions to
the songs[*].
Now Ozzy and Randy were the main writers and had equal say as to what went
into the songs.
[*] Ozzy did write 'Am I Going Insane' (his feelings about society's views
towards him and his
anger towards society) and 'Who Are You?'
"Who do you think you were in previous incarnations?"
"I think I was a bat" ... Ozzy some years before the "incident"
-----------------------------------------------------------------------
2.1 What the hell is this about biting a bat? (Diary of a Madman)
-----------------------------------------------------------------------
"So, one night, when he wanted to get on the tour bus, I threw him in the
luggage compartment.
Somebody grabbed me and said: 'What you're doing is not only illegal but
it's inhumane.' I lost
it. I yelled: 'He's my fucking midget and I'll fucking do what I want with
him.'
”There was a silence and then a small voice emerged from the luggage
compartment: 'He's right:
I'm his midget and he can do what he wants with me.'"
(Ozzy commenting on the time when he threw the midget into the bus's baggage
compartment)
The following year, "Diary of a Madman" was released. An interesting note,
Ozzy's son, Elliot is
shown on the album cover. Though production of the album was rushed towards
the end so that the
band could get out and tour, Ozzy has said he liked this album better of the
two. The album came
out the same time as Sabbath's Mob Rules album. Diary soared to the top 15
on US charts while Mob
Rules remained at #29. Ozzy's first two albums would sell over 6 million
copies. As they toured,
Randy would often hold a guitar clinic for kids who wanted to learn to play
guitar. A kid named
Joe Holmes took lessons from Randy, and would later have an impact on Ozzy's
life as well.
During the tour, Ozzy was admitted to St. Johns mental hospital near London
after suffering a
mental breakdown. He would laugh and cry as band members visited him.
The Diary tour was nicknamed Night of the Living Dead tour due to various
misfortunes: The entire
band was expelled from a San Diego over Ozzy's reputation, the prop truck
broke down, and in
Minneapolis a crane fell and crushed $8000 worth of synthesizers. On the
upside, the stage
setting for Diary of a Madman was a huge castle complete with fog. The
drummer was situated on a
raised platform, and there was an opening in the center of the stage where
a dwarf would come
out to give Ozzy water and towels. The dwarf was actually Little John Allen
who played R2D2 in
Star Wars. It has been brought to my attention that Kenny Baker actually
played R2D2 so I don't
know which name is correct. John Allen suffered mock abuse by having pig
entrails tossed at him,
he was stuffed into a hole and he was even hanged for prolonged periods from
a noose (as shown on
some videos). This was accomplished with a harness so as not to really choke
him, but how did he
manage to stay up for so long??
During the Diary tour, Ozzy would throw raw meat at his audience. It was
even part of his
contract that 25 pounds of calves livers and pigs intestines be thrown. A
parent once phoned the
promoter of the show asking how to get blood out of the clothes. As the tour
continued, people
would bring meat to the show to throw back at him. As time passed, the
audience brought dead
frogs, cats, snakes, etc. to throw onto the stage. Once, someone threw a toy
doll onto the stage
and Ozzy freaked out thinking that someone had thrown a real infant up on
stage.
On Jan. 20, 1982 at a Des Moines, Iowa concert some winner threw a real bat
up on stage. The bat
lay still because of the spotlights on the stage, and so Ozzy picked it up,
THINKING IT WAS A TOY
RUBBER BAT. He bit into the bat, taking off its head. Immediately the
audience and Sharon freaked
out. Ozzy was rushed to emergency to have rabies shots. It is reported that
at the time he was
treating the whole thing as a joke, apparently barking like a dog when
wheeled into the hospital.
He sent the crew back to find the bat to find out if it was in fact real or
not, the bat could
not be found. The shots would continue for about a week, with needles in
each buttock, arms and
leg. Ozzy would also faint or collapse at the concerts which followed.
Ozzy's advice on the
situation is, "if you want to be a complete dick, try it".
Subsequently the bat would become a symbol for Ozzy on his upcoming albums,
and even a tattoo.
The animal humane society would become involved and show up to boycott Ozzy
concerts. From this
point on, he was marked a madman and his reputation began to precede him.
One such nasty rumor,
and sure sign of people's ability to go overboard with gossip and rumors is
this little gem:
Before one concert even started, Ozzy supposedly threw three small dogs into
the audience. He
refused to play the show until all the dogs came back to him dead. The story
is not true. It was
the honest mistake with a bat which would cement itself in people's minds,
even to this day.
[Ed: I can recall when Ozzy came to my home town on the Diary tour, the SPCA
and police were
there threatening to take action if any animals were harmed on stage. Ozzy
has never returned.]
"If they were buzzing the bus, like people say, it probably meant that Randy
was struggling with
the pilot to stop him from crashing it" -Kevin Dubrow of Quiet Riot
-----------------------------------------------------------------------
2.2 When and how did Randy Rhoads die?
-----------------------------------------------------------------------
In 1981, Ozzy divorced his first wife, Thelma. They were separated soon
after the day he came
home (drunk) to find a bailiff at the door, and all of his belongings
outside. He was told that
if he stepped inside the house he would be arrested. Ozzy was not exactly
what you would call a
father figure. He would leave home for days, weeks, at a time and stay at
friends places until
they kicked him out. Rather than go through the divorce proceedings, Ozzy
told her to just keep
everything. By now Ozzy and Sharon had gotten to the point where they
decided to get married.
Sharon had been hoping this would also get Ozzy a better deal since her
father was the one
managing the recording and managerial contracts.
On March 19th, 1982 Ozzy and his band were on their way to Orlando, FL from
Knoxville, TN. The
show was to feature Foreigner and UFO. Ozzy and Randy had been talking about
their recent
success. Randy mentioned wanting to leave to pursue a degree in classical
guitar at UCLA. Ozzy
has said that if Randy were still alive, it is doubtful that Randy would
still be playing with
him.]
During the trip, Andrew stopped the bus at the Flying Baron Estates near
Leesburg, Florida. This
location was a private community and served as home to Andrew. It also
served as the tour bus’s
home base. Jerry Calhoun who also lived at the estate leased the tour buses
out to those who
required them.
Aycock (36) invited some of the crew for a ride in a 1955 Beechcraft Bonanza
F-35 airplane (9-10
am). Present that day were Ozzy, Sharon Arden, Tommy Aldridge, Rudy Sarzo,
Don Airey, Andrew and
his wife Wanda, Rachel Youngblood, Randy and Jake Duncan the tour manager.
The bus driver took Don Airey and Jake Duncan for a spin. Unbeknownst to
anyone, Aycock had been
involved in a previous accident in which a young boy was killed. His pilot's
license was not
valid due because his medical certificate had expired.
When the plane landed, the driver went for another ride, this time with
Randy and Ozzy's
seamstress, Rachael Youngblood, 58. The pilot of the plane was presumably
under the influence of
cocaine (it was later found in drug tests).
Aycock had picked up his ex-wife at one of the concerts and was to drop her
off in Florida. She
was standing outside the bus and it is assumed Andrew dove the plane into
the bus in an attempt
to kill her. Aycock circled the bus three times, and on the fourth pass, the
plane clipped the
tour bus, spun through a tree, pinwheeled over upside down and careened into
a nearby house where
it exploded. Ozzy ran into the house and pulled out Jesse Herndon (70), a
deaf man who was
unaware of the fire.
Rachel and Randy were both killed in the crash. The fire destroyed the home
and adjacent garage.
Ozzy's new solo career had come to a screeching halt.
He would continue the tour in April with a quick shoe in of Bernie Torme.
Bernie used to play
guitar for Gillan (Ian Gillan, who would join Sabbath). Bernie would not
stay with Ozzy long
however. Bernie left Ozzy's band after three weeks. The reason is not known
for sure. Some people
say he was not used to playing big gigs. What is known is that Bernie had a
UK tour lined up for
his 'Electric Gypsies' album. His departure from Ozzy was bound to happen.
Brad Gillis left 'Night Ranger' to replace Torme for the remainder of the
tour. Brad Gillis also
appeared on the 'Speak of the Devil' LP. After the tour Ozzy would hire
Jakey Lou Williams (Jake
E. Lee) with whom he recorded 1984's 'Bark At The Moon' album. Gillis would
later rejoin Night
Ranger.
Brad may have wanted to stay on with Ozzy but Oz didn't really think the two
of them were
compatible.
On Feb. 19, 1982, while visiting San Antonio, Texas, Ozzy was again drunk
after drinking a bottle
of Courvoisier. Sharon decided to lock his clothes in the hotel room so that
Ozzy would not go
outside and cause trouble. To solve this problem, Ozzy dressed up in one of
Sharon's evening
gowns. While taking some photos of himself in drag, he had to urinate and
did so on the
historical Alamo building.
The Alamo is the 1836 site of the legendary battle between the Texans and
the Mexican army. Ozzy
was arrested and charged with defiling a national monument and banned from
playing in San Antonio
any further. This would be another blow to his image that would haunt him to
this day. The ban
was eventually lifted.
I received a piece of email from one of the officers who arrested Ozzy at
the Alamo. Contrary to
the dress we was supposed to be wearing, he says Ozzy was not in one. This
is just one of the
many contradictions in this FAQ. Until they can be proven, they will remain.
Here is the e-mail I received (Thanks Sam):
"I am one of the officers who arrested Ozzy at the Alamo and to set the
record straight he was
not wearing a womans clothes. He had on athletic shoes with no socks, a
T-shirt and a pair of
sweatpants with no underwear.
He also had a pack of cigarettes rolled up in one sleeve. He was wasted and
he never spoke. Billy
actually arrested him and I was driving the "wagon" that day. The wagon is a
van outfitted for
prisoner transport. I was called to transport him from the Alamo to jail.
The jail was then
directly across from the S.A.P.D. and it now is the Wackenhut federal parole
violator jail. I've
kicked myself several times since then for not having kept copies of the
reports.
I know what he was wearing because I searched him for weapons and had very
close contact with
him. Half way to the jail, which was only about a mile away the dispatchers
were already calling
wanting to know who had him in custody. By the time I dropped him off there
was a long black
stretch limo waiting for him.
You might note for your records he was actually given a big break. He was
arrested and booked for
public intoxication a class "C" misdemeanor which carries a max $200.00
fine. The law that more
appropriately applied was "Desecration of a venerated Object" which covers
among other things
"Shrines." The Alamo is considered a shrine.
You can post my info on your web page if you like. I think it would be cool
to hear from fans to
answer their questions.
Check back later on the report. Send me the exact date again as I really do
not remember and I'll
try to get it for you. "
Ozzy married his long time friend Sharon, on a Honolulu-Hawaii beach on July
4, 1982. Tommy
Aldridge was the best man.
-----------------------------------------------------------------------
2.3 What is this about a dove?
-----------------------------------------------------------------------
While the bat incident which still haunts Oz's reputation to this day can be
called an accident,
the incident with the dove can be called stupidity.
Here is the story: After leaving Black Sabbath, Ozzy was rejected by many
record labels. Tony
Martell, CBS records executive, signed Ozzy to a contract. Ozzy and wife
Sharon were being
introduced to the head executives of CBS records in Los Angeles (Guitar
Magazine claims it was
New York).
CBS was not too interested in Ozzy because they had just signed Adam Ant.
Ozzy was just another
album to them, and they were not interested in the person behind the music.
Sharon decided it
would be a good publicity stunt for Ozzy to walk into the office and throw
two doves
up into the air.
The stunt worked, and made CBS pay attention to Ozzy. It also made the
nation pay attention to
Ozzy as well: After throwing one dove up in the air, Ozzy bit the head off
of the other one. It
is not known whether Sharon intended for Ozzy to actually bite the dove's
head off or not. Ozzy
has already admitted he (not surprisingly) had drunk a bottle of booze
beforehand. Make no
mistake about it, Sharon Osbourne is a shrewd marketer and I wouldn't put
any dirty trick past
her. What follows is an interview with an eyewitness (from Epic) who saw the
event:
Q: What happened?
A: It was a normal Thursday morning marketing meeting down in the
conference room. It was just prior to the release of Ozzy's first solo
album. His management and Jet Records, which is the associated label that
puts out his albums,
had arranged for him to pay a little surprise visit to us, to say "Hi, my
name is Ozzy Osbourne,
and let's make this record a hit".
Q: Is it unusual for the artist to come to a marketing meeting?
A: No, they seldom do. We've had people from time to time just come in.
Their manager arranges for them to drop by and say, "Surprise!" just to
push the album.
Q: Then what happened?
A: He walked in with Sharon, who later became his wife, and [withheld] from
Jet Records. They
introduced Ozzy all around, and there was a photographer with them. They sat
him down on the arm
of a chair, and he pulled a dove out of his pocket. I looked at it and
thought, "Gee how cute!"
Q: It was a live dove?
A: I'm ninety-nine and nine-tenths sure it was alive, but now I can't sayfor
sure. I remember I
was leaning forward and thinking, "How cute," and suddenly he bites its head
off. There was blood
on the floor. I think he ate the head; he started spitting some feathers
out. I was in shock.
It's hard to remember too much after that, to tell you the truth. It was
horrible.
Q: What was the reaction of the people in the room?
A: There was a stunned silence, and they got him out of there, fast. It was
just very quiet-not a
good reaction, I would say. People were going, "Yucch!". Some looked as
though they thought it
was a fake bird, that it was all just a publicity stunt. And others said
"No, it's a real bird
and what a horrible thing to do." Personally, I thought it was an awful
thing to do even if it
was a fake bird. Sharon called up afterward and sort of apologized.
Q: Do you think it was her idea all along?
A: Oh, I know it was. I said to her, "He's not mad, just desperate for
publicity."
Q: Did it work? Did he get the publicity?
A: I don't think it worked in getting Epic Records to take notice, but I
think it did work as far
as getting the kids to take notice. When the story leaked out, with photos
and all, it got around
everywhere. I'm sure Sharon was calling columns all over the country. That
sort of became the
Ozzy legend, that and all the other things he did afterwards.
Q: Sharon said that Epic wasn't taking any notice of Ozzy before this
happened.
A: I feel that people were already aware of Ozzy, prior to the meeting. My
impression was
certainly that he was a major artist we were going to be working with. I
doubt if it changed our
impression one way or the other, although I could be wrong. Obviously, he
went on to great
success, and maybe that was part of the reason, but who am I to say?
Q: So it was all definitely planned in advance?
A: Definitely. It was not a spontaneous act. He just didn't walk in and
happen to find a dove
hanging out in the CBS reception area and say, "Gee, I'll take this in with
me in case I get
hungry and they don't have coffee and doughnuts." It was right in his jacket
pocket. Come to
think of it, he had two of them. That was it: he had two of them, one in
each pocket. He let the
other one go afterwards. Everyone made him do it. He took the other one out
of his pocket and
everyone screamed, "No, don't do it again!"
Q: Did the second one fly away? That would indicate the first one was
alive, wouldn't it?
A: Not necessarily. He might have had one live one and one fake one. It's
just all so hazy; I was
so shocked.
(Ed: There are reports of three doves, however I believe there were only
two.)
-----------------------------------------------------------------------
2.4 Wife as manager/Speak of the Devil
-----------------------------------------------------------------------
"I am something of a madman. I can do nothing in moderation. If it's
booze, I drink the place dry. If it's drugs, I take everything and then
scrape the carpet for little crumbs. I took LSD everyday for years - I was
spending about $1000 a
week on drugs... I OD'd about a dozen times." ...Ozzy on his addictions
Once married, the better deal they had hoped for fell through. Sharon did
not want her father
controlling Ozzy's future any more. It was decided that the two of them
would buy out Ozzy's
contract from her father. Before they could buy out Ozzy's management and
recording contracts,
Ozzy still had to deliver an album under his old contract. Since he wanted
out badly, the result
was the purposely low-budget live album "Speak of the Devil". This album was
a live concert
recorded Sept. 26 and 27th at The Ritz in New York. After the album was
done, Ozzy could then
leave his contract with Sharon's father.
Don would not give it up so easily though, even for his own daughter. The
newly married couple,
not having much money, had to buy Ozzy's contract for over $1.5 million
dollars from her father.
Sharon has not spoken with her father since. Speak of the devil was released
in November of 1982.
The runes on the border of the 'Speak of the Devil' album and inside cover
actually translate
into meaningful phrases. The translation is found in Ozzy's autobiography
book:
"Howdy! Dial-A-Demon productions in conjunction with graveyard graphics
proudly presents the
madman of rock dumping into El Satanos toiletto. "A tribute to Randy Rhoads,
the axeman. That kid
was my lifeline, you know? He was such a dynamic player and I'd rather not
talk about it anymore
because it cuts me up every day of my life. Randy Rhoads rest in peace and
love."
One of the conditions for the transfer of Ozzy's contract from Don to Sharon
was that she get him
to enroll in the Betty Ford center for his drinking problems. She did this
by telling him she was
"going to teach him to drink like a gentleman". Ozzy took this to mean that
he would learn how
to drink properly, not at all what the Betty Ford center was for. When he
showed up, he asked
where he could find the bar. It didn't take long to find out that at Betty
Ford there is no bar!
Ozzy would also begin work on his next album, Bark at the Moon.
-----------------------------------------------------------------------
2.5 Suicide Solution
-----------------------------------------------------------------------
"I swear on my kid's life I never said 'get the f***ing gun'"
...Ozzy on his Suicide Solution song
"They know what they are putting out. There are people who are out there
trying to make money,
and they have no hesitation to sell your kids down the drain. You see a
perfectly normal kid
there who doesn't show any signs of depression at all. Then six hours later,
he's dead. Nobody
can explain it. The only thing we know is that he was listening to this
music."
...Father of suicide victim who listened to Ozzy
A song on Ozzy's first solo album, "Blizzard of Ozz" would cause a lot of
trouble. The song
"Suicide Solution" from the start, would have a very misleading title and
this was
understandable. Ozzy wrote the song after the singer for AC/DC (Bon Scott)
died after drinking
heavily one winter's night and passing out in his car, dying of hypothermia
as a result. Ozzy's
intentions were to talk about alcohol as a DEADLY LIQUID ('solution' meaning
mixture) but the
word 'solution' was looked upon as "an answer" instead. If you are not
familiar with Ozzy's
lyrics and true intentions, I strongly suggest before you pass judgement, to
read the meaning
behind the song.
Suicide Solution:
================
Wine is fine
But whiskey's quicker
Suicide is slow with liquor
Take a bottle drain your sorrows
Then it cuts away tomorrows
Evil thoughts and evil doings
Cold, alone you hang in ruins
Thought that you'd escape the reaper
You can't escape the master keeper
'Cause you feel life's unreal and you're living a lie
Such a shame who's to blame and you're wondering why
Then you ask from your cask is there life after birth
What you saw can mean hell on this earth
Now you live inside a bottle
The reaper's traveling at full throttle
It's catching you but you don't see
The reaper is you and the reaper is me
Breaking laws, knocking doors
But there's no one at home
Made your bed, rest your head
But you lie there and moan
Where to hide,
suicide is the only way out
Don't you know what it's really about
The song is clearly about the dangers of alcohol, but the song title could
be misinterpreted just
as well. Try as I might, I just can't see anything which tells a person to
commit suicide. The
only misleading words are in the song title. In October 1984, a
nineteen-year-old teenager named
John M. shot himself in the head, while listening to Ozzy Osbourne's
"Suicide Solution". When the
coroner entered the room, he found the headphones still on John's head.
In 1986, Ozzy had just gotten off a plane at LAX airport when people began
asking him about the
"lawsuits". Ozzy knew nothing about any lawsuit but the details quickly
emerged. Three lawsuits
had been launched against Ozzy, claiming that his lyrics had caused youths
to commit suicide.
The family of John hired attorney Thomas Anderson in a lawsuit against Ozzy.
Mr. Anderson
claimed on the "Don't Blame Me" Ozzy video, that the song contained tones
known as 'hemisync'
and would cause a person to be unable to resist what was being said in the
song. On Jan. 13,
1986 the parents of John, sued Ozzy.
The lawsuit was thrown out on Dec. 19, 1986 by a California Superior Court
judge. On July 18,
1988 an appeals court uphold the decision to dismiss the lawsuit.
The Institute for Bio-Acoustics Research, Inc. (IBAR) was hired to evaluate
the song. They found
subliminal lyrics that weren't included in the lyrics sheet. These
subliminal lyrics were sung
at one and one-half times the normal rate of speech and are not recognized
by a first time
listener. The IBAR institute claimed the subliminal lyrics, "are audible
enough that their
meaning and true intent becomes clear after being listened to over and over
again." The
subliminal lyrics in question were "Why try, why try? Get the gun and try
it! Shoot, Shoot,
Shoot", followed by a hideous laughter.
Further analysis by IBAR revealed the hemisync tones, which result from a
patented process that
uses sound waves to influence an individual's mental state. The tones have
been found to
increase the rate at which the human brain assimilates and processes
information. IBAR claimed
these tones made John vulnerable to the suggestive lyrics which Ozzy sang.
Ozzy's lawyer claimed that this was nonsense and relied upon the First
Amendment of the
Constitution to argue that Ozzy could write about anything he wanted. Three
people had now taken
their lives, and in each case it was Ozzy's 'Suicide Solution' song which
was the focus as the
cause of the deaths. Mr. Anderson claimed that the words, "shoot shoot, get
the gun, get the
gun" were audible in the song. There is an effect which can be heard on the
song, that could be
interpreted as that. The sounds were just Ozzy dicking around with the
soundboard. There is the
very real possibility which we must consider, that the record company wanted
to promote
publicity and placed these tones in purposely, but this is not for me to
prove or disprove.
Throughout the world, this problem would occur only in America. People were
forced to now take a
look at the family life instead of the actual music.
Rather than blaming the music, families should have realized it was up to
the parents to be
strong role models and have good communication with their children. In all
cases, Ozzy was found
not at fault and has sworn that this was never the true meaning behind the
song. Heavy metal
seems to be a scape-goat in which to blame teenagers problems such as drug
abuse on. Yet
teenagers who may listen to punk, jazz, or blues music may also suffer from
substance abuse or
commit suicide. As a parent, you should be keeping not only a close eye on
the type of music
your child is listening to, but get involved in their lives. Talk to them,
ask them how are they
doing, try to forge some kind of a relationship. When kids turn to heavy
metal, sometimes though
not always, it is a form of rebelling against a society or education system
they dislike.
What follows is an article written by a group calling themselves "Truth
About Rock":
'' One teenager who unfortunately succeeded in committing suicide was 14
year old Eric A. of St.
Louis Park, Minnesota. His favorite groups were Van Halen, Black Sabbath,
Ozzy Osbourne, AC/DC,
Quiet Riot, and Motley Crue. Eric's mother said, "He watched it (MTV) day
and night. He...
watched intil(sic) six o'clock in the morning." Eric and his friends were so
obsessed with the
rock scene that, the very night before he died, they held a seance and
attempted to contack(sic)
the spirits of dead rock stars. At 2:30 the next afternoon, with his eyes
filled with tears, he
said to his father, "Dad, I just can't cope with the pressure." He then went
into his room, took
his .22 rifle off the wall rack, and killed himself. ''
[Right here we have some problems. If a kid is spending all his time in
front of the television,
it might be a wise idea for the parents to intervene. If you just let him
soak up videos all
day, there may be a problem. Hosting a seance is also not a normal social
activity for a
teenager. Why did the father not talk to his son?]
'' Apparently, he had followed the deranged advice of one of his favorite
rock singers, Ozzy
Osbourne, who preaches in "Suicide Solution" "Suicide is the only way
out/...Why don't you kill
yourself 'cause you can't escape the Master Reaper..." {3} ''
[This is not true. Ozzy never says "Why don't you kill yourself". This is a
prime example of a
religious group portraying Ozzy as a menace to society. If you read the
lyrics of his song you
would see otherwise.]
'' Though Ozzy preaches such deadly lyrics, he defends himself
saying,"Parents have called me
and said, 'When my son died of a drug over-dose, your record was on the
turntable.' I can't help
that. These people are freaking out anyway, and they need a vehicle for the
freakouts." {4} ''
I will leave the closing words to the remainder of the groups article:
'' Pathetically, Rock Stars themselves are being caught in the devastating
grasp of suicide.
Peter Townshend, formerly of The Who, acknowledged "Rock is going to kill me
somehow. Mentally
or physically or some thing, it's going to get me in the end." {5} I myself
spent 6 months
contemplating suicide every day. The influence of Drugs and Rock 'n' Roll
had almost destroyed
my life. Until, with a knife in my hand, after trying to cut my wrists, I
cried out "God help
me!" From that moment on He began to change my life, and a short while later
I became a 'born
again' Christian. Whether you like it or not, you are in a battle for your
life. The Devil wants
to destroy you and he is using Rock music as a primary agent. But God has
not given you life,
only to have it choked out by the demented obsessions of Rock musicians.
There is only one
solution to your problems. Begin to live for God and not for yourself.
Because Jesus loves you,
He came to Earth to give His life in your place, so that you wouldn't have
to die for your own
sins. If you give your life back to Him, He will give you the peace you're
looking for. ''
For more information on Rock n'Roll, write to: Truth About Rock,
Box 9222, North St. Paul, MN. 55109
Note: Since there is a constant turnover of new Rock groups some of those
mentioned above may
not currently be "hot". However, be assured that other groups have taken
their place and
continue to present a similar message.
FOOTNOTES: {1} National Center For Health Statistics
{2} Aurora Mackey, "The Frightening Facts About Teen Suicide"< Teen, 10/83
{3} Truth About Rock Report, June/July '85, p. 6
{4} "Heavy Metal Mania", Anne Fadiman, Life magazine,12/84, p.112
{5} Time magazine Dec. 17, 1979, pg. 94
* UPDATE *
One of Ozzy’s original band members claims that the song is NOT about Bon
Scott. In an
interview, Bob Daisley claims, “He’s (Ozzy) a fuck. He didn’t write it. I
know what I wrote it
about.”
Daisley says he came up with the lyrics and Ozzy came up with the first
line. Daisley says he
wrote the song as a warning to Ozzy about his drinking.
-----------------------------------------------------------------------
2.6 Bark at the Moon
-----------------------------------------------------------------------
Ozzy's next album would be "Bark at the Moon". The title track is a song
about a creature
(werewolf) who has come back to seek revenge on those who scorned and buried
him. The video
portrays Ozzy being confined to an asylum because he was a mad scientist. In
the asylum he sees
this werewolf running around chasing him. This song, like his earlier songs
would supposedly
affect his listeners in negative ways, read on:
"Rock Sparks Stabbing", Canadian Press Association:
Halifax, Canada, 9/26/84
"...according to the Canadian Press Wire Service, the effect of heavy metal
rock music so
influenced a young Canadian named James Jollimore, that '...on New Year's
Eve -1983, he went out
and stabbed someone. A friend of the defendant testified that Jollimore, 20,
who is charged with
the first-degree murder of a 44 year old woman and her two sons, felt like
stabbing people when
he heard music such as Ozzy Osbourne's 'Bark at the Moon'. 'Jimmy said that
every time he
listened to the song he felt strange inside,' the friend told the court. 'He
said when he heard
it on New Year's Eve he went out and stabbed someone.'"
[Once again the blame would be shifted from the individual to the musician.]
Ozzy's band now consisted of Jake E. Lee on guitar, Tommy Aldridge, Don
Airey on keyboard and
Bob Daisley on bass. One of the videos they filmed for the album was the
lovely ballad, "So
Tired". This ballad made use of a full orchestra. An interesting note: Ozzy
also plays the parts
of all the main characters in the video. A good use of makeup art is
evident. One scene shows
Ozzy in front of a mirror clenching his fists, and the mirror shatters.
While filming the video,
the charge which would shatter the mirror was too strong and the mirror
exploded sending glass
into Ozzy's face.
-----------------------------------------------------------------------
2.7 The Ultimate Disaster
-----------------------------------------------------------------------
After the release of the 1984 Bark at the Moon album and subsequent tour,
Ozzy began work on the
long awaited Ultimate Sin album. The Ultimate Sin would come out in 1986,
ending the long wait
by his fans. It would also be one of the poorest amongst the opinions of
Ozzy and his fans as
well. The album's sound was cheesy and according to Ozzy, most of songs
ended up sounding alike
(which they do).
On March 19, 1987, due to overwhelming demand by his fans, Ozzy also
released the Randy Rhoad's Tribute album. Randy's mother, Dolores had
dozens of letters from fans wanting to know if there were any more Randy
concerts out there. She
then contacted Ozzy who searched through his house and came up with some old
archive material.
The material was sent to Max Norman who had produced Ozzy's first three
albums, to see if the
material was suitable. The result was the Randy Rhoad's Tribute album. Ozzy
also played only one
show that year, at the HMP Wormwood Scrubs prison in the UK.
-----------------------------------------------------------------------
2.8 No Rest for the Wicked
-----------------------------------------------------------------------
The following year, in 1988, Ozzy released his 'No Rest for the Wicked'
album. This featured
Zakk Wylde (who had his own band 'Pride and Glory') on guitar, Randy
Castillo on drums and Bob
Daisley on bass guitar. The album title again was a bit eerie and the cover
showed an Osbourne
sitting in a chair with two girls (looking possessed) and one screaming at
him. Zakk, who had
heard Ozzy on Howard Stern mention that he was looking for a new guitar
player, didn't think he
had a chance. It was not until later when a rock photographer mentioned he
would be happy to
pass along a tape of Zakk's music, did he then get the audition and the
subsequent part.
On August 12 and 13th of 1989, Ozzy played the Moscow Music Peace Festival.
This show featured
acts like Bon Jovi, Scorpions and Motley Crue. The other bands were
basically small club bands
but of course Ozzy was a world-wide name and the crowd just went crazy when
it was his turn to
play.
In March of 1990, Geezer would join Ozzy in releasing a live album titled
"Just Say Ozzy". This
would contain some of the No Rest for the Wicked and Black Sabbath material
combined. Nothing to
write home about.
-----------------------------------------------------------------------
2.9 No More Beers
-----------------------------------------------------------------------
"A lot of my drinking friends died in their 40's-heart attacks, one
guy's liver exploded. There but for the grace of God go I. Their
must be a guiding star over me" [Ozzy 1996]
The year 1991 would mark the beginning of big changes in Ozzy's life. Ozzy
gave sobriety another
try, and came out victorious. It was a combination of domestic situations,
hangovers, and many
personal reasons which made him want to try again. He had wanted to quit
drinking every day but
was unable to because he'd be feeling too bad from the day before. He had
been to many treatment
centers (including multiple stays at Betty Ford) before. This time he just
woke up one day and
decided that enough was enough. Since successfully quitting, he has not had
a drink to this day!
Now that he wasn't drinking, Ozzy took his health one step further. He
bought a Lifecycle (which
he uses at least 90 minutes a day), starting dieting (he now avoids eating
red meat) and working
out. The result was a better looking Ozzy, both in physical aspects and his
on stage
performance.
He would also begin to see life in a different light, enjoying life's
moments that he had
previously ignored because of being constantly drunk. There would be another
change, this time
in his musical direction. Ozzy has said he used to write songs based on what
he thought his fans
would like to hear. The album titles were dark. He had never written or
recorded an album sober
before. During this alcohol free period he recorded his next album, "No More
Tears", which would
be a change from his previous dark album titles.
No More Tears was originally going to be titled "Say Hello To Heaven" which
would be an accurate
portrayal of the cover. The cover showed a tame looking Ozzy with wings, in
a cloudy serene
background. The music itself was a pleasant mix of soft ballads like "Mama
I'm Coming Home" (one
even your mother would enjoy), to hard rocking songs like "Hellraiser". It
is of interest to
note that Lemmy of Motorhead helped Ozzy write the lyrics to some of the
songs (or in the case
of Mama, he wrote all the lyrics). The song "Road to Nowhere" would describe
his life in
general, while "Mr. Tinkertrain" would talk about child molestation issues.
Being written in the
first person, critics now claimed Ozzy was promoting child molestation.
Ozzy would also win a Grammy award for the song, "I Don't Want to Change the
World". This would
also be a first in that it was the first album they made demos of, thus
deciding on which songs
to keep and which ones to make changes to. Samples of the untouched,
original songs are
available on bootlegs as well.
Ozzy surprised everyone by calling the tour, "No More Tours". In interviews
he said that he was
tired of touring and he wanted to spend more time with his family. He was
also suffering bouts
of illnesses, canceling shows, and other injuries. The pressures of touring
got to him and he
embarked on what was to be his "final tour". The band now consisted of Zakk
on guitar, Randy
Castillo on drums and Mike Inez on bass. During these final tours, some
shows were taped and
used in an upcoming commercial video and audio compilation, "Live and Loud"
which was a double
album. The CD package also included two stick-on tattoos. There was much
speculation about
whether or not this would be the final tour, or perhaps it was a ploy to get
more money.
On November 15 of 1992, Ozzy played at Costa Mesa, California. This was one
of the two nightly
shows that would be the last in his tour. Sharon and Ozzy decided it would
be cool to invite the
other members of Black Sabbath for a reunion since this would be the end of
it all. All of the
members of Black Sabbath agreed, but Ronnie Dio did not. After playing his
songs, the members of
Black Sabbath came out and joined Ozzy in playing four songs: Black Sabbath,
Fairies Wear Boots,
Iron Man and of course, Paranoid.
The video release of this final show only contains the Black Sabbath song
though. How did the
audience react at seeing the original Sabbath members back together since
1978? They went
totally crazy of course. At the end of the show a fireworks sparkler display
went off which
proclaimed, "I'll Be Back". The purpose of having a final show and then
saying you'll be back is
beyond me.
Being his final tour, sales were high and other artists turned out to see
the madman before he
retired, including Vince Neil, Rod Stewart and Nicholas Cage.
When it was all over, so was Ozzy's lifetime of performing. Or so he wanted
us to think.
-----------------------------------------------------------------------
2.10 Ozzmosis
-----------------------------------------------------------------------
In 1993, Ozzy was officially retired. His fans had the 'Live and Loud' video
and double CD to
remind them of his final days. Ozzy went home and did what he longed to do,
be a father. He
spent time playing with his children and wife. He also bought various toys
to pass time:
motorcycles, guns, and night vision goggles (to see animals running at
night). It would not be
too long before he longed for his old lifestyle and after a few weeks of
being retired, Ozzy
wanted to get another band and start touring all over again.
His fans soon began hearing rumors of an upcoming Ozzy album, what would it
be called? The
latest gossip was "X-Ray" as a working title. There were also disgruntled
fans who were angry
(and rightly so) that they had been taken in by another lie. [While I am a
huge fan of Ozzy's, I
am not going to only portray the good sides of him, this is after all a
biography and it is part
of the story]. Rumors also persisted that Steve Vai would be playing on the
new album.
It was not until almost two years later that the rumors became facts. Yes,
Ozzy was coming back
with a new album. Yes, there would be a tour to support it. The album would
be called
"Ozzmosis".
Ozzmosis was released on September 1995.
Ozzmosis is defined as "the diffusion of fluids through a membrane" :)
Geezer Butler, his old
Sabbath friend would also be on the album and tour. The band recorded the
album in Paris, and
was produced by Michael Beinhorn. Since Zakk was busy with his own project,
Pride and Glory, it
was arranged that Steve Vai would be contributing to the album. The songs
would be split so that
both Zakk and Vai would appear on the album. Because of the record company
once again
interfering with plans, only Zakk's material made it to the final product.
However Steve Vai DID
play the guitar on My Little Man. "Perry Mason", was released as a single
earlier on and
received radio play.
All that remained after the album's debut was to begin touring...
-----------------------------------------------------------------------
2.11 Why did Zakk leave Ozzy?
-----------------------------------------------------------------------
Ozzy would name his Ozzmosis tour, "Retirement Sucks" in an obvious
statement about his feelings
towards his short lived retirement. It was now time to begin touring. Zakk
was talking about
playing with Guns and Roses so Ozzy decided to audition new guitarists,
thinking Zakk would not
be around for the tour. Zakk's manager, Doug Goldstein, called Sharon and
told her that Zakk
would be available. He later phoned to say that Zakk was still negotiating
for the gig with Guns
and Roses. Ozzy did not know what Zakk was planning to do because he was
negotiating with both
groups, and so asked Zakk to let him know what his plans were. When Zakk did
not return the phone
call as promised, Ozzy decided enough was enough and found a new player.
Ozzy and Zakk are still
on good terms however.
Remember Joe Holmes, the kid who took guitar lessons from Randy? The 31 year
old guitar player
who hailed from New Jersey, would soon play a part in Ozzy's life. Joe had
previously played with
David Lee Roth for his 1988 tour and was currently working on his own band,
"Tariff", when Dean
Castronovo (Oz's drummer) phoned Joe to let him know they were seeking a
guitar player. Joe went
down to Audible in Los Angeles and played three Ozzy classics. He did not
mention that he had
once took lessons from Randy because he thought this might jeopardize his
chances. He succeeded
though and got the part. Unfortunately Joe is not heard on the Ozzmosis
album but he will be on
the next one. So Joe Holmes as Ozzy's new guitar player and Geezer Butler on
bass began the
Retirement Sucks tour. Halfway through the tour, Geezer left due to being
homesick for his family
and Mike Inez took his place.
-----------------------------------------------------------------------
2.11b Ozzfest
-----------------------------------------------------------------------
Later on, in yet another shrewd marketing attempt, Ozzy and Sharon came up
with the 'Ozz-Fest'.
The festival which would start September 14, 1996 would be of a different
theme. At this event
one could get a tattoo done, body piercing or have your fortune read by a
psychic. Ozz-fest
featured the following hard rock groups: Danzig, Sepultura, Prong, Slayer,
Biohazard, Fear
Factory, Neurosis, King Norris, Earth Crisis, Powerman 5000, Coal Chamber,
and Cellophane.
Ozzfest prices are insane. $3 for a bottle of water, $4 for a hot dog.
Sharon is taking it all
to the bank.
Towards November 1996, Ozzy played his last show of the tour in Hawaii. His
plans now were to go
back to the studio to release a 'Greatest Hits' package (early 1997) which
will have his older
songs and three new ones. One of them would be a song called "Back on Earth"
which was
co-written with Steve Vai.
Timeline continued in [2.14]
-----------------------------------------------------------------------
2.12 Of Priests and Devils
-----------------------------------------------------------------------
Years ago a particular news snippet caught my attention. It was a news clip
about a religious
group who were burning records. It showed children and adults throwing
record albums into a
bonfire. A priest told the interviewer, "One of the albums we're going to be
burning tonight is
Ozzy Osbourne's Speak of the Devil". The album cover shows Ozzy sitting in a
chair, or throne,
with his mouth open and drooling what is supposed to be blood (but looks
more like strawberry
jam). At Ozzy Osbourne concerts, religious believers have been known to hand
out pamphlets to
concert-goers.
Religious leaders have condemned Ozzy for being a Satanist and devil
worshipper. Ozzy's shows
are boycotted and he is banned from playing certain cities. Is any of the
hype true, and as a
parent should you be concerned if your child is listening to Ozzy Osbourne?
To start, Ozzy has
had a record of macabre album titles: Diary of a Madman, Speak of the Devil,
No Rest for the
Wicked and The Ultimate Sin. However the old saying, "you can't judge a book
by its cover"
certainly comes into play here. As a priest, an album called 'Speak of the
Devil' and showing a
man spewing blood would certainly be cause for alarm. But if you take a
closer look at the album
and listen to the songs, it becomes another story. Speak of the Devil is
simply a live album
boasting some of the earlier Black Sabbath material. There is absolutely no
reference AT ALL to
Satan. The closest Ozzy comes on that album or most any other of his albums
to evil, are songs
such as 'Snowblind' and 'Sweet Leaf' which talk about drug usage. You can
pull out all of Ozzy's
albums, glance at the cover pictures and album titles and dismiss him as a
devil worshipper in a
heavy metal band. However we live in a world where people are free to make
their own minds up
about what they believe. I fail to see anywhere in Ozzy's career any truth
to the Satanic
rumors. I am a fan of Ozzy's and it is true I might be somewhat biased
towards him, but I can
reassure you I have never seen anything, WHATSOEVER, that leads me to
believe Ozzy has any
relationship with the devil. Fans of his may laugh at this but there are
obviously people out
there who seriously believe otherwise.
So why then has this man been accused so often of being associated with
evil? To explain this
would be beyond my abilities. I can however tell you that his album covers
may play a part. The
fact that people have claimed to have heard backwards messages in his music
may also play a
part. The suicide deaths of teenagers listening to Ozzy's music also go hand
in hand with the
allegations of backwards messages. The fact he was once lead singer for a
band called Black
Sabbath also may play a part. I really can't tell you why people claim this.
True, he is a
singer in a band which is considered heavy metal. This does not make him an
evil person.
In all fairness, he has lived a life of drug and alcohol abuse and done some
very stupid things
which people will always remember him for. Overlooking the stupid stunts he
has done, I don't
find any evidence of his being an evil person.
If you are a parent, should you be concerned if Jimmy brings home an Ozzy
Osbourne album? Well,
to answer that you need to look at a few outside factors. Is the kid level
headed and are the
lines of communication open with your child? If the child has serious
problems, perhaps
listening to his "Suicide Solution" would be a mistake. It is very easy to
misconstrue the
lyrics and it just might play a part in your son's decision. If your child
is planning suicide,
there are obviously more serious problems than that of an Ozzy album. I
don't wish to spread
panic, there is no need to really go and censor all of his albums. The fact
is that if given the
right circumstances, any medium could lead someone to believe suicide is ok.
If you trust your
child's judgement and believe him to be level headed, I don't see any real
problems. Mind you I
am NOT an expert, nor do I pretend to be. I am simply someone who grew up
listening to Ozzy's
music. Maybe you should sit down with the lyrics to the song and explain
that it was the
death of the singer for AC/DC which prompted the song, and the lyrics
pertain to alcohol
solution not answer-to-your-problem-solution. I figure it like this: If
Jimmy is thinking of
committing suicide, I think listening to an Ozzy album would be the same as
watching a TV
program or reading a paper on the same subject. If the child sees other
teens talking about
wanting to commit, how they tried to, or how life is not worth living,
perhaps that media
attention on the topic would affect his decision just as much.
Up till now I have been talking mainly of suicide, this is because music
could play a crucial
weight in a child's decision. However a song about suicide is irrelevant to
the topic of this
chapter. I merely wanted to address the question or whether it is okay to
listen to Ozzy. SURE!
I never sacrificed any cats, nor did I try to kill myself. I did not go out
on a full moon and
try to eat a dog either, maybe if I was sleepwalking but not that I can
remember. :)
So why then does the religious faith attack this man? I sincerely do not
know. I really don't.
Perhaps it has to do with the last chapter. Maybe when our children turn to
drugs and alcohol
and kills animals, it must be heavy metal's fault. There has been a long
waged war against
metal. I think statistically you will find that a lot of troubled teenagers
and drug abusers
listen to heavy metal but I would not blame that music category for it. As
Ozzy once said, "I'm
sure people smoke pot at a Stevie Wonder concert". Let us now talk about
some of the religious
people who have attacked Osbourne for being in league with the devil.
Cardinal O'Connor
--------------------
This man accused Ozzy of being the devil and told people that exorcisms were
real and that Oz's
music was spreading the devil's word. 'A Current Affair' also did a
telephone survey in which
the majority of callers said that they felt heavy metal music was killing
their kids.
Jimmy Swaggart
---------------------
Another television evangelist. The man makes his bread and butter by selling
God. The morals of
this are not mine to determine. Jimmy also put down Ozzy. Jim was later
found coming out of a
hotel room with a prostitute. He was later shown on television crying to God
and asking for
forgiveness. I don't wish to put him down for his repenting, but the fact he
put down someone
else and committed his own sins is hypocrisy. The fact is he is a human
being with human urges
and he can't deny that. Ozzy made a song and video called "Miracle Man" in
which he talks about
Jimmy and his critical views.
Oral Roberts
------------------
Another evangelist who has put down Ozzy. This is the same man who claimed
if he did not get 7
million dollars by a certain time, God would be calling him back home. To
me, this seems a very
obvious and pathetic attempt at milking the public. Ozzy makes his money
through hard work, not
pretending he will soon die.
None of these people offered to help Ozzy in his time of depression and
substance abuse. Though
Ozzy did send Oral Roberts a single dollar for "his psychiatric bill".
-----------------------------------------------------------------------
2.13 Will there ever be a reunion?
-----------------------------------------------------------------------
It depends on what kind of reunion you want to know about. The possibility
of Ozzy and the three
Sabs reuniting as a permanent group is nill. It just won't happen. A partial
reunion for the
sake of fans (or should I say FAN$) is probable.
What you may not know is that during the time Ozzy was playing his last show
in Costa Mesa with
his old Sabbath buddies, the foursome had already been talking for nearly a
year about a
reunion. It was originally going to be a two month tour and an album (a
Sabbath-head's dream
come true). As time progressed though, Ozzy grew uncomfortable about doing
the reunion. Problems
began arising... the four original members now had their own managers,
lawyers, and record
companies. Each person's manager wanted to be the one in charge of the
project which would
result in a fortune. The Sabs just wanted to do the show. Ozzy has since
gone on to say that he
might have done a reunion if they had scrapped the name Black Sabbath at the
time when the
original members left. As it stands, Black Sabbath has had members leave,
come back and then
leave again. There have been numerous changes in the members of the band
involving outside
players. Ozzy felt that the name Black Sabbath no longer represented what it
once did. This
chapter deals with the idea of Black Sabbath reunited for good. In fact,
Black Sabbath and Ozzy
HAVE reunited for concerts, but both remain two separate bands.
Since the Costa Mesa show, Ozzy has agreed to reunite with Sabbath for a
small tour. This
coincided with a live album which was released October 31, 1998. This will
not be a permanent
reunion, however the band is touring North America in 1999.
As of 2005, Black Sabbath did get together to write some material. Bill Ward
has about 30 tapes
these sessions. Ozzy hasn’t ruled out the possibility of a reunion but so
far Ozzfest remains
he only chance to see the four original members on the same stage.
Tony Iommi had this to say on the subject:
The band has come up with about six songs, none of which have been formally
recorded. "The
tracks were good; actually, I thought, very good," he said. "But we didn't
get as far as
actually recording them; we demoed them.
Black Sabbath has reunited:
In 1985, the original members of Black Sabbath (Iommi/Butler/Osbourne/Ward)
reunited for the
Live Aid benefit concert. They played three songs.
In 1992, the 1980-1982 version of Black Sabbath (Iommi/Butler/Dio/Appice)
reunited and toured
for the album Dehumanizer.
In 1992, the original members of Black Sabbath played three songs after one
of Ozzy Osbourne's
"retirement" concerts in Costa Mesa, California.
In 1995, the 1989-1991 version of the band
(Iommi/Powell/Martin/Murray/Nicholls) reunited for
the album and tour for Forbidden.
In 1997-98, the original members of Black Sabbath reunited, toured and
released Reunion.
In 1999, 2001, 2004 and 2005 the original Black Sabbath reunited and toured
on Osbourne's
Ozzfest.
Ozzy’s management denies any new album will be released. Tony seems to think
there will be. Ozzy
has said there might be. Apparently there is, isn’t or might be – depending
on whom you ask.
------------------------------------------------------------------------
2.14 After Ozzmosis
------------------------------------------------------------------------
"For all the money we have, the way we live, the cars we drive, the
first-class travel we
take...I would gladly give it all up just to be simple old Ozzy again." …
Ozzy
Ozz Records
===========
Ozzy and Sharon started their own record label, Ozz Records in 1996. The
first release under the
label was "The Ozz Fest - Live".
The company began as an idea that they could be more personal and fun than
the large corporate
labels.
They began building a studio in London.
The record label was eventually abandoned because Ozzfest was a full time
effort.
1995-1996
========
After the release of Ozzmosis in 1995, Ozzy was ready to return to the music
scene after his
hiatus. Sharon, his wife and manager had tried unsuccessfully to have Ozzy
become an addition to
Lollapolooza. She was turned down, because Lollapolooza organizers felt Ozzy
was old and not
quite the fresh face they were seeking. So in a moment of anger she decided
she'd simply start
her own. It would be called Ozzfest.
After ironing out the details, a trial run of The Ozzfest debuted in 1996
with the following
bands: Ozzy Osbourne (headliner), Danzig, Slayer, Sepultura, Prong,
Biohazard and Fear Factory.
They did two gigs in October 1996 which were a large success."The Ozzfest
Live" was recorded
October 26th during this trial run.
One of the appealing aspects of Ozzfest is that in addition to the main
stage, there was also a smaller stage for lesser known bands. Sharon allowed
up and coming
talent to make a name for themselves including such bands as Coal Chamber,
Powerman 5000 and
Celophane.
1997
=====
1997 saw the full blown Ozzfest festival begin May 24th. The 1996 trial run
having showed a
definite interest. It featured Black Sabbath (headliner), Marilyn Manson,
Pantera, Type O
Negative, Fear Factory, Machine Head and Powerman 5000 on the main stage.
The second stage
featured Downset, Neurosis, Slo Burn, Coal Chamber, Drain STH and Vision of
Disorder. Bill Ward
complained to the media that we wasn't asked to appear on behalf of Black
Sabbath.
Sharon's response:
"Bill was not asked to play on this bill due to inter-personal business
conflicts between himself, me and Ozzy. It is a private issue that we have
kept private out of
respect to Bill. If Bill doesn't understand that we are only trying to
protect him, we will
announce the reason why he wasn't asked to do this tour."
The festival was a carnival of sorts where a person could also get tattoos
or piercings done.
The largest complaint about the Ozzfest are the prices. Vendors gouge
customers because no
outside food is allowed. Bottled water for $2 or $15 for fish and chips and
a drink.
Ozzy and Manson filed suit against New Jersey Sports and Exhibition Center
in East Rutherford,
New Jersey. They refused to put Ozzfest tickets on sale unless Marilyn
Manson was taken off the
bill. In May, the Meadowlands decided to allow tickets to sell and was
considered appealing a
judge's decision.
Fans are able to purchase bottled water "Blessed" by Ozzy himself for the
mere price of $2.75
each.
Ozzy's voice seemed to give out at the Ozzfest gig in the New Jersey
Meadowlands, so he
cancelled his show for the Polaris Amphitheater in Columbus, Ohio on June
17th. Understanding
and compassionate fans uprooted trees, overturned a car, lit fires and tore
down fencing. 23
fans were arrested. Ozzy would make up for the cancellation on July 1st.
The Ozzfest grossed around $600,000 per show. (Ed: Probably from all of the
food sales). With
the Ozzfest tour over for 1997, Ozzy and Sharon released "The Ozzman Cometh"
which featured some
of his greatest hits and the release of some "basement tapes" Ozzy had found
while cleaning
house. They included rare versions of "War Pigs," "Black Sabbath," "Fairies
Wear Boots," and
"Behind the Wall of Sleep".
Ozzfest beat out Lollapolooza for gross profits, ironic since Lollapolooza
refused to have Ozzy
as part of their tour.
Having seen Black Sabbath and Ozzy playing on tour, fans were wondering
about the possibility of
a studio album. The last album recorded with all four original members of
Black Sabbath was in
1978. On December 4th and 5th the original members of Black Sabbath reunited
to play at the NEC
in their hometown of Birmingham, England. The shows were recorded for
possible release in the
future. The band announced they would be returning to the studio to record
new material!
1998
=====
As 1998 began, Ozzfest 1998 was announced. The bands would include Tool,
Megadeth, Limp Bizkit,
Soulfly, Coal Chamber, Sevendust, Two, the Melvins, Incubus, Snot,
Ultraspank, Kilgore, System
of a Down, and Monster Machine.
The original Sabbath members were rehearsing in Wales for the upcoming tour
when Bill Ward
suffered a mild heart attack. Bill would not be on the European tour but
might be able to play
for the American tour. Vinny Appice takes his place.
The shows recorded at the NEC are to be released as a live album along with
the new studio
songs, "Psycho Man" and "Selling My Soul." (Ed: I found these to be a
little disappointing).
The album is simply entitled "Reunion". Reunion was released on September
20th, 1998. I received
a copy autpgraphed by all four members. The tour would back up the Reunion
album release and
finish in May 1999.
On December 31, 1998 New Years Eve, Black Sabbath began their American tour
in Arizona.
Ozzy had this to say:
"There was the four of us who started off way back in '68. We had an idea
which shook the world
I suppose. Without any one of us, it's not Black Sabbath. The drummers we
used were adequate
drummers, but there's only one Bill Ward you know, there's only one Tony
Iommi, there's only one
Geezer Butler, and there's only one me. The chemistry is just incredible.
When we did the live
album at the N.E.C., the chemistry was just like we never separated. It was
a pretty amazing,
magic show."
Around this time, Ozzy quit smoking which was not an easy task.
1999
====
With Ozzy still on the road on the Sabbath tour, Sharon Osbourne Management
and SFX
Entertainment. announced that Ozzfest would be renewed for 5 more years.
When Ozzy is finished
touring, he agrees to record "Shock the Monkey" with Coal Chamber. This
would be put off for a
while due to Ozzy falling ill. It would eventually be released on "Chamber
Music".
Reunions and re-releasing the same old music over and over, there was still
one nagging
question. When would Ozzy release his next album? After all it had been 4
years. Ozzy announces
when the 1999 Ozzfest is finished, he will head back into the studio to work
on a new album for
the year 2000.
Ozzy and Black Sabbath marked the end of their first tour with the original
members at the same
venue where they started their reunion in December 1997 (Birmingham).
December 21 and 22 are the
dates. The show was listed as the “last ever” reunion. Do you ever get the
feeling you’re being
lied to just to suck your wallet dry?
Ozzfest 1999 grossed 19 million (that's $19,000,000) in 1999. More sales of
bottled water
possibly? :)
2000
====
Ozzfest 2000 kicked off on July 2nd including acts such as Pantera, Incubus,
Godsmack, Methods
of Mayhem, P.O.D., Static-X, Queens of the Stone Age and Ozzy. It began on
July 2 in Palm Beach,
Florida and concluded on Sept. 2 in San Bernardino, Calif.
Management touted this as Ozzy's final Ozzfest (sort of reminds you of the
No More Tours). Ozzy
would go on to say, "Never say never. I keep saying to my wife, 'It's just
getting bigger and
bigger and bigger and I want to do other things.' I'm the kind of the guy
where, when I'm out
there, I want to be home, and when I'm home, I want to be out there. I'm
never happy wherever I
am, so all I know is I don't know."
Black Sabbath won a Grammy Award for Metal Performance on their “Reunion”
album. Bill Ward
received the award however the presentation was not aired.
Coal Chamber fired Sharon as their manager in 2000. Ozzy tries to quit
smoking. He is also
tested to determine if he has Parkinson’s disease.
Rumors indicate that the new Ozzy album will be titled “INFERNO”. Ozzy will
begin work on it in
September after the Ozzfest tour wraps up.
2001
====
On April 10th, Ozzy's mother passed away from diabetes and kidney problems.
He was able to see
her about a week before she passed away but didn't attend the funeral.
Ozzy also ventured out into the PC game market. Ozzy lent his voice and
Likeness for "Black
Skies", in which players assume the role of the Ozzy himself.
A date of October 16 is announced for Ozzy's new studio album, 2000 having
seen no album as
previously thought. By April he has written nine songs and there are plans
to complete nine more
before Ozzy heads back on the road for Ozzfest.
On August 25th, "Gets Me Through" is the first single for Ozzy's album and
was released to radio
stations. The album's title will be "Down to Earth". The cover shows an
actual x-ray of Ozzy.
"They X-rayed me for like three hours, the guy kept saying, 'It's going to
be fine, Ozzy.' I
thought I was going to come out of there glowing. It was very
frightening.", Ozzy said.
The album is released in October as DOWN TO EARTH. It was produced by Tim
Palmer, with guest
appearances by drummer Mike Bordin, bassist Robert Trujillo and guitarist
Zakk Wylde. The album
goes gold (500,000 sales) shortly afterwards.
A short tour was announced under the name of "Black Christmas" but was
changed to "Merry Mayhem"
after the terrorist attacks of September 11th. The two month tour beginning
Halloween, featured
Rob Zombie, Mudvayne, Soil and OneSideZero.
Proceeds from "Ozz Bless America" merchandise sold throughout the Merry
Mayhem tour was donated
to the families of firefighters and police affected by the World Trade
Center. Merry Mayhem
wrapped up New Years Eve.
On November 9th, Ozzy suffered a stress fracture and had to reschedule 10
dates on his Merry
Mayhem tour, when he slipped stepping out of the shower before his Tucson,
Arizona show. Ozzy
continued to tour for a week before seeing a doctor when the pain continued
to increase.
Rob Zombie used the time off to focus on directing two new videos, his own
"Never Gonna Stop" and
Ozzy's "Dreamer".
All four original Sabbath members begin working on a possible studio album
during early 2001.
Five songs have been written so far including one titled SCARY DREAMS. In
October, Ozzy says that
there it isn’t likely that they will release an album after all.
Towards the end of 2001, it is revealed that Black Skies, the video game,
will not be released
because the company has gone bankrupt.
Ozzy has a benefit concert at the Meadowlands in New Jersey on December
23rd. The money goes to
the World Trade Center victims.
An album with various artists from Ozzfest is released in August 2001 titled
“The Second
Millenium”. It includes Black Sabbath’s The Wizard, Marilyn Manson, Slipknot
and Black Label
Society.
-----------------------------------------------------------------------
[2.15] The Osbournes
-----------------------------------------------------------------------
"The Osbournes" portrays Ozzy as a "blithering idiot. (Ted Nugent)
2002
====
Note: On March 27th, Ozzy's former drummer Randy Castillo died at age 51
from cancer.
Ozzy's wife, ever the shrewd marketer, took her husband's fame to new
heights. With MTV at her
side, she set about to create a reality based television show called The
Osbournes. This would be
an unscripted real life look at what life in the Osbourne household was
like. While MTV asked it
be real, and the family maintained it was 100% unscripted, the family also
admitted later that
parts of it were made just for television. Everywhere they went, a camera
followed. Viewers saw
Ozzy taking out the garbage, fights with neighbours, dogs defecating on the
rugs time and time
again and plenty of fighting.
When the show premiered on March 5th, critics were giving it mixed reviews.
Some felt it was
nothing more than an explecitive laced attempt to cash in on Ozzy's name.
Others felt it was a
sad view of family values and morals. Sharon, of course, would not apoligize
for putting such a
show on the air however one must wonder just what sort of values are
expressed telling your
siblings and parents to "f*** off" or calling your wife a "C**t". While the
Osbournes are a
"family", there doesn't seem to be much respect for one another.
Take for example Ozzy pleading with his wife not to bring home any cats.
Sharon agreed with Ozzy
but then went out and purchased cats regardless. Then viewers saw Ozzy angry
at his wife for
booking him back to back nights for concerts and Ozzy was furious because it
was draining for
him. (Ed: It's my personal belief that Sharon doesn't respect Ozzy's wishes
on anything,
but exploits him to the fullest.)
Yet fans and parents alike were able to relate to Ozzy and his family. We
saw Ozzy go to lengths
to caution his children to practice safe sex. "Please don't get drunk or do
drugs tonight, and if
you have sex, use condoms" says Ozzy to his daughter.
Viewers were able to relate to their child coming home with their first
tattoo (and looking at
Ozzy, what can you say). There was Ozzy's total confusion over being unable
to operate the
satellite dish remote, when his son Jack was more than capable of doing so.
The show has made Ozzy Osbourne a household name and earned him many fans.
Those who didn't know
who Ozzy was before the show surely know now. The ratings were an average of
6 million viewers a
week. It's been an enormous success for MTV.
Music fans adored the show. Parents probably found they could relate to Ozzy
and parenthood and
there were surely the curious. There must be many people out there who
expected to tune in to
find a raving madmad killing animals. Instead they found a stuttering man
who undoes his pants to
warm himself by a bonfire.
The Osbournes is not exactly a family show. It's continually filled with the
bleeping where
someone has used the "f-word" (59 bleeps in the first half hour). Some
stations air it
uncensored, but if you do have the censored version it gets hard to follow
the conversation at
times for there are so many bleeps. There are also some diehard fans who
feel the show has made
Ozzy look like a bumbling idiot. There does seem to be two Ozzy Osbournes:
The crazy madman on
stage, and the puttering stuttering father/husband cleaning up after his
wife's dogs.
Regardless of your like or contempt for the show, what the show has done is
made household names
out of each of the Osbournes. Aimee, the smartest of the children opted not
to be included in the
show. For Jack and Kelly, Sharon and Ozzy, they've become people we can
identify with. The
children receive recognition on the street and have appeared on television
talk shows. Sharon has
done a wonderful job of making her family household names.
The attention can sometimes be too much. Sharon has flip flopped on her
feelings for the show.
She has stated she wishes she had never done the show but then decided to go
ahead with another
season. Tourists are flocking to the house in droves. The family has little
privacy. They've also
considered taking the show overseas to their English home for some privacy.
The first season earned them $200,000. The second season has been reported
to have been renewed
at $20 million.
Bill Cosby had this to say on the show:
"First of all, all of you (media) need to stop with this Ozzy Osbourne. This
is a sad, sad
family. It is a sad case. The children are sad and the parents are sad. And
this is not
entertainment," he told Access Hollywood. He said the show was the sort of
comedy that reminds
people of the sort of activity they do not want in their own lives. Even so,
millions of viewers
tune in to watch them weekly. They were featured in an ad for Pepsi Twist in
front of
an estimated 100 million viewers for the January 26th Superbowl. Sharon in
turn, called Bill
Cosby an, "old fuddy duddy".
Ozzy was also invited to the White House for dinner with The President.
Naturally internet users
are flooding the Ozzy newsgroup after having watched The Osbournes. Where
fans used be able to
discuss touring, rarities and Ozzy, now they're contending with critics and
young people posting
to the Internet newsgroups.
Once the television show was firmly in place and everybody knew who the
Osbourne family was, they
released "The Osbourne Family Album". The Osbourne Family Album is a
compilation of favourite
songs from each member of the family. The listing is as follows:
Pat Boone - "Crazy Train"
Ozzy Osbourne - "Dreamer"
The Kinks - "You Really Got Me"
System of a Down - "Snowblind"
John Lennon - "Imagine"
The Cars - "Drive"
Starsailor - "Good Souls"
Dillusion - "Mirror Image"
Eric Clapton - "Wonderful Tonight"
Ozzy Osbourne - "Mama, I'm Coming Home"
Ozzy Osbourne - "Crazy Train"
Chevelle - "Family System".
It also featured Kelly Osbournes debut with her version of Madonna's "Papa
Don't Preach". She
recorded the song with Incubus members Mike Einziger (guitar) and Jose
Pasillas (drums).
Kelly originally asked her sister Aimee if she'd record it, but Aimee
declined. The song was
meant to be a theme song for the television series.
The Osbourne’s Episode Guide
=============================
101: There Goes the Neighbourhood
102: Bark at the Moon
103: Like Father, Like Daughter
104: Hate Thy Neighbor
105: Tour of Duty
106: Break a Leg
107: On the Road Again
108: A Very Ozzy Christmas
109: No Vagrancy
110: Dinner With Ozzy
201: What Goes Up
202: ...Must Come Down
203: The Ozz Man and the Sea
204: The Beauty And The Bert
205: Smells Like Teen Spirits
206: Meow Means No!
207: Cleanliness is Next To Ozzyness
208: It's a Hard Knock Life
209: Viva Ozz-Vegas
211: What a Boy Wants!
212: Flea's a Crowd
213: Run Ozzy Run
214: Fists of Fury
215: Moma I'm Stayin' Home
216: Tennis Racket
217: A Little Ditty 'Bout Jack and Brienann
218: Angler Management
219: Bye Bye Babies
220: Ozz Well That Ends Well
301: The Show Must Go Oz
302: Car Jacked
303: Rebel Without an Oz
304: Return of the Ring
305: The Accidental Tourist
306: The English Patient
307: The Scent of a Woman
308: Pain in the Neck
309: Ozzy Knows Best
310: Valentine Daze
311: Sleepless in Beverly...
312: Have Ozz Will Travel
313: Hawaii Five Ozz
314: Kelly Interrrupted
315: 28 Days Later
316: Charity Case
317: Number One Fan
318: Lozt in Translation
319: The Show Must Go Off!
320: A Farewell to Ozz
Re-releases
===========
Another collection of rehashed music. “Expanded Editions” of Blizzard of
Ozz, Diary of a Madman,
Tribute and No More Tears are released in March. They include additional
photos and rare tracks.
Louis
=====
Ozzy’s son from his first marriage, Louis make his American debut in March.
Cancer
======
On July 3rd, 2002 Sharon underwent surgery for recently discovered cancer.
This almost caused
Ozzy to begin drinking again. Expect to see much of this covered during the
second season of The
Osbournes. By July, the cancer had spread. Ozzy broke down in tears when
asked about Sharon when
interviewed by Barbara Walters.
Sharon began three weeks of chemotherapy beginning July 29th.
"This is definitely the last year, We can't do it anymore.", Sharon told
Barbara. Even if this is
the last year, the money is far from slowing down. They've signed a $3
million publishing deal
with Pocket Books. They also have merchandising with the Signature Network
of San Francisco.
Expect to see Osbourne sleepwear, watches, clothing, dartboards, backpacks,
condoms
and a voice-activated plush bear.
The Osbournes and the company say they've signed up 55 licensees for more
than 300 products and
are hoping for retail sales of up to US $200 million in 2002.
The reality TV show was named the year’s outstanding reality program at the
Creative arts Emmys.
Ozzfest
=======
Ozzfest continued in 2002. It began July 6th and included acts such as
System of a Down, P.O.D.,
Rob Zombie, Lost Prophets, Pulse Ultra, Neurotica and Black Label Society.
2003
====
Ozzfest continued into 2003 from June 23rd to August.
Sharon Osbourne hosted her own talk show in the fall and received $3-5
million.
On July 24th, Ozzy’s tour manager Bobby Thomson was found dead in his bed at
the Townsend Hotel
in Detroit. Mr. Thomson had been suffering from throat cancer. Ozzy said in
a statement."He has
been a part of our family for 23 years and loved very much. He will be
greatly missed by all of
us. Our sincerest sympathies go out to the Thomson family."
On December 8th, 2003 Ozzy was riding his ATV on his Buckinghamshire,
England estate. The camera
crews were with him filming for The Osbournes. Ozzy failed to notice a hole
in the lawn and
flipped the ATV. It landed on top of him. Ozzy stopped breathing for 90
seconds. Hise security
guard (Sam)revived Ozzy who wound up with eight broken ribs, a broken
vertebra in his neck and a
broken collarbone. In addition, he had blood in his lungs and a damaged
blood vessel in his left
arm. Ozzy was rushed to a nearby hospital for emergency surgery, fitted with
a hard collar in an
effort to prevent permanent paralysis and then placed on a ventilator.
Timeline continued in [2.24]
-----------------------------------------------------------------------
[2.16] Kelly Osbourne
-----------------------------------------------------------------------
"And I'm not trying to be a supermodel, so I wish people would just leave it
alone" Kelly
Osbourne on people's perception of her having to follow the singer
stereotype."
Kelly Osbourne, born October 27, 1984, seems to have an appeal for the youth
of today. Perhaps
it's because she doesn't wear skimpy clothes and hasn't had her breasts
enlarged. Whatever the
reason is, she remains true to herself and dresses on her own terms.
The fans love her for being herself. Not bad for a young woman who is Said
to have dropped out of
school in grade 10.
Upon asking her sister Aimee to sing Papa Don't Preach, Aimee declined and
suggested Kelly do it
instead. It was more of a lark, but Kelly took up the challenge. The execs
at Epic Music were so
impressed that they included her version of the Madonna song on 'The
Osbourne Family Album' and
she was offered her own album.
Her website has this to say about her...
"This was about attitude, not sex appeal; reality, not fantasy. So, two
months on-and-off in New
York turned out Shut Up!, an eleven song collection that bespeaks as much
about Kelly Osbourne as
any trend-setting outfit she may wear or any off-handed comment that might
spring from her mouth.
Songs such as "Disconnected", a churning, grinding rocker, and the endlessly
catchy and melodic
teenage rage of "Dig Me Out" fulfill the promise of Kelly as an unvarnished
voice for the
"everyteen" of the new rock scene. Inundated by calculated media caricatures
of what the M Gen
should be Kelly comes across as a real deal, take-no-sh*t anti-star.
Kelly planned to move out of her parents house and into her own home, some
five blocks away in
April 2003. Whether this is true or not, she continues to occupy space in
the Osbourne’s home on
their reality TV show.
Relationship wise, she was seeing Bert McCracken, a 20 year old singer from
a punk band named The
Used. Bert dumped Kelly by telephone on Valentines Day 2003. Kelly took this
hard, especially the
abrupt manner in which it was done. She's made a vow never to date men
again, but in due time
will learn to love again as do we all.
Christina Aguilera and Kelly have been known to be very vocal about their
dislike for one
another. Rumors persist about near fights breaking out at clubs between the
two. It has been said
Kelly has a Christina voodoo doll.
Kelly has been featured in magazines like Cosmo Girl, Teen People, Elle
Girl, Seventeen, and
Interview.
Kelly released an album titled Shut Up in 2002 (later renamed to Changes).
She has also
released a second CD (2005) titled Sleeping in the Nothing.
The tracks are:
1. One Word
2. Uh Oh
3. Redlight
4. Secret Lover
5. I Can't Wait
6. Edge Of Your Atmosphere
7. Suburbia
8. Don't Touch Me While I'M Sleeping
9. Save Me
10. Entropy
Kelly entered into drug rehab in 2004.
She loves vintage cars and owns a 1958 Chevy that Ozzy gave her as an 18th
Birthday present.
Kelly has a Brussels Griffon dog named Fanny.
-----------------------------------------------------------------------
[2.17] Jack Osbourne
-----------------------------------------------------------------------
"I just find it really immature, I'd like to see them say it to my face, I'd
crush their skull
in." Jack on rumors he is gay. (Heat magazine)
The son of Ozzy and Sharon scouts out new talent for Epic Records. He also
has influence on what
bands appear on Ozzfest. He can be found on CD covers being thanked for
helping rising bands.
Jack's favourite band is Tool, which is reflected in the t-shirts he often
wears. Rumors continue
to circulate that Jack is gay. Jack has said that he once had sex with three
women at the same
time which would prove otherwise if he's to be believed. He's been seen with
Rod Stewart's
daughter Kimberly and model Catalina Guirado. It's been reported that Jack
has been
helping her launch a pop career in LA and the pair have been seen on dates.
Jack has a bit of a weight problem as does his sister Kelly. This seems to
be a much debated
topic on the internet.
He appeared on Dawson's Creek as a cameo appearance as well as That 70's
Show in 1998.
As with his sister Kelly, Jack entered into rehab for his alcohol and
Oxycontin abuse. He has
said this is attributed to the pressure of living in the public eye and not
reaching the level of
popularity as his sister.
In early 2005, Jack had Ł200,000 worth of jewelry stolen. The items were
stolen from his luggage
during a flight from Los Angeles to London.
-----------------------------------------------------------------------
[2.18] Aimee Osbourne
-----------------------------------------------------------------------
Aimee remains a mystery, no music release no appearances on The Osbournes.
Aimee had claimed she was going to start her own jewelry company.
"I'm starting a jewelry company, It's going to be really pretty stuff with
lots of gems." The
line is expected to launch sometime next September.
Currently, she is writing for the pop culture magazine, Nylon. Aimee has
also appeared in various
fashion shows.
Aimee Osbourne has her own home. She was dating Taylor Hanson of Hanson at
one point in time.
-----------------------------------------------------------------------
[2.19] Louis Osbourne
-----------------------------------------------------------------------
One of the lesser known Osbourne’s is Louis. Louis doesn’t have his own
television show nor does
he drive luxury cars. Louis is Ozzy’s son from his first marriage to Thelma.
(Ed: The resemblance
is striking)
He works as a techno DJ and was traveled around the world to such places as
Chicago, LA, Germany
and The Prague. He plays Birmingham venues as well.
In 2003 Louis released his first compilation album in the USA which was
called “Motion Audio Vol.
1” (Blue Chip Records, New York)
He has his own website at www.louisosbourne.com
Louis was married Louise Lennon in Ireland on January 1st, 2004.
----------------------------------------------------------------------
[2.20] Who is Robert Marcato?
-----------------------------------------------------------------------
Editor: This section has been included into the biography because I want
people to know who
Robert's mother was and to read how strong she was.
Fans of The Osbourne's may have noticed a new member to the family, Robert
Marcato. Robert, 18,
is the son of Reagan Erin Marcato, a single mother. Reagan Marcato moved to
Southern California
from Mays Landing, N.J., around Christmas 1987 Looking to start a new life.
She made her career
in food service and was manager of a popular 1950s-style diner on Sunset
Boulevard.
Marcato's life revolved around her son, and she successfully battled Los
Angeles school
administrators to fund a special-education program for Robert, who is
dyslexic. Robert met
Osbourne children Aimee and Kelly in school and became close friends with
them.
Unfortunately Reagan passed away with colon cancer on July 30th, 2002 at the
age of 36.
However The Osbourne's had become quite close to Robert and his mother. Ozzy
told Reagan before
she died that her son would never have to worry about money or tuition. The
Osbourne family
'adopted' him in a sense of the word and Sharon refers to him as 'Baby
Osbourne'. They have paid
for his college education. Robert wants to attend drama school.
It's quite tragic to lose your family at the age of 18, and to such a cruel
disease. This move by
The Osbourne's was a huge act of kindness.
"When I look at somebody like Regan, who didn't have the resources I had,
what have I got to
complain about?" Sharon said. "She was the most amazing woman and was such a
brilliant and strong
woman. She left home when she was 18, put her baby in the car and drove from
one end of the
country to another."
When Regan got sick, Sharon took matters into her own hands.
"She had no medical care at home and she was beyond saving - they won't let
you stay in the
hospital and die, so you go to a hospice or go home," Sharon said. "I had
private nurses for her
24 hours a day for the last nine days of her life. Every day, the doctors
would say, 'Maybe two
more hours.' But she lived for nine days - she defied everybody."
-----------------------------------------------------------------------
2.21 The Family
-----------------------------------------------------------------------
Ozzy (John Osbourne)
=====
Father
Born: Dec. 3, 1948 (Birmingham, England)
Stats: 5' 10" and weighs 160 lbs
Occupation: singer
Ozzy Osbourne Appreciaton Society
P.O. Box 15397
Beverly Hills, CA 90209
Sharon
======
Wife/Manager/Mother
Born: October 10, 1952 (London, England, UK)
Stats: unknown
Sharon Osbourne Management - address unknown
Kelly
======
Daughter
Stats: 5 foot 2 inches, 124 lbs, left handed.
DOB: Oct. 27, 1984
Phobia: spiders
Occupation: singer
Education: GateWay School In Great Missenden, Buckinghamshire, England.
WestMark School In Encino, California, USA
Fan Club:
Kelly Osbourne
PO box 5249
Beverly Hills, CA 90209
Jack
====
Osbourne's Son
Born: Nov. 8, 1985 London, England
Stats: unavailable
(No fan club)
Aimee Rachel
=====
Osbourne's Daughter
Born: Sept. 2, 1983
Stats: unavailable
(No fan club)
Louis
=====
Ozzy Osbourne’s son from first marriage
Lillian
=======
John Osbourne's mother/Children's grandmother
Stats: N/A
Assembled electrical circuits In The Lucas Car Plant.
Lillian Died In 2001 from diabetes.
Jack Osbourne
=============
John Osbourne's father/Children's grandmother
Stats: N/A
Occupation: Tool-maker, Worked nights.
Died In 1977 From Cancer.
Don Arden
==========
Grandfather/Sharon's father
Read section [1.8]
Hope Arden
==========
Grandmother/Sharon's mother
Occupation: Dancer
Died In 1998.
Tony Dennis - Ozzy's personal assistant
Sam Ruston - Ozzy's security guard
Melinda Varga - Housekeeper/nanny - Born June 5, 1977 in Melbourne,
Australia. Married
to Steven Varga. They have a son named Lucas.
-----------------------------------------------------------------------
2.22 Money money money
-----------------------------------------------------------------------
"I must be in the Guinness Book Of Records for having the most fucking
compilation albums from
only eight records. There's The Ozzman Cometh, The Ozzman Goeth, The Ozzman
Dieth and The Ozzman
Cometh Backwards." …Ozzy on the compilation albums that never seem to end
Ozzy is no longer that rags to riches success story that kept people
fascinated in their teens.
He is no longer just a musician. Ozzy is now a household name, a television
show, and books. Ozzy
is over 2500 items for sale on E-Bay. His family have become household
names, his wife exploiting
every conceivable way of using her and her family for profit.
Take a look at Britney Spears and Pepsi. We see Britney drinking Pepsi.
Therefore simply because
we like her music (I don't) or think she's beautiful (I don't), we should
run out and buy Pepsi.
Look at an ad for car audio equipment and you may often find a large
breasted model in the ad.
She doesn't know the difference between a capacitor and a crossover but you
still want that
cd-player because the big breasted woman in the ad is looking at the young
man in the car who has
that cd-player and she's smiling. In reality most women would probably laugh
and think you're a
jerk.
This is the way marketing works. When something (or someone) is hot, we tend
to use it to our
advantage to produce revenue. This isn't to say it's immoral or wrong to do,
it is simply how
marketing works. we are the consumer, we buy products. Marketing tries to
make us aware of
products, and that is best done through the hottest music and movie stars.
Sharon has made a success out of her husband, and certainly he owes her much
credit for that
success. It seems at times that that success is taking him away from the
music and trying to turn
him into a marketing cash cow. Others are just as quick to cash in on the
Osbourne name.
Here are some examples of the insanity:
Example One
============
Ozzy and Sharon Osbourne have been sued for $15 million by a clothing
manufacturer who claims the
couple stole his T-shirt slogan: "F--k My Family I'm Moving In With The
Osbournes."
The suit, filed Tuesday (May 28) by T-Shirt Hell, Inc. in New York District
Court, alleges
trademark infringement by the couple and other associated business entities
when they authorized
the production and sale of its own shirt with the catchphrase: "*&@# my
family! I'm moving in
with...The Osbourne Family."
Court documents claim that representatives at Ozzy's label, Epic Records,
knew of the earlier
shirt before making its own, producing as evidence a series of email
communications from March
2002 between an employee at the label and T-Shirt Hell discussing the
purchase of 40 of the
shirts. The Osbournes' version was authorized for manufacturing and sale in
May, the suit
alleges.
Epic Records and parent company Sony Music are also named in the suit, among
others.
Example Two
===========
Fox News Channel has brushed aside a threat of legal action by Ozzy
Osbourne's lawyer for airing
an interview with the rocker. Part of Osbourne's lengthy chat with Greta Van
Susteren aired on
the Fox network's "Pulse" newsmagazine and the rest was scheduled for Van
Susteren's Fox News
Channel show the next day.
Osbourne's lawyer, Orin Snyder, said Osbourne sat down with Fox only because
he was told the
interview was for a special it was planning on the anniversary of Elvis
Presley's death.
"It is particularly disturbing that Fox would employ such improper
journalistic techniques to
take advantage of Mr. Osbourne and his family in an effort to sensationalize
Sharon Osbourne's
recent illness," Snyder wrote in a letter to Fox News Channel executives."
Fox News Channel rejected the claim as without merit. The network said it
never planned a Presley
special. Fox's lawyers pointed out that Osbourne, no stranger to reporters,
spoke with Van
Susteren on camera for an hour about a wide range of topics,including his
wife's illness. The
interview was even taped by MTV for the second season of its reality show
"The Osbournes."
So it would seem that it's become acceptable for the Osbournes to run from
talk show to talk show
and discuss Sharon's health. It's become acceptable for the Osbournes to
have Sharon's
chemotheraphy broadcast on MTV. Everything is fair game so long as the
Osbourne's reap money for
it.
Perhaps the real reason they didn't want the show to be aired was because
Sharon had already
promised an exclusive interview to ABC's Walters (for money of course).
And Ozzy broke the deal by talking to Van Susteren about Sharon's battle
with cancer.
Example Three
=============
Ozzy's music company has time and time again released his music under
Different titles, with
different artwork and with different music selections. If you own Ozzy's
entire collection of
music, is there really any point in buying another CD of the same songs you
already own just to
have that CD with different artwork?
If you own all of Ozzy's albums, do you really also need The Ozzman Cometh,
Ten Commandments,
Bible of Ozz, Best of Ozz and The Essential Ozzy Osbourne? Apparently so,
not to mention the half
a dozen live albums as well. It's marketing baby, and that's what his record
company is paid to
do.
Note: Ozzy’s marketing team FINALLY broke the habit of re-releasing when
they released the Prince
of Darkness package. This 4 CD package included many rarities previously
unreleased. Ozzy
collectors would still remain disappointed as these rarities have been
available over the
internet for years. To compensate for this, they did include some “covers”
of other artists
songs.
Example Four
============
A Los Angeles-based producer, Gary Binkow, sued Sharon and Ozzy claiming
they stole his idea for
"The Osbournes." Binkow says he met repeatedly with the couple and
executives from Miramax TV in
1999-2000 to discuss "a real-life docu-sitcom" about the aging rocker and
his family.
Binkow reportedly filed a lawsuit on Thursday, July 25th, 2002 in Los
Angeles Superior Court,
alleging that in 1998, he conceived and developed the concept for a
real-life docu-sitcom
starring Ozzy Osbourne and his family.
Example Five
============
Ozzy Osbourne is urging fans to boycott a planned iN DEMAND Pay-Per-View
airing of one of his
concerts, set for Friday Nov. 10, 2000.
In a statement released by the tour's publicity firm on Friday (Nov. 10),
Osbourne, Godsmack,
Pantera, Static-X, Kittie, Methods of Mayhem, Soulfly, Disturbed, and Slaves
on Dope have all
united against the special, which allegedly wasn't approved and was
originally intended to be a
webcast only. "All bands are pleading with their fans not to order this
inferior product, which
will only result in profits for DirecTV and iN DEMAND," said the statement.
"There is no
agreement for the bands to receive any compensation for their performances."
The show, priced at $20, has not been seen or heard by any of the bands on
the tour, who are
calling the broadcast "illegitimate" and "unauthorized." The original deal,
according to
the artists and promoter SFX Entertainment, was for a two-time only, free
Webcast and never
intended for a television airing Ozzy files a $20 million suit over this.
The company, MCY
responds by claiming that Osbourne Management gave them authorization and
approval for the
material that would be aired.
A judge refuses to grant a temporary restraining order over the airing of
the program.
Example Six
============
The Signatures Network, a licensing company based in San Francisco has
signed an agreement with
the Osbournes worth an estimated $200 million. It consists of 55 licensees
and is expected to
rise to 70. The family would receive approximately 10% of the total, or $20
million.
Example Seven
=============
A lawsuit is filed against the Osbournes regarding their television show by
Threshold Television.
Threshold asks that they be named the owners of the MTV series. They ask for
unspecified damages.
The bottom line is this... You're looking at a grown man, dressed in makeup
and jewellery
and selling an image of a prince of darkness. It's all about marketing. It
always has been
and will continue to be.
-----------------------------------------------------------------------
[2.23] Kerslake and Daisley
-----------------------------------------------------------------------
“Blizzard of Ozz sounds like a failed experiment. Diary of a Madman, on the
other hand, is a
complete catastrophe. Kerslake and Daisley were the secret weapons on that
album, and their
absence is glaringly distracting.” (A review of Blizzard of Ozz Remaster)
Before continuing on to the years 2004 and 2005, I’m going to backtrack to
the early years. The
reason for this is that lawsuits would be filed against Ozzy during
2002-2005.
Here’s what happened according to Bob Daisley, who was a member of Ozzy’s
band for the first two
studio albums.
During the recording of Blizzard of Ozz, the band was under the impression
the name of the band
would be “Blizzard of Ozz” and would “feature” Ozzy Osbourne. When the album
was released (JET
records) it was not so. The band was called “Ozzy Osbourne” instead of
Blizzard of Ozz. The
members wanted it to sound like a “band” and not an individual. The record
company had screwed
over the band. (Ed: Sounds fair enough)
Kerslake and Lee would end up suing Don Arden and JET records for royalties.
They received a
payout in 1986. Don Arden went bankrupt not long afterwards. This left the
two men curious where
the royalties were going after the bankruptcy.
It would be many years later that they would find out Sharon had bought
Ozzy’s recording contract
from her father. Unbeknownst to the two men, Sharon and Ozzy were the ones
receiving royalties
for the Blizzard album. Daisley alleges that Sharon and Ozzy never mentioned
this to him and even
offered to help in the lawsuit against Don Arden.
After Sharon bought the rights and began to manage Ozzy’s career, she was
making it clear that
she wanted to call the band “Ozzy Osbourne”. Two or three days after the
album was recorded,
Sharon phoned Bob Daisley and informed him that he and Lee Kerslake were out
of the band.
Kerslake and Daisley launched a $20 million lawsuit against Ozzy and Sharon
Osbourne in 2002 for
failure to properly compensate and credit the duo for their songwriting
contributions.
In retaliation, Ozzy’s label release “remastered” versions of Diary of a
Madman and Blizzard of
Ozz. These versions had bassist Robert Trujillo and drummer Mike Bordin on
the remasters. Lee and
Kerslake were removed from the remasteres. Osbourne fans ridiculed Ozzy for
doing this. Sharon
has said that, “Bob and Lee have been “harassing” and “unjust” to their
family” and this was why
they were removed. Yet the two men are still credited on other Ozzy albums.
Judge Christina A. Snyder dismissed the case in August 2002 saying that the
statute of
limitations had long since expired.
In February 2005 an Ozzy fan named Anthony Wester launched a class action
lawsuit against
Sony/Epic for failing to mention the original members had been replaced on
the remasters.
Ozzy’s second album Diary of a Madman credited two other people, Rudy Sarzo
and Tommy Aldridge
for playing on that album when they didn't play a note on it. Bob Daisley
and Lee Kerslake played
on it.
-----------------------------------------------------------------------
[2.24] Continuing
-----------------------------------------------------------------------
2004
=====
As 2003 faded into the past and 2004 was ushered in, Ozzy was recuperating
from his injuries due
to the ATV accident. Sharon tells the media she would have committed suicide
if her husband had
died.
Ozzy gave the doctors at Wexham Park Hospital in Slough, Berkshire a cheque
for 50,000 pounds as
a thank you for saving his life.
Ozzy cancels his European tour. A compassionate Sharon reassured the public
that Ozzy would still
attend Ozzfest. Some of the bands are outraged they are required to pay
$100,000 as a “marketing
fee” to be part of Ozzfest. Black Sabbath would reunite for the first time
since 2001 for this
year’s Ozz festival. Ozzy remains concerned about his vocal chords, given
the accident he’s still
recovering from.
Sharon says she asked to be relieved of her talk show contract. This,
despite inside reports it
was due for cancellation. Sharon wanted out so that she could attend to her
husband’s recovery.
She would later say, “I really don't want to do a second season anyway, but
they didn't give me
that chance.”
Robbery
=======
On November 22, 2004 thieves broke into The Osbourne’s home in England. The
two men made off with
almost 2 million pounds worth of jewelry after using a ladder to climb in
through a first floor
window. During the break in, Ozzy heard them and went downstairs to
investigate. He was able to
get one of the men in a headlock before the man jumped out the window. He is
believed to have
suffered injuries in the 30 foot jump. Among the items taken were two Frank
Muller watches, one
of which was only one of ten ever produced. The Osbournes hold a press
conference at the
Bellhouse Hotel and display pictures of the stolen jewelry. A reward of
100,000 pounds is
offered. Ozzy’s sister, Gillian Hemming, would later say that Ozzy
“deserved” to be robbed.
Footage from closed circuit cameras would later reveal that the two robbers
spent two hours going
through the house.
Simon Cowell, who works with Sharon on the UK show X Factor claimed the
robbery was simply a
publicity stunt. (Ed: One does have to wonder)
Ozzy’s manager, Patrick Meehan has his home in Edenburg, England broken into
in December 2004.
Stolen were numerous gold and silver Black Sabbath discs and a guitar.
Philanthropy
============
Ozzy and Sharon donated 100,000 pounds to the Tsunami earthquake fund.
2005
====
As 2005 rolled around, there was talk of Black Label Society, Rob Zombie and
Iron Maiden playing
this 10th Anniversary of Ozzfest.
Ozzy’s record company finally grasped the concept that Ozzy fans were tired
of buying re-releases
of his existing music. The end result was a 4 CD set called the Prince of
Darkness. The package
featured material from Ozzy’s albums as well as live songs. It also featured
rare material
already available on the internet. Finally, there were cover songs of Ozzy
doing other artist’s
songs. This made the package worthwhile. A 59 page colour booklet was also
available.
-----------------------------------------------------------------------
3.0 Ozzy Album Discography
-----------------------------------------------------------------------
This discography comes from OZZY@AIRMAIL.NET
Blizzard of Ozz
album, 1980, Jet (England)
Blizzard of Ozz
album, 1981, Jet (US)
The English pressing has a different back cover. From the information
I have, it is difficult to tell if it actually took until 1981 to have
the album released in the US. Also, it is not clear exactly what role
CBS Records plays in the releasing and distribution. Randy Rhoads
(ex-Quiet Riot) on guitar. Reissued with 22-bit remastering.
Crazy Train
7" single, 1980, Jet
Additional track is You Looking at Me Looking at You. May be
promo-only.
Crazy Train
7" single, 1980, Jet
Jukebox version of the above single.
Mr. Crowley
7" single, 1980, Jet
Additional track is You Said It All (LIVE). Bonus 7" that came in the
Japanese pressing of either Bark at the Moon or Speak of the Devil.
Mr. Crowley Live EP
12" picture disc, 1980, Jet
This disc contains the above two songs along with a live version of
Suicide Solution. Additionally, this is available on black vinyl as a
Canadian pressing; this pressing's cover has a color picture of Ozzy
wearing his red "jump suit" with his arms extended. There is a third
pressing, from the U.K., where the cover is a silver and black picture
of Ozzy wearing his fringed shirt.
Crazy Train
7" single, 1981, Jet / CBS Associated
U.S. 7". Additional track is Steal Away (The Night).
Crazy Train
7" single, 1981, CBS Associated
KZEW 98FM / Sound Warehouse single. Probably promo, but not sure. Also
has Troubleshooter by Judas Priest, It's All Right, It's OK by Hawks,
and R.O.C.K. by Garland Jeffreys.
Diary of a Madman [Image]
album, 1981, Jet
Reissued with 22-bit remastering. This is also available in 12"
promo-only picture disc.
Over the Mountain
12" single, 1981, Jet
Additional track is I Don't Know.
Over the Mountain
7"single, 1981, Jet
Additional track is I Don't Know. Also available as a promo with full
artwork.
Flying High Again / I Don't Know (Live)
7" single, 1981, Jet / CBS Associated
Probably a U.S. only release. Additional track is I Don't Know (Live).
Flying High Again [Image]
12" single, 1981, Jet / CBS Associated
Probably a U.S. only promo release. Additional track is Diary Of A
Madman (18 Minute Montage).
Tonight
7" single, 1981, Jet / CBS Associated
White label promo for this track.
Talk of the Devil
double album, 1982, Jet (England and possibly all non US)
See below for details on this piece.
Speak of the Devil
double album, 1982, Jet (US)
This is a live album. Randy Rhoads died in a plane crash on the Diary
of a Madman tour (March 1982). Brad Gillis took an extended leave from
Night Ranger to fill in. The album is all Black Sabbath material. It
was supposed to be a live album from the Diary tour, but after Randy's
death, Ozzy felt he would be exploiting Randy's name by releasing the
album. This was to fulfill his contact for a live album. I believe the
album was eventually released as Tribute (see below). In order to have
the entire album fit on one CD, CBS left off Sweet Leaf on the US CD
(possibly world wide). In 1991, Castle Communications re-released the
CD under its European (and possibly Japanese) name (Talk of the Devil)
and added Sweet Leaf. Reissued with 22-bit remastering. The US
remaster has restored Sweet Leaf.
Symptom of the Universe
12" single, 1982, Jet
Additional tracks are Iron Man / Children of the Grave, both from Talk
of the Devil. Not available in the US.
Symptom of the Universe
7" picture single, 1982, Jet
This may also be available in black vinyl. Additional track is N.I.B.
Not available in the US.
Symptom of the Universe
7" single, 1982, Jet
Promo single for this song. Additional track is N.I.B. Not available
in the US.
Paranoid
7" single, 1982, Jet
U.S. single for this song. Additional track is Never Say Die. Both
tracks taken from Speak Of The Devil.
Bark at the Moon
album, 1983, Epic (Europe and possibly world wide)
see below
Bark at the Moon
album, 1983, CBS Associated (US)
This album has two different versions and album covers. The US
pressing has the logo and title in red and yellow. It also has the
song Slow Down, instead of Spiders. The European pressing has the logo
and title in blue and yellow. The song Spiders appears here, but not
Slow Down. Additionally, the song Centre of Eternity on the US
pressing is listed as Forever on the European pressing. Finally, the
songs are in different orders on each pressing. Jake E. Lee (ex-Rough
Cutt, Sexist, almost Dio, and Ratt(?)). Reissued with 22-bit
remastering. American reissue has Spiders in addition to Slow Down.
Bark at the Moon
12" single, 1983, Epic
Additional tracks are One Up the B Side and Slow Down. Not available
in the US.
Bark at the Moon
7" single, 1983, Epic
Additional track is One Up the B Side. Not available in the US.
Bark at the Moon
7" single, 1983, CBS Associated
Additional track is Spiders.
Bark at the Moon
7" single, 1983, CBS Associated
White label promo for this song .
So Tired
7" single, 1983, CBS Associated
Additional track, "B" side, is the same as One Up the B Side.
So Tired
12" single, 1984, Epic
Single with So Tired, Waiting for Darkness, Bark at the Moon, Suicide
Solution, Paranoid. The last 3 recorded live at Salt Palace, Salt Lake
City, Utah, March 18, 1984. Comes with an Ozzy Osbourne logo patch.
Not available in the US.
So Tired
7" single, 1984, Epic / CBS
Additional track is Bark at the Moon recorded live at Salt Palace,
Salt Lake City, Utah, March 18, 1984. Not available in the US.
So Tired
7" single, 1984, Epic
Additional track is Forever (Live).
Not available in the US.
So Tired
Double 7" single, 1984, Epic / CBS
Gatefold 7" package with 2 7" singles. The first single has So Tired
and Bark At The Moon (live); the other single has Waiting For Darkness
and Paranoid (live).
Prince of Darkness
12" EP, 1984, CBS Japan
Japanese only release including You Looking At Me - Remix, and One Up
the "B" Side. Probably vinyl and cassette only.
The Other Side Of Ozzy
12" EP, 1985, CBS Japan
Japanese only release containing 10 rare B-sides from 1980 to 1984,
including You Looking At Me - Remix, and One Up the "B" Side. Probably
vinyl only.
The Ultimate Sin
album, 1986, Epic (Europe and possibly world wide).
The Ultimate Sin
album, 1986, CBS Associated (US)
Reissued with 22-bit remastering.
Shot in the Dark
7" single, 1986, Epic
Additional track is Rock 'n' Roll Rebel. Packaged in a poster bag.
Dutch version also available, but with no poster bag and different
artwork. Not available in the US.
Shot in the Dark
7" single, 1986, CBS Associated
Additional track is You Said It All (Live - from Mr. Crowley picture
disc).
Shot In The Dark
12" single, 1986, Epic / CBS
Single with Shot In The Dark, Killer of Giants, and Rock And Roll
Rebel.
Shot in the Dark
7" single, 1986, CBS Associated
White label promo. Additional track is You Said It All (Live - from
Mr. Crowley picture disc).
Shot in the Dark
7" single, 1986/87, CBS Associated / Sony
Additional track is Crazy Train. Reissued by Collectable Records.
Shot in the Dark
7" single, 1986, CBS Associated
White label promo.
Shot in the Dark
12" single, 1986, CBS Associated
Promo only.
The Ultimate Sin
7" single, 1986, Epic
Special Donnington Souvenir Single. Additional track is Lightning
Strikes.
Lightning Strikes
12" single, 1986, Epic
Promo only single with the track Lightning Strikes on both sides.
The Ultimate Ozzy
video cassette, 1986, CBS / FOX video
Live and video footage of one or more shows from The Ultimate Sin
tour.
The Ultimate Live Ozzy
12" picture disc, 1986, CBS Associated
Live cuts from The Ultimate Ozzy video shoot. Included are The
Ultimate Sin, Never Know Why, and Thank God for the Bomb. Possibly US
only.
The Ultimate Live Ozzy
12" maxi-single, 1986, CBS Associated
Japanese-only black vinyl pressing. Tracks are the same as the picture
disc.
Tribute
double album, 1987, Epic (Europe and possibly world wide).
Tribute
double album, 1987, CBS Associated (US)
This is the only album where Ozzy doesn't get solo billing. The album
is listed as Ozzy Osbourne / Randy Rhoads. This is probably the album
that was supposed to be released after Diary of a Madman. Reissued
with 22-bit remastering.
Tribute
double album, 1987, CBS Associated(Japan)
Japanese version of this release includes a poster.
Tribute Sampler
CD, 1987, Epic or CBS Associated
Selected cuts from Tribute. Promo only.
Crazy Train
7" single, 1987, Epic
Side 1 from Tribute; side 2 from Blizzard of Ozz. Not available in the
US.
Crazy Train
7" single, 1987, Epic
White label promo, Crazy Train from the Tribute album on both sides.
Crazy Train
12" single, 1987, Epic
Side 1 from Tribute; side 2 from Blizzard of Ozz. Not available in the
US.
Close My Eyes Forever
one song, 1987, EMI / Lisabella / Virgin
Duet with Lita Ford for her album entitled Lita and on The Best Of
Lita Ford.
Close My Eyes Forever
7" single, 1987, EMI / Lisabella / Virgin
Duet with Lita Ford. Tracks are Close My Eyes Forever and Under The
Gun; Ozzy does not appear on the B-side.
Back to Ozz
EP, 1988, Epic
Europe and Japan only. Tracks are The Ultimate Sin, Bark at the Moon,
Mr. Crowley, and Diary of a Madman. Includes color poster with photos
and family tree. Available in 12" vinyl and CD. The Mr. Crowley is the
live version from the picture disc.
No Rest for the Wicked
album, 1988, CBS Associated in U.S. (Epic in Europe)
CD and cassette have an additional track. The track is unlisted and is
called Hero. Zakk Wylde on guitar. Reissued with 22-bit remastering.
Bible of Ozz
special package CD, 1988, CBS Associated / Sony
Japanese special release of No Rest for the Wicked. It contains the
Japanese version of No Rest for the Wicked (which includes a second
additional track called The Liar), an Ozzy Osbourne logo metal belt
buckle, an Ozzy Osbourne logo patch, a Zakk Wylde name patch, and a
Japanese book. The whole thing is packaged to resemble a bible. It has
a thin cardboard slip cover with pictures from the album cover.
Miracle Man
12" single, 1988, Epic
Single with Miracle Man, The Liar, and Crazy Babies. Possibly UK only.
Not available in the US.
Miracle Man
12" shaped picture single, 1988, Epic
Single shaped like Ozzy's head with a crown of thorns. Additional
track is Crazy Babies.
Miracle Man
7" single, 1988, Epic
Additional track is Crazy Babies. Not available in the US.
Miracle Man
7" single, 1988, CBS
White-lable promo for this song.
Miracle Man
CD single, 1988, Epic (?)
Promo only, picture CD single. Additional track is The Liar. Possibly
non-U.S. I have never seen one of these.
Miracle Man
12" single, 1988, Epic
Promo single.
Crazy Babies (Crazy Mix)
12" single, 1988, CBS Associated
Promo only single. I can't tell the difference from the original
version, but I've only listened to it once.
Crazy Babies (Live)
CD single, 1988, CBS Associated
Promo-only single. The additional track, You Said it All, track is the
same as the one taken from the Mr. Crowley Live EP.
Crazy Babies
7" single, 1988, Epic / CBS
One-sided Spanish promo.
Crazy Babies
7" single, 1988, CBS
White-lable promo for this song.
Hero
12" single, 1989, CBS
Promo-only single. Additional tracks are You Said It All, Devil's
Daughter, Fire In The Sky.
Breaking All The Rules
CD single, ????, ????
Promo-only, picture CD single. Possibly import. Additional track is
Miracle Man - Live, different version from Just Say Ozzy. I've never
seen one of these.
Wicked Videos
video cassette, 1988 or 1989 (?), (?)
Video clips from No Rest for the Wicked.
Best of Ozz
CD, 1989, CBS / Sony
Japanese only compilation with songs from Blizzard of Ozz through The
Ultimate Sin.
Led Clones
7" single, 1988/1989, Virgin / Capitol
Additional track is Speak For Yourself. Ozzy sings lead on Led Clones
and backup on Speak For Yourself. Both songs are from Gary Moore's
album After the War.
Speak For Yourself
one song, 1988/1989, Virgin / Capitol
Sings backup/harmony for this song from Gary Moore's album After the
War. Also available as the B-side to the Led Clones 7" single.
Purple Haze
one song, 1989, Mercury / PolyGram
This song appears on the Stairway to Heaven / Highway To Hell album by
the Make A Difference Foundation. This all of the songs on this record
were originally written by bands that have been touched by drug or
alcohol problems. The band members are Zakk Wylde, Randy Castillo, and
Geezer Butler.
Ten Commandments
album, 1990, Priority Records / CBS
"Limited Collector's Edition" CD and cassette only (no vinyl). This
was only released for a limited time and has been out of print for
quite a while.
Just Say Ozzy
ep, 1990, CBS Associated in U.S. (Epic in Europe)
Live ep from No Rest tour. Reissued with 22-bit remastering.
Live Pigs
CD single, 1988(?), CBS Associated
Promo-only two track with War Pigs (Live) from Just Say Ozzy and
Breaking All The Rules.
Bombers (Can Open Bomb Bays)
one song, 1990, Chameleon Records
Sings this song on Bill Ward's solo record Ward One: _Along the Way_.
This CD is out of print.
Jack's Land
one song, 1990, Chameleon Records
Sings this song on Bill Ward's solo record Ward One: _Along the Way_.
This CD is out of print.
The Urpney Song
7" single, 1990, Adventure Records
Sings this song with Frank Bruno and Billy Connolly (this is the guy
that played the teacher on Head of the class after Howard Hessman
left). Also listed are Mike Batt and The London Philharmonic
Orchestra. Additional track is The Whirlyped Launch; Ozzy does not
sing on this additional track. The song is from The Dreamstone,
animated TV series for Central TV. This song is also available on the
album entitled The Dreamstone. Not available in the U.S.
No More Tears
album, 1991, Epic / Sony
Japanese version has 2 additional tracks: Party with the Animails and
Don't Blame me. No US vinyl. Reissued with 22-bit remastering.
No More Tears
7" single, 1991, Epic / Sony
Additional track is S.I.N. Not available in the US.
No More Tears
CD single, 1991, Epic / Sony
Special UK package. CD single in an embossed CD wallet with room for
each solo studio record. Each sleeve has a different picture.
Additional tracks are S.I.N. and Party With the Animals.
No More Tears
CD single, 1991, Epic / Sony
promo only, 1 track.
No More Tears
12" picture disc, 1991, Epic / Sony
Additional tracks are S.I.N. and Party with the Animals. Not available
in the US.
No More Tears
CD single, 1991, Epic / Sony
"Maxi single" with No More Tears, S.I.N., Don't Blame Me, and Party
With The Animals. I believe Party... was from the movie Buffy the
Vampire Slayer.
Mr. Tinkertrain
CD single, 1991, Epic / Sony
promo only, 1 track.
Mama, I'm Coming Home
12" single, 1991, Epic / Sony
European single with Mama I'm Coming Home (Special version adapted
from the No More Tears Album), Don't Blame Me (previously unreleased),
I Don't Know, and Crazy Train. Not available in the US.
Mama, I'm Coming Home
12" single, 1991, Epic / Sony
European single with Mama I'm Coming Home (Special version adapted
from the No More Tears Album), Goodbye To Romance, and Time After
Time. Not available in the US.
Mama, I'm Coming Home
7" single, 1991, Epic / Sony
Additional track is Don't Blame Me. This is a jukebox single and
(after much looking) can be found with the jukebox title inserts.
Mama, I'm Coming Home
CD single, 1991, Epic / Sony
"Maxi single" with Mama, I'm Coming Home, Don't Blame Me, and Party
With the Animals.
Mama, I'm Coming Home
CD single, 1991, Epic / Sony
promo only, long and short version.
I Don't Want to Change the World
12" single, 1991, Epic / Sony
Promo only single with I Don't Want to Change the World, Mama, I'm
Coming Home, and No More Tears. Probably not avaliable in the US.
Don't Blame Me
video cassette, 1991, SMV Enterprises
Mostly interview footage of Ozzy and friends talking about his career.
Some rare footage, including some Randy Rhoades bits.
Therapy
one song, 1991, Epic / Sony
Sings chorus to this Infectious Grooves song. The song appears on The
Plague That Makes Your Booty Move...It's The Infectious Grooves and is
available as a promo-only one track CD single.
Hey Stoopid
one song, 1991, Epic / Sony
Sings backup on this Alice Cooper song. The song appears on the Hey
Stoopid album.
Road To Nowhere
CD single, 1992, Epic / Sony
Promo only, additional track is Party With the Animals.
Time After Time
CD single, 1992, Epic / Sony
promo only, 1 track.
The No More Tears Demo Sessions
CD, 1992, Epic / Sony
Numbered, limited edition, promo-only CD of demo songs for No More
Tears. Tracks are I Don't Want to Change the World, Mama, I'm Coming
Home, Desire, Time After Time, Won't Be Coming Home (S.I.N.) Mrs. J.,
An Interview with Ozzy 5/13/92 Mrs. J. is an acoustic piece by Zakk
Wyld. All songs are basically the same as the released versions, just
mixed differently with some different harmonies and solos. The
exception to this is Won't Be Coming Home. This song eventually became
S.I.N., but in this form the lyrics make it a really different song
(in my opinion). The back of the CD has a painting by Ozzy. The liner
notes say "Any broadcast of this recording is prohibited".
Shake Your Head
12" single, 1992, Phonogram
Was (Not Was) song where Ozzy duets with Kim Basinger. May also be
available on a full length Was (Not Was) release.
I Ain't No Nice Guy
one song, 1992, Epic / Sony
Ozzy sings with Lemmy on this song from Motorhead's March or Die
album. Also, the song Hellraiser (co written with Lemmy) appears here,
but as done by Motorhead. Ozzy's version appears on No More Tears.
Live & Loud
double album, 1993, Epic / Sony
Live album from the No More Tours Tour. CD is "limited edition". It
comes in digi-pack with speaker grill front, booklet, and 2 temporary
tattoos. This is a 2 CD set. It is somewhat limited since it is now
out of print at least in the US. Vinyl not available in the US.
Reissued with 22-bit remastering, but in double jewel case. The
original is out of print. No tattoos in the remastered version.
Live & Loud Sampler
CD, 1993, Epic / Sony
13 song sampler from Live & Loud. The 13th song is Shot in the Dark
and is unlisted on the CD. Promo only.
Live & Loud
video cassette, 1993, Epic Music Video / Sony
Limited edition packaging of speaker grill similar to the CD. I
believe the limited packaging version is out of print, but not the
video itself since I've seen the video by itself.
Changes
CD single, 1993, Epic / Sony
Contains Changes, No More Tears, Desire, Changes (with Audience).
Changes + 2: Live and Loud Sampler
CD single, 1993, Epic / Sony
Promo only version of the above.
Changes
12" picture disc, 1993, Epic / Sony
Tracks are the same as CD single. Not available in the US.
Changes
7" single, 1993, Epic / Sony
Tracks are Changes and No More Tears. Since it is on Epic, it is
probably European only, but I can't tell. Also, the one I have has no
picture sleeve, but I don't know if it is supposed to have one.
Iron Man
one song, 1994, Columbia / Sony
This song has Ozzy singing with Therapy? as the backing band. It
appears on the Black Sabbath tribute Nativity In Black. This CD is
available in a second, promo-only, 2 CD format. It is called The Bible
According to Black Sabbath, Old and New Testaments. The Old Testament
(first CD) is the same songs in the same order as the tribute, but as
performed by Black Sabbath. The New Testament (second CD) is the
actual tribute. I believe copies of this are pretty rare. There is no
US vinyl of this, but there may have been a European pressing.
Born to be Wild
one song, 1994, Jim Henson Records / BMG
Ozzy does a "duet" with Miss Piggy on the record called Kermit
Unpigged. Other artists on this disc include Vince Gill, Jimmy
Buffett, and Don Henley.
Ozzmosis
album, 1995, Epic / Sony
Japanese version has an additional track Whole World's Falling Down.
Vinyl not available in the US.
Perry Mason
CD single, 1995, Epic / Sony
Tracks are Perry Mason (edit), Perry Mason (album version), Living
with the Enemy, The Whole World's Falling Down. Not available in the
US.
Perry Mason
CD single, 1995, Epic / Sony
Same as above, but without the album version of Perry Mason. Part 1 of
a 2 part set. Not available in the US.
Perry Mason
CD single, 1995, Epic / Sony
Tracks are Perry Mason (album version), No More Tears, I Don't Want to
Change the World, Flying High Again. Not available in the US. Part 2
of a 2 part set.
Perry Mason
7" picture disc, 1995, Epic / Sony
Tracks are Perry Mason (edit), Living With the Enemy. Limited edition
numbered picture disc. Not available in the US.
Perry Mason
CD single, 1995, Epic / Sony
promo only, Perry Mason (edit), Perry Mason (album version).
4 From Ozzmosis
CD EP, 1995, Epic / Sony
UK promo. Tracks are Thunder Underground, Perry Mason, Tomorrow, and I
Just Want You.
Ozzatory Pt. 1 / Hard & Melodious Side
CD EP, 199?, Epic / Sony (?)
Japan-only promo. 13 tracks.
Ozzatory Pt. 2 / Ballad & Melodious Side
CD EP, 199?, Epic / Sony (?)
Japan-only promo. 8 tracks.
The Ballads of Ozz
CD EP, 1995, Epic / Sony
German promo. Tracks are See You on the Other Side, Ghost Behind My
Eyes, I Just Want You, and Old L.A. Tonight.
See You on the Other Side
CD single, 1996, Epic / Sony
Tracks are See You on the Other Side (edit), See You on the Other Side
(album version), Voodoo Dancer, Aimee. Not available in the US.
See You on the Other Side
CD single, 1996, Epic / Sony
Japanese release. Tracks are See You on the Other Side (short
version), Voodoo Dancer, Living With the Enemy, Perry Mason (edit).
Not available in the US.
See You on the Other Side
CD single, 1996, Epic / Sony
Promo only, See You on the Other Side (long version), See You on the
Other Side (short version).
I Just Want You
CD single, 1996, Epic / Sony
One of a two part set. Tracks are I Just Want You (Single Edit),
Aimee, and Mama, I'm Coming Home. Not available in the US.
I Just Want You
CD single, 1996, Epic / Sony
One of a two part set. Tracks are I Just Want You (Single Edit),
Voodoo Dancer (Rough Demo), and Iron Man with Therapy?. Iron Man is
the version from the Nativity in Black tribute album. Not available in
the US.
I Just Want You
12" single, 1996, Epic / Sony
Tracks are I Just Want You (Album Version), Aimee (Rough Demo), and
Voodoo Dancer (Rough Demo). All three tracks are on one side. The
Other side has an etched "Best Wishes Ozzy Osbourne" in Ozzy's own
"handwriting". There is also a little Ozzy sketch. Not available in
the US.
I Just Want You
CD single, 1996, Epic / Sony
Promo-only one-track single.
Walk On Water
one song, 1996, Famous Music Corporation / EMI Virgin Music Inc. /
Alamo Music Corp. / Testatyme Music
Song from the movie soundtrack for Beavis and Butt-Head Do America.
Produced by, of all people, Moby. Joe Holmes, ex Lizzy Borden, joins
on guitar.
Walk On Water
CD single, 1996, Famous Music Corporation / EMI Virgin Music Inc. /
Alamo Music Corp. / Testatyme Music
Promo-only one track single.
Greatest Hits
CD, 1996, DOG Entertainment, Licensed from Sony Music Entertainment.
Inc
Greatest hits package printed in Portugal. Tracks are Perry Mason, Mr.
Tinkertrain, Miracle Man, No More Tears, Bark at the Moon, Crazy
Babies, The Ultimate Sin, Never Know Why, I Just Want You, Believer,
Mr. Crowley, Thunder Underground, Over the Mountain, Forever.
Pictures Of Matchstick Men
one song, 1997, Warner Bros. Records Inc.
Performs this song with Type-O Negative for the soundtrack to Howard
Stern's movie, Private Parts.
Pictures Of Matchstick Men
CD single, 1997, Warner Bros. Records Inc.
Promo-only single. Tracks are the full length and the edit.
The OZZfest Live
album, 1997, Ozz Records
Live record with various artists that appeared in the first OZZfest
concerts. The tracks and bands are as follows: Loco - Coal Chamber,
Ride Thy Neighbor - Cellophane, Broken Foundation - Earth Crisis,
Organized - Powerman 5000, Locust Star - Neurosis, Replica - Fear
Factory, These Eyes - Biohazard, Attitude - Sepultura, Angel of Death
- Slayer, Perry Mason - Ozzy Osbourne.
The OZZfest Live
CD, 1997, Ozz Records
Promo-sampler from the OZZfest CD. Labeled "Sanitized For Your
Protection (All Clean Versions)". The tracks are Sepultura - Attitude,
Fear Factory - Replica, and Ozzy Osbourne - Perry Mason.
The OZZfest '97
Double CD, 1997, Best Buy Co., Inc.
Promo-only 2 CD compilation of bands. Some of which appeared at one of
the OZZfests, some of which did not. The only Ozzy track on this piece
is Revelation (Mother Earth). Comes with a coupon book for use at Best
Buy stores.
The Ozzman Cometh [Image]
Double CD, 1997, Sony
Best of Ozzy CD. Includes 4 unreleased Black Sabbath tracks: Black
Sabbath, War Pigs, Fairies Wear Boots, and Behind The Wall Of Sleep.
These songs were taken from "Ozzy's 1970 Basement Tapes". Black
Sabbath has an additional verse and War Pigs has different lyrics.
There is also an interview from 1988.
The Japanese version has two additional tracks: Walk On Water (from
Beavis and Butt-head Take America) and Pictures Of Matchstick Men
)from Howard Stern's Private Parts). It also has a sheet of stickers
depicting all of Ozzy's solo records, the cartoon Ozzy with the cross,
and a logo from the No Rest For The Wicked era.
On the U.S. version, there are multi-media tracks which neither the
European nor the Japanese version have. These tracks are the videos
for Crazy Babies, Crazy Train, Perry Mason, I Just Want You, and
Paranoid (live). There is also a screen "killer" (saver) and a
"whack-a-mole"-like video game where you "whack Ozzy's bones".
Back On Earth [Image]
CD single, 1997, Sony
Non-U.S. CD single. Extra tracks are Walk On Water and I Just Want
You.
Back On Earth
CD single, 1997, Sony
Promo-only CD single with Radio Edit and Album Version.
War Pigs
CD single, ???, ???
Promo-only CD single with two tracks.
Vertical Man
CD, 1998, ???
Ozzy performs this song on Ringo Starr's record.
Nowhere To Run
CD, 1998, Sony
This track appears on Chef Aid: The South Park Album.
Ozzy performs with DMX and 'Ol Dirty Bastard.
Music by Crystal Method with Fuzzbubble.
Buried Alive
CD, 1999, EMI
This track appears on Rick Wakeman's Return To The Centre Of The Earth.
Shock The Monkey
CD, 1999, ???
Ozzy performs with Coal Chamber on this track for the Peter Gabriel tribute
and on the Coal Chamber record entitled Chamber Music.
This Means War
one song, 1999?, ???? ????
Ozzy has a guest appearence on this Busta Rhyme's track.
Down to Earth
CD, 2001
Mike Bordin: Drums Zakk Wylde: Guitar Vocals Robert Trujillo: Bass
-----------------------------------------------------------------------
3.1 RARE/B-SIDES/ETC.
-----------------------------------------------------------------------
The following are B-sides, bonus tracks, demos, or unreleased versions
of Ozzy songs:
* "You Looking at Me, Looking at You"
[b-side to "Crazy Train" 7" single]
* "I Don't Know"
[live b-side to "Flying High Again" single]
* "One Up the B-Side"
[b-side to "Bark at the Moon" single]
* "Spiders"
[track on European BARK AT THE MOON replacing USA Slow Down]
* "Hero"
[unlabelled last track on NO REST FOR THE WICKED]
* "The Liar"
[from Japanese NO REST FOR THE WICKED]
* "I Don't Want to Change the World"
[from NO MORE TEARS demos CD]
* "Mama, I'm Coming Home"
[from NO MORE TEARS demos]
* "Desire"
[from NO MORE TEARS demos]
* "Time After Time"
[from NO MORE TEARS demos]
* "Won't Be Coming Home (S.I.N.)"
[from NO MORE TEARS demo w/alt. lyrics]
* "Mrs. J."
[from NO MORE TEARS demo]
* "Don't Blame Me"
[b-side to "Mama, I'm Coming Home"]
* "Party with the Animals"
[b-side to "Mama, I'm Coming Home"]
* "The Whole World is Falling Down"
[b-side to "Perry Mason"]
* "Living with the Enemy"
[b-side to "Perry Mason"]
* "Aimee"
[b-side to "See You on the Other Side]
* "Voodoo Dancer"
[b-side to "See You on the Other Side"]
* "Purple Haze"
[from the Make a Difference Foundation album STAIRWAY TO
HEAVEN/HIGHWAY TO HELL]
* "Iron Man"
[with Therapy?, from NATIVITY IN BLACK) 1994 Columbia/Sony]
* "Close My Eyes Forever"
[duet with Lita Ford, from LITA FORD]
* "Bombers (Can Open Bomb Bays)"
(with Bill Ward, from WARD ONE:
ALONG THE WAY) 1990, Chameleon Records
* "Jack's Land"
[with Bill Ward, from WARD ONE: ALONG THE WAY]
* "Shake Your Head (Let's Go to Bed)"
[with WasNotWas, from BORN TO LAUGH AT TORNADOS.
Kim Basinger supporting vocals]
1992 Phonogram
* "Led Clones"
[with Gary Moore, from AFTER THE WAR]
1989 Virgin/Capitol
* "Speak For Yourself"
[with Gary Moore, from AFTER THE WAR]
* "I Ain't No Nice Guy"
[duet with Lemmy, from Motorhead's MARCH OR DIE]
1992 Epic/Sony
* "Born to be Wild"
[duet with Ms. Piggy, from KERMIT UNPIGGED]
1994, Jim Henson Records
* "Therapy"
[with The Infectious Grooves, from PLAGUE THAT MAKES YOUR BOOTY MOVE]
1991 Epic/Sony
* "Hey Stoopid"
[back-up with Alice Cooper, from HEY STOOPID]
1991 Epic/Sony
* "Staying Alive"
[with Dweezil Zappa, unreleased]
* "The Urpney Song"
["The Dreamstone" 1990 British cartoon]
The list comes from information provided by: supreme(at)inforamp.net and
ozzy(at)airmail.net
-----------------------------------------------------------------------
3.2 Song Definitons
-----------------------------------------------------------------------
AIR DANCE : An old woman remembering her dancing days.
AVH – Austin Villa Highway
BACK ON EARTH : Death, and the spirit returning to Earth after you die.
CRAZY BABIES : Babies who are the result of crack cocaine mothers.
CRAZY TRAIN : Society and can we all get along.
DEMON ALCOHOL : Basically the same as Suicide Solution. The dangers of
drinking.
GHOST BEHIND MY EYES : This is about Sharon visiting Ozzy in his dreams
while going through
rehab.
GOODBYE TO ROMANCE : Despite the misleading lyrics this is not about love.
The lyrics are about
Ozzy's days with Sabbath, now dead and gone, and was his way of saying
goodbye to them.
"Yesterday has been and gone, tomorrow will I find the sun or will it rain".
You figure it out.
I DON’T KNOW : Written because fans kept thinking Black Sabbath were
prophets who could answer
questions about the future.
KILLER OF GIANTS : A song about man and nuclear missiles and how, if we keep
up this mad rush to
have the bigger weapon, we will obliterate ourselves.
MIRACLE MAN : The hypocrisy of preacher Jimmy Swaggart who put Ozzy down but
then fell from glory
himself when caught with a prostitute.
MY LITTLE MAN : A song Ozzy wrote for his son Jack, it sounds like it is a
last goodbye to his
son.
OLD LA TONIGHT : Written around the time of the LA riots, the song is about
Los Angeles.
PERRY MASON : Perry Mason defending a man accused of killing someone. The
original idea had
nothing to do with Perry Mason, it was just a title Ozzy wrote down.
ROAD TO NOWHERE : A retrospective look at Ozzy's life.
SWEET LEAF : Marijuana.
SEE YOU ON THE OTHER SIDE : A song about death. Written after Sam Kinnison
died in a traffic
accident and Steve Marriott of Humble Pie died as well.
I was also sent this e-mail from Norm O'Brien:
====================================
Oz: "I wrote that song for my wife. I absolutely adore my wife. The
love that I have for her and the love she has for me will never die. I
truly believe that if I pop off first or she goes then we'll meet up
on the other side. I believe in life after death, which is strange
because at one point I didn't believe in life after birth."
Chortles Ozzy Heartily.
Oz: "I believe in life after death because I'm getting closer to it
now and I'm at the half way point now at least! It's like a message
to Sharon because I love her"
Sharons view of the song is a little different...
Sharon: "Ozzy wrote that song when he was really ill earlier this year
and he was being wrongly diagnosed," She recalls. "He was told that he
had an illness that was really bad and we thought that that was it,
that he was going to die. That's where it came from."
====================================
THANK GOD FOR THE BOMB : See above.
S.A.T.O. : Previously thought to refer to Sailing Across The Ocean or
Sundays and Thursday’s
Only. It refers to Sharon’s full name, Sharon Arden Thelma Osbourne.
SO TIRED : I absolutely love this song. A soft ballad and easy listener
about a woman who is cheating on her lover and it is time for them to part.
SUICIDE SOLUTION : The dangers of alcohol.
BLOODBATH IN PARADISE : Charles Manson and his following, the Tate and
LaBianca murders.
YOU'RE NO DIFFERENT : People who put down Ozzy, take a look at yourself
before judging others.
BARK AT THE MOON : A creature scorned and buried alive. The creature comes
back to seek revenge
on those who buried him.
MR. TINKERTRAIN : The problem of child molestation in our society.
MR. CROWLEY : Ozzy had heard about Mr. Crowley and wanted to know what
he was all about. The song is Ozzy asking Mr. Crowley who he is.
NO BONE MOVIES : A song about pornography.
FLYING HIGH AGAIN : A song about drugs.
FAIRIES WEAR BOOTS : Written about skinheads who wear boots. This came after
the Sabs were beaten
up by skinheads. It has also been said that Ozzy and Geezer were
hallucinating and saw fairies.
depending on whom you ask, you’ll get different versions.
DREAMER : Hoping for a better world tomorrow.
THE JUNKIE : Life with a drug addiction.
GETS ME THROUGH : Apparently about the fans.
HARD ROAD : Life isn’t easy, you have to carry your own weight.
CONTRADICTION (Kelly) : For her sister Aimee, who chose not to appear on
"The Osbournes."
ON YOUR OWN (Kelly) : about a bad friend
SHUT UP (Kelly) : her school teachers
VOODOO DANCER – The title of this song still amazes me. When Tattooed Dancer
came out, I invented
this song title taking “Voodoo” from another song and “Dancer” from Tattooed
Dancer. I also came
up with “Aimee”. Both songs had not even been written yet. This was a joke
between me and a
friend. Music collectors kept asking for Voodoo Dancer and Aimee but they
didn't exist. In a year
or two, I was shocked when a trader sent me actual songs of both titles. I’d
like to ask Ozzy
where he came up with the titles.
-----------------------------------------------------------------------
3.3 Did You Know?
-----------------------------------------------------------------------
Ozzy's LA house has a urinal in the bathroom. The reason for this is
because Ozzy kept urinating on the toilet seat.
In December 2003 Ozzy admitted to being on a 42 pill-a-day addiction.
The owners of Country Cow Creamery have designed ice creams named Ozzy's
Carnivorous Carrot Cake
and Death by Sharon to be sold throughout America.
Ozzy has a $60,000 automated toilet in his home.
Ozzy tried to hang himself from a clothes-line during a wild childhood, but
was stopped by his
father.
Ozzy's calls his son from his first marriage Bombins (his real name
is Louis).
Ozzy's sister Gillian has been comitted twice. Once after she went and cut
the heads off all the
familys photos.
Ozzy once beat up one of his teachers with an iron bar. The teacher would
later be fired.
Ozzy stabbed his aunt's cat at the age of 11.
Ozzy would break in to his 63 year old neighbour's home when she went to
work. The woman's
children had been killed in an air-raid and her husband killed in the war.
The more you read this
biography the more you realize how cruel Ozzy was as a youth.
At the age of 14, Ozzy tried to hang himself using clothesline. His father
caught him and beat
him for it.
Ozzy tried to strangle one of his brothers and tried to light his sister on
fire by pouring gas
on her dress.
The FBI once visited Ozzy because they heard he was planning to urinate on
the steps of the White
House (untrue).
Ozzy and Sharon own a Range Rover and a Bentley.
Ozzy once shot 17 of his cats.
Ozzy once took a crap in the elevator of a plush hotel. The elevator doors
opened, and there he
was with his pants down.
Ozzy's first royalty check was spent on 50 pounds to his mother, a pair of
shoes and some cologne
(because he hated the way he smelled).
Ozzy donated $10,000 to the caretakers of the Alamo in 1992.
Tommy Aldridge was Ozzy's best man during his marriage to Sharon.
The Cal Jam 1974 show earned the band $250,000 but they only received $1000
each. Their manager
pocketed the rest.
Ozzfest expenses are about one million dollars per week!
Ozzfest currently takes 9 transports to move all the set.
Ozzy travels by bus instead of plane now, because too much time alone in his
hotel room left him
time to smoke.
Ozzy had three older sisters and two younger brothers. He is only close to
his sister Jean.
Ozzy snorted ants through a straw after being dared to by Tommy Lee.
Ozzy used to set fire to barns in the cornfields when he was younger.
A fan made an Ozzy Osbourne Cabbage Patch Doll for Ozzy, complete with
tattoos.
Ozzy's least favorite video is "The Ultimate Sin".
The daughter from Ozzy's previous marriage is a surveyor, while the son is a
chef, now turned DJ.
When Ozzy began singing for the first time, at age 15, only 3 people turned
up (at the Birmingham
firehouse)
When Ozzy is online, being interviewed, someone else actually types the
responses (I kind of
figured that one out already).
Ozzy's 'Party with the Animals' was featured in Buffy the Vampire Slayer.
The title 'Diary of a Madman' comes from Aleister Crowley's biography
The dwarf on the Diary of a Madman tour was the same actor who played R2D2
in Star Wars (not
confirmed)
Ozzy's contract stipulated that 25 pounds of raw meat would be thrown at the
audience for the
Diary of a Madman tour.
Gary Moore was originally considered for the Ozzy's guitarist on Blizzard of
Ozz.
In 1971, a nurse committed suicide while listening to the Paranoid album.
Ozzy used to be so poor that he would walk to band rehearsal in his bare
feet.
A fan of Ozzys in Texas built a tomb for Ozzy and himself to rest in when
they both died. The fan
expected to lay beside Ozzy in death, forever.
When Ozzy left Sabbath, he had to steal music equipment from a warehouse to
start up a new band.
Ozzy has a sketch of his on display at the Hard Rock Cafe in Tokyo?
In 1982, Ozzy donated 25,000 dollars to the SPCA to help neutralize some of
the bad publicity
involving animals.
The woman in Ozzy’s "Shot In The Dark" video used to be a cheerleader for
the L.A. Rams.
Some of Ozzy Osbourne's Favorites records are: Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts
Club Band, The Beatles
Revolver, The Beatles Rubber Soul, The Beatles The White Album, The Beatles
Led Zeppelin I, LZ
Led Zeppelin II, LZ Band on the Run, Paul McCartney and Wings Arc of a
Diver, Steve Winwood
Hello, I Must Be Going, Phil Collins Kissing to Be Clever, Culture Club
Essence to Essence,
Donovan.
Ozzy was not born in a hospital but delivered by a midwife at home.
When Ozzy lived with his first wife Thelma, they took turns feeding the
chickens. One day it was
Ozzy's turn but he was busy drinking with his friends. Thelma kept asking Oz
to go feed them,
finally Ozzy went outside with a shotgun and killed them.
Ozzy and Bill once urinated on Hitler's shrine in Berlin.
Ozzy is superstitious and will not wear the color green.
Being a big star, Ozzy does not attend social engagements. He prefers to sit
at home and listen
to music while he draws sketches.
When Oz was only 14 years old he was in a band called the Black Panthers.
The very first pub Sabbath played in as Black Sabbath was the Mermaid, in a
region of Birmingham
called Sparkbrook. It closed down years ago, as it is in an area now almost
completely inhabited
by ethnic groups who have no care for it. [by Mike H]
Ozzy plays all of the characters in his 'So Tired' video. Don Airey also
makes an appearance.
What you hear at the end of Crazy Train is Ozzy asking someone in the studio
what he had for
breakfast. The man responded, “An egg.” You can hear this response,
distorted by an oscillator.
Ozzy is the godfather of Zakk's child and the child is named John Michael,
after Ozzy.
Ozzy sends flowers to Randy's grave each year.
Ozzy was drinking Tequila for the very first time. He ended up getting so
drunk that he fell
asleep under a table in a hotel restaurant. The cleaner woke him up by
hitting him over the head
with a broom, thinking he was a homeless person.
While in the Betty Ford clinic for alcoholism, Ozzy stayed in a room with a
mortician who cried
all the time and was constantly depressed.
Ozzy wanted to have a FOURTH child?
Ozzy once unknowingly urinated out a window onto a waiting audience below
him.
Towards the end of Ozzy's days with Sabbath, Ozzy had planned to call his
first solo alum, "Am I
Going Insane?". Instead he wrote a song of the same title for the Sabotage
album.
The sound of crying at the end of "Am I Going Insane?" is actually Ozzy's
baby?
On Christmas Eve one year, Ozzy opened his bay window to look at the snow
covered countryside. As
he sniffed at the icy air, there in front of him was a stoat sitting up on
its hind legs looking
back at him.
If you've read the book by Steve Rosen you know that the author was with
Ozzy and the band when
they trashed a hotel room. The events which lead up to it were as follows: A
girl who called
herself Stormy Monday was in their hotel room undulating to imaginary music.
As she moved around
the floor, caressing herself, she would watch the band for their reactions.
Realizing she
couldn't go through with it, she stopped just short of removing her top.
Angry, Ozzy ripped a
thermostat off the wall. Then he tore the pictures off the wall. He then
tore the TV from the
mounting and it was given rides up and down the elevator. Then he broke the
glass containing the
fire extinguisher and sprayed everyone.
The song Mr. Tinkertrain is named after a bar in Bearsville, New York.
Ozzy once planned to have a T-shirt made which read, "If your day is totally
screwed up, blame
Ozzy Osbourne" because of all the blame being put on him for supposed
effects on people from his
music.
Ozzy's favorite beer is Starbucks. He has a dog named Baldrick and owns six
dogs in all.
Ozzy owns an 18th century home in Buckinghamshire and one in Beverly Hills.
Ozzy was drinking in a bar with a girl named Regan, who was insulting Ozzy
and who then threw an
icecube at his head. Ozzy dumped a bowl of popcorn over head. After this she
proceeded to try and
slash him with a lit cigarette. Her arms were held down while various drinks
were then poured
down her dress.
Ozzy routinely uses a fire hose to douse his audience with water. His
security staff has taken to
wearing raincoats now.
Ozzy's grandfather had a tattoo of a snake which went from his head all the
way down to his toes.
Once at the Niagra Falls Hilton, out of boredom Ozzy lit some matches under
a fire sprinkler.
Sirens and bells began to sound and people began running around in sheer
panic and soon firemen
and policemen arrived.
When Oz was younger he said that for his tombstone he wanted a statue of him
in the Volume 4
cover position (outstretched arms, peace sign).
In a testament to his supposed animal cruelty... Ozzy was staying in a Swiss
hotel once when he
found a stray dog outside. The dog was starving so Ozzy put a string around
his neck and walked
him into the hotel's restaurant. Immediately staff told him he couldn't
bring a dog into the
place. Ozzy said that since he was staying in one of their most high priced
rooms, he felt that
the dog should be fed. So they reluctantly fed him. The waiter asked Ozzy
what he'd like to have,
then asked, "What will the dog have?" "How would the dog like his steak
done?" The dog ended up
with a meal in his stomach.
A Christian, determined to save Ozzy from damnation, once followed the tour
bus from a concert
for over 300 miles.
Ozzy's song 'I Don't Want to Change the World' won him a Grammy award.
The Osbourne family was travelling on a plane. A woman complained about his
rowdy kids and said,
"My dogs behave better than your kids". Sharon replied, "That's because
you're probably having
sex with them". The kids also filled her jacket pocket with peas and other
vegetables.
Ozzy is so used to being called "Ozzy" that he no longer knows someone is
talking to him if they
call him "John".
When Ozzy had his dragon tattoo made, he had no idea what he wanted. He
simply asked the
tattooist to make something, which he did, right out of his own imagination.
"All Moving Part's Stand Still" is about a cross dressing president who
turns out to be a woman
in real life?
Fox Television has offered Ozzy his very own television show. The show would
be about a singer
who is on the road and has to adapt to life at home after being away from
home for so long. Oz
says he won't do it though because he doesn't like the way his voice sounds.
Sharon Osbourne used to be manager of many other groups as well such as Gary
Moore, but dropped
them so she could spend more time with Ozzy. Tony Iommi also used to manage
bands such as Judas
Priest.
Ozzy's personal assistant's name is Tony Dennis. It seems he almost lives in
Ozzy's house and
his job is to pour Ozzy's tea. Does he wipe Ozzy's butt too?
Ozzy once visited a dying fan in the hospital. The fan was unable to talk
and wrote out what song
Ozzy would dedicate to him on stage that night (Crazy Train).
After he and Sharon have a fight, Ozzy will sometimes go to Tiffany's and
buy Sharon an expensive
piece of jewelry to make up for it.
Ozzy had a grand mal seizure which has left him with physical side effects.
He also takes prozac
because of a chemical imbalance.
Ozzy was officially banned from Salt Lake City, permanently by a group of
Mormons.
Bloodbath in Paradise is Jack’s favourite song of his fathers.
Ozzy once owned an XJ12 sportscar which was used only for special occasions.
Ozzy ended up
sinking it after driving through a fence in his yard.
Ozzy has worked with many different artists such as Dweezil Zappa, Kim
Basinger, Miss Piggy, Lita
Ford, Sam Kinnison, Theraphy?, Bill Ward, Alice Cooper, Gary Moore,
Motorhead, Holly Knight, and
Slash.
The Black Sabbath song NIB does not stand for anything. The name comes from
Bill Ward’s beard
which looked like the nib of a pen.
Sharon once flew to Tokyo to join Ozzy on tour. After the show she went
ahead to their hotel
room, only to be woken hours later by a young Japanese girl climbing into
their bed. A drunken
Ozzy had forgotten his wife had arrived. "It's funny now," she says, with a
tight smile. "It
wasn't then."
Ozzy was once stabbed in the stomach with a screwdriver at a dance.
Jack has bought only one pair of jeans in the last eight years.
Ozzy's son Louis is a techno DJ with a webpage at
www(dot)louisosbourne(dot)com.
Aimee Osbourne once paid $18,000 for charity passes to see Hanson.
In a show of support to his wife Sharon, Ozzy has promised to shave his head
while she undergoes
chemotherapy.
Kelly's first concert sold out in just 15 minutes. She also bids on items on
E-Bay.
Kelly bought a $75,000 watch.
A fan once fell 60 feet through a skylight at one of Ozzy's concerts. He got
up and started
dancing.
Kelly was working in the same studio as Christina Aguilera. Kelly putboogers
on all of the door
handles on Christina's car.
Ozzy is a grandfather to Isabelle Hobbs. She's the daughter of Jessica,
Ozzy's child from his
first marriage.
The National Enquirer says Ozzy had Robin Williams come over to entertain
his wife while she was
recovering from cancer.
There's an adult movie out called the The Ozzporns which is a parody of The
Osbournes.
-----------------------------------------------------------------------
3.4 Tattoos
-----------------------------------------------------------------------
Ozzy has over fifteen tattoos over his body. Some of them are:
- Red hooded ghoul on left chest
- Blue dragon with red flames on right chest
- "Mom and Pop" tattoo on right arm
- Stick man figure on left wrist just below thumb
- Unknown tattoo (letters) on his left palm, starts with "A" [***]
- Letters O,Z,Z,Y on his knuckles of left hand [***]
- The word 'THANKS' is marked on his right palm
- Happy faces on both knees [***]
- Rose on right shoulder, he would later have the word 'Sharon' tattooed
under it
- Skull with knife through it on left arm
- Long pointed dagger with Ozzy banner on left arm
- Bat and woman's face on upper left shoulder
- Symbols and a number "3" on his arm. [***]
- Needle on his right thigh
- Ozzy has a new tattoo under the rose on his right arm which
looks like a demon's face.
[***] These tattoos were done while Ozzy was in jail. He used two different
methods during at
least two different incarceration periods. The first method (his knees and
knuckles) was done
using a piece of graphite (as in pencil lead) and a needle. The other method
was done using a tin
of grey polish, melting it and sticking it into the skin with a needle.
-----------------------------------------------------------------------
3.5 Milestones
-----------------------------------------------------------------------
Dec. 3, 1948 - Ozzy Osbourne is born in Aston, Birmingham, England
Dec. 6 ,1956 - Randy Rhoads is born.
1962 - Ozzy joins one of his first bands at age 14, Black Panthers.
1967 - Ozzy, Geezer, Tony and Bill form Earth.
1969 - Earth calls themselves Black Sabbath.
1969 - Black Sabbath returns to England from Germany. So far
they have not found someone to carry their record.
Jan. 1970 - Vertigo decides to sign Sabbath to their label.
Feb. 1970 - Sabbath breaks the audience record at Henry's.
Feb.13 ,1970 - Black Sabbath releases its debut self titled album. This
would set the stage for the term 'heavy metal'.
Oct.23 ,1970 - A near riot results when a drunken crowd awaits the band.
Sept.4 ,1970 - Simpson and Sabbath part ways.
April 6,1974 - Sabbath plays the huge California Jam. Soon after, they fired
their manager.
1975 - Free from their manager's greedy hands, the band releases
the Sabotage album.
1976 - We Sold Our Souls is released. Reached #48 in the US, #35 in UK.
1977 - Ozzy's father passes away. Oz quits Black Sabbath but comes
back in time for the Never Say Die album and tour.
1978 - Ozzy is fired from Sabbath, Ronnie James Dio replaces him.
1980 - Ozzy signs with Jet Records. He releases his first solo album,
Blizzard of Ozz which goes platinum plus in the U.S.
Sept.12,1980 - Ozzy plays his first concert in Glasgow, Scotland.
1981 - Ozzy divorces his first wife. He goes on to release his second
album, Diary of a Madman. This album also goes platinum.
Jan. 20,1982 - Ozzy bites the head off the bat.
Feb. 19,1982 – Ozzy, wearing a dress, urinates on the Alamo and goes to
jail.
Mar. 19,1982 - Randy Rhoads dies in a plane accident in Leesburg, Florida.
1982 - Bernie Torme replaces Randy but backs out and so did the
Speak of the Devil album.
1982 - Black Sabbath releases 'Live Evil', Ozzy releases 'Speak of the
Devil'.
July 4, 1982 - Ozzy marries his long time companion, Sharon Arden. He passes
out drunk that
night.
Oct. 1, 1982 – Ozzy visits the Alamo. This time rather than urinate on it,
he donates $10,000
from a concert to the Alamo.
Sept 2, 1983 - Aimee Rachel is born.
1983 - Ozzy signs to Epic Records. Bill Ward quits Black Sabbath.
Feb. 1984 - Glass from a broken mirror gets lodged in Ozzy's throat.
Oct. 27, 1984 - Kelly Lee Osbourne is born.
May 16, 1984 – Ozzy is arrested in Memphis, TN for staggering drunk down
Beale Street.
October 26, 1984 – 19 year old John McCollum kills himself.
Nov. 1984 - Ozzy enters the Betty Ford clinic for drinking problems.
He also begins his Bark at the Moon project.
Nov. 8, 1985 - Jack Osbourne is born.
1985 - Ozzy plays the first Rock in Rio festival to over 200,000 people.
July 13,1985 - He also reunites with his ex-Sabbath members for the
Live Aid reunion in PA.
1986 - Ozzy wins a lawsuit that claimed "Suicide Solution" was
responsible for a teenage suicide in California.
May 2, 1986 - Ozzy co-hosts Friday Night Videos with Dr. Ruth
1987 - Due to popular demand by his fans, Ozzy puts out the Randy
Rhoads tribute album. He only plays one concert that year at
the Wormwood Scrubs prison.
1987 - Contrary to the above, Ozzy is reported to have played a 6 six
week tour of UK prisons. He also played "Jailhouse Rock"
1988 - Zakk Wylde joins Ozzy's lineup of guitar players.
1989 - Ozzy donates $15,000 to AIDS charities in Philadelphia.
Aug.12-13/89 - Ozzy plays the Moscow Music Festival which benefits drug and
alcohol programs.
Sept. 2,1989 - Ozzy is jailed after threatening Sharon.
Oct. 1990 - The parents of two Georgia teens file lawsuits against Ozzy
for the deaths of their children.
Dec. 16, 1990 - Ozzy appears on the TV show Parker Lewis Can't Lose
May 6, 1991 - Lawsuit filed in Georgia is dismissed on First Amendment
grounds.
1991 - No More Tears is released setting new grounds in Ozzy's
career. No more macabre album covers and titles.
Oct. 1, 1992 - Ozzy plays San Antonio, TX after being banned for 10
years. He donates $10,000 to the caretakers of the Alamo.
1992 - Ozzy announces this will be his last tour.
1992 - Ozzy wins a grammy award for "I Don't Want to Change the
World". Ozzy announces he is going to retire and embarks on
the "No More Tours" tour.
Mar. 28, 1992 - Fans cause $100,000 damage when Ozzy invites audience
members on stage at Laguna Hills, CA
Nov. 15,1992 - Ozzy plays his last show at Costa Mesa, CA
1993 - Live and Loud is released to accompany his last tour.
1993 -> 1995 - Ozzy takes three years off to relax and be a family man.
Finally he heads back into the studio and comes up with
Ozzmosis. A spectacle in his history of albums. He says
he is never going to retire again: The next time that he
retires will be when they lower him into the ground.
Oct.25, 1995 - Ozzmosis album is sold in stores.
Dec. 31, 1995 - Ozzy's Retirement Sucks tour begins.
Sept.14,1996 - Ozz-Fest begins
October 1996 - Ozzy announces he is starting his own record label,
"Ozz-Records" to promote smaller bands.
March 1997 - The Ozzfest Live album is released with bands
from the 1996 tour.
May 1997 - Ozzfest 1997 begins
June 15, 1997 - Ozzfest plays in East Rutherford, NJ despite
threats to pull the show if Marilyn Manson
took part. The show went on.
Nov. 11, 1997- Ozzman Cometh double CD is released featuring some
old Sabbath songs with alternative lyrics and a new
song called "Back on Earth".
Dec. 4/5,1997- Black Sabbath reunites in Birmingham, UK to do two live
shows. Ozzy is very happy about the second show.
July 3, 1998 - Ozzfest kicks off in New Jersey.
Oct.31, 1998 - Black Sabbath and Ozzy to release a live album from the
Dec. 5/97 UK show, along with two new studio tracks.
Jan. 1, 1999 - Black Sabbath's original four members launch a North
American tour.
May 27, 1999 Ozzy kicks off his fourth annual Ozzfest, featuring Black
Sabbath.
October 12, 1999 – Sharon takes over Smashing Pumpkin’s management
March 2000 - New Mexico's Belen High School refuses to allow students to
play Ozzy's Goodbye to
Romance.
May 2000 – No More Tears is certified 4 time platinum.
Dec. 2000 - Randy Castillo is diagnosed with cancer.
April 10, 2001 - Ozzy's mother passes away from cancer.
Oct. 10, 2001 - Down to Earth is released.
Dec. 23, 2001 - Ozzy stages a Merry Mayhem charity concert for the World
Trade Center
victims at the Meadowlands in New Jersey. He also stopped by Ground Zero to
pay his respects to
the victims and workers.
Dec. 2001 - Rob Zombie directs Ozzy's new video, Dreamer.
Jan. 4, 2002 - Black Sabbath are nominated for a Grammy Award for Best Metal
Performance ("The
Wizard" from Ozzfest 2001: The Second Millenium) by the National Acadamy of
Recording Arts &
Sciences.
Feb. 2002 - The Osbournes appear on the cover of TV Guide.
March 2002 - The Osbournes premiers on MTV which draws 4.1 million viewers
to its regular Tuesday
time slot on March 26
March 5, 2002 - The Osbourne premieres.
March 26, 2002 - Former Ozzy drummer Randy Castillo passes away of cancer.
April 2002 – The Osbournes offer $500 for the return of their lost dog,
Pippi. They eventually
raise the reward to $1000.
April 1, 2002 - An "Expanded Edition" album is reissued of existing Ozzy
songs.
April 12, 2002 - Ozzy receives his star on Hollywood's Walk of Fame in front
of the Ripley's
Believe It or Not Museum.
April 19, 2002 Ozzy and his family appeared on the cover of Entertainment
Weekly
April 29, 2002 - Ozzy makes an unnanounced appearance on the Tonight show.
May 2002 - Ozzy wins a Prism award for his song The Junkie, which raised
drug awareness.
May 2002 - Sharon Osbourne is voted one of People magazine's 50 Most
Beautiful People.
May 4, 2002 - Ozzy and Sharon are invited by one of their new fans, Fox News
Channel's Greta Van
Susteren, to the White House Press Correspondents Dinner.
May 15, 2002 - The Osbournes hold a press conference in New York to announce
the release of a
"Family Album" with Kelly's debut song.
May 29, 2002 - VH1 picks Sharon Osbourne to help pay tribute to Queen
Elizabeth II.
June 6, 2002 - Kelly Osbourne will sing for the first time on stage during
the MTV Movie Awards.
The song is "Papa Don't Preach"
June 3, 2002 - Ozzy sing's Paranoid at the Queen's Concert at Buckingham
Palace. Other acts
performing included Paul McCartney, Eric Clapton, and Rod Stewart.
June 11, 2002 - The Osbourne Family Album is released.
July 2002 - Ozzy makes an appearance in Austin Powers - Goldmember.
July 2002 - The Osbournes are sued by a producer named Gary Binkow,
claiming they stole his idea for The Osbournes. The show is also nominated
for an Emmy.
July 3, 2002 - Sharon Osbourne is diagnosed with cancer and has one foot of
her colon removed.
July 29, 2002 – Sharon begins chemotheraphy.
August 16, 2002 - The lawsuit brought against Ozzy by Bob Daisley and Lee
Kerslake was dismissed.
Sept. 2002 - Kelly's version of "Papa Don't Preach" enters the English
singles chart at number three.
Sept. 2002 - CTV (Canadian Television) broadcasts The Osbournes uncensored.
(They do this with
The Sopranos also)
Oct. 3, 2002 - "Dreamer" reaches #5 on the German singles chart.
Oct. 29, 2002 - Symptom of the Universe : The Original Black Sabbath
1970-1978 released.
Nov. 6, 2002 - Barbara Walters interviews the Osbournes.
Nov. 26, 2002 - Season II of The Osbournes premiers and Ozzy's daughter
Kelly releases her debut album titled "Shut Up".
2003 - The Osbournes first season is released on DVD.
Jan. 2003 - Sharon disputes whether a talent agent should have won a $15,000
necklace as a
doorprize for their New Years Eve wedding vow renewal party. She even hosts
a newsconference
(yawn) to shame the agent into returning it.
Jan. 13, 2003 - Ozzy, Sharon, Kelly, and Jack host the 30th Annual American
Music Awards
Jan. 14, 2003 - Kelly leaves for a three week European tour.
March 3, 2003 - Ozzy and Sharon appear on Larry King Live.
March 17, 2003 - Ozzy holds a press conference to announce
Jason Newsted (Metallica bassist) has joined his band.
2005 – Ozzy joins other stars in an remake of Eric Clapton's "Tears in
Heaven" to raise money for
Asian tsunami victims.
2005 – Ozzy announces this will be the last Ozzfest with him on tour. This,
due to a severe bout
of hayfever.
Feb. 2005 – Essential Ozzy Osbourne is certified gold.
March 2005 - 21-year-old Massachusetts singer/songwriter Lili Holbrook
records a cover of Ozzy’s
"Mama, I'm Coming Home"
April 2005 – Aimee discovers a lump in her breast, not known if its
cancerous.
July 2005 – Ozzy visits Sgt. Joe Bowser, a wounded US soldier at
Washington's Walter Reed
Hospital.
Sept. 8, 2005 - Ozzy Osbourne performed "Crazy Train" with Zakk Wylde, Mike
Bordin and Blasko
(from Rob Zombie) in Foxboro, Mass. during ABC's "NFL Kickoff". The game was
a season opener
between the New England Patriots and Oakland Raiders at Gillette Stadium.
-----------------------------------------------------------------------
3.6 Questions
-----------------------------------------------------------------------
Q: Where can I find a Black Sabbath FAQ?
A: www.black-sabbath.com, the file is by Alexander Rack
Q: What religion is Ozzy? Is he satanic, athiest, Catholic?
A: While I do not know for certain, I do know Ozzy's children
attemd Catholic schools. Ozzy himself wears crosses, but
whether this is a religious or fashion symbol is unknown.
Q: What are the Ozzfest dates? Is Ozzy coming to my town?
A: Hey, I find my information the same way you do. Try the
links mentioned for Ozzfest. Don't ask me.
Q: I saw that a John Osbourne was in a late 60's band named "Magic
Lanterns". Some dealers sell this LP at high prices. Was Ozzy really in the
band?
A: NO, Ozzy has never been in Magic Lanterns, it was another John.
Q: Did Ozzy ever eat his own feces?
A: Not so far as I know, although he once stuck his finger in his
rear end :)
Q: Where do I find Ozzfest dates and info?
A: AARRGGHH! Try ozzynet(dot)com or ozzfest(dot)com
Q: Why do some albums have bonus tracks. I notice a lot of Japanese albums
have these.
A: Albums cost more to buy in Japan, and come out after the American
versions. Bonus tracks encourage the Japanese to buy their own country's
version instead.
Q: Did Ozzy really get punched in the nose for ripping bibles?
A: Ozzy was angry at the protestors that gathered Sabbath wherever they
went. Religious groups would follow the band and carry bibles and
crosses. In the hotel rooms where the band stayed, were, of course
bibles. Ozzy began ripping up bibles in a form of protesting back.
Tony Iommi punched Ozzy in the nose for doing this.
Q: Whatever happened to Ozz Records?
A: Red Ant Records (www.red-ant.com) went out of business.
Q: What is the name of the extra track on 'No Rest for the Wicked'?
A: Hero.
Q: Are there any old/rare (pre-Sabbath, pre-solo) Ozzy songs out
there?
A: Yes, but good luck trying to find them. The following songs are rare
material:
* "THE REBEL" - Black Sabbath demo (Regent Sound demo) which can be sampled
on the "Black Sabbath
Story - Volume 1" VHS. What some people do not know is that both this song
and "Song for Jim"
were actually released back in 1969 as 7" singles. They ARE out there, but I
imagine most of them
have since been disbanded to garbage dumps or destroyed.
* "SONG FOR JIM" - Instrumental, song made for their first manager Jim
Simpson.
* "SLOW BURN" - Ballad recorded with Holly Knight but not released because
the final version was
not good enough.
* “WHEN I CAME DOWN” – Recorded in early 1969
Ozzy was asked about his first two impossible to find singles. He simply
does not remember ever
recording them. Geezer was asked about 'The Rebel' (while drinking in a
local pub), but he was in
such a bad mood that an answer was not possible.
Q: What do the letters NIB, SATO, and SIN on his albums mean?
A: NIB - This is *not* Nativity In Black. Ronnie Dio has said this himself.
Geezer Butler has
said it was named after Bill Ward's beard which resembled a pen nib (tip).
SATO - Sailing Across the Ocean. Note that I just found out the original
record jacket says
"Saturdays and Thursdays only", which are visiting days for asylums. Another
reader said this:
"Don't quote me on this, but it has always been my belief (and my friends)
that S.A.T.O. is
Ozzy's wife's initials (Sharon Ann Theresa Osbourne??? I may be wrong on the
middle names... the
song is supposedly about his finally finding "the one" - "Tried the rest,
found the best..."
SIN - Shadows In the Night
Q: What is said at the end of Crazy Train?
A: Ozzy was putting his voice through an oscillator and asked someone in the
studio what he had
had for breakfast. The person replied, "an egg". Ozzy asked, "What?", and
the person replied, "an
eggggggg".
Q: Was Captain Kangaroo Ozzy's father?
A: No.
Q: Did Ozzy really sing the Bee-Gee's "Stayin' Alive"?
A: Yes he did. He did this for Dweezil Zappa's "Confessions" album, the
record company did not want to authorize the release however and so Donny
Osmond's version made
it to the album. Oz can be heard on bootleg versions though.
Q: Where can I find these rare and live Ozz/Sab boot tapes?
A: I am not going to get into this except to say almost every home page
(including mine) will
help you in those matters.
Q: Did Rudy Sarzo and Tommy Aldridge play on Diary Of A Madman?
A: No. See chapter [2.23] regarding this.
Q: What is the name of the classical music played before each Ozzy concert?
A: The piece is "O Fortuna" from the Carmina Burana opera by Carl Orff.
Q: What is said in the beginning of "Bloodbath in Paradise"?
A: "Your mother sells whelks in hull."
Q: Why do some Black Sabbath albums have Ozzy singing "Wicked World" and yet
others have "Evil
Woman" instead?
A: The Evil Woman single appears on UK versions of their first album only
because
of copyright problems. The song was initially sung by a band named Crow from
Minnesota. The
American version has Wicked World in its place.
Q: Is Joan Osborne related to Ozzy?
A: No, besides they spell their last names differently.
Q: Has Sharon had cosmetic surgery?
A: Yes. Sharon has had liposuction, a tummy tuck and a brow lift. Total cost
$216,395.00.
Q: Why does Ozzy shake so often?
A: Ozzy is on anti-psychotic and anti-depressants. This contributes to his
behaviour. He also
suffered a grand-mal seizure a few years back.
Q: The opening movie on Ozzy's tour is hilarious. Is it available?
A: You are looking for a short videotape called "Ozzy Goes to Hollywood".
[The next four questions are answered by a friend of the Osbourne's]
Q: What are Ozzy's siblings doing, ie. professional, white collar work,
factory, etc. Are they in
England?
A: All I am allowed to say is that they still live in the home district of
WALSALL. It is a poor
district in some senses, though poor these days is nothing like what poor
meant when Ozzy was a
kid. It is a very working-class, though very community spirited town.
Q: What are some of the names of the pubs you and Geezer and the other Sabs
frequent, do you play
darts?, drink?, drink and puke?, drink and puke and play darts?, play
cards?, etc etc.
A: These days they stay in their home district of REDDITCH and only Geezer
and Geoff Nicholls can
be seen in town at the likes of the Rock Cafe and Costermongers.
Q: Is Birmingham still a factory oriented town where people work the
factories and go to the bars
afterwards or has it improved financially? What are it's main industries?
A: The whole of the midlands region is still the industrial heart of
England, though affluence is
much more apparent these days. Triumph motorcycles has had an enormous
increase in fortunes these
days and there are many new world-beating industries here, so the poverty
thing has all but gone,
though we still have poor districts.
Q: Is Sabbath still thought of as evil devil music or has the church and
Christians relented
somewhat?
A: You have to remember, the way you chaps view things tends to always be
taken a step further
than here. We have never seriously had a problem with the devil thing Vs
Sabbath. England is full
to the brim with legends, ghosts and mysteries as well as cults. It is seen
more as the
theatrical thing that makes up our characters and culture. The first we
really knew about the
problems it caused was when we heard about someone blowing his face off,
because he claims Ozzy
told him to do it in a song. I am not being rude at all ( I love America )
but that simply
wouldn't happen here and if it did, the person would be treated with the
contempt he/she
deserved. Listen to any interview with Lemmy and he will tell you the same
thing.
Q: I saw Ozzy on his recent tour. Why doesn't he play a lot of his new
material?
A: His voice can't make the high notes as often. In the studio you can do it
over and over until
you get it right. On stage you have just one shot. Listen to Ozzy on David
Letterman performing,
"I Just Want You" and see what I mean.
Q: What is this about Ozzy suing Tony Iommi?
A: Ozzy filed a suit against Tony because some years ago Tony borrowed money
($50-75,000) from
Ozzy to get out of jail. Tony was put in jail for non-payment of child
support. When he refused
to pay the money back to Ozzy, a suit was then filed.
Q: What is "plastic water", I've heard Ozzy say he drinks this and he sings
it on "I Just Want
You" ?
A: Ozzy is referring to Diet Coke, which like most diet pop and beer, tastes
like water.
Q: Why didn't Aimee appear on The Osbournes?
A: Aimee wants to focus on her music career and not be caught up in the
melodrama of a television
reality show. Probably the smartest of the bunch who isn't trying to cash in
on Ozzy's name.
Q: What are these dance mixes from Madonna all about?
A: They are not Madonna, someone just thought they knew who the woman was.
They originated from
Ontario, Canada by a friend named Colin M. Colin made these on his own and
sent me a demo tape
with about 8 songs.
Only two Crazy Train mixes and a couple demos of My Little Man that I edited
with Cool Edit were
released when I saw how people were selling them on so called rarity cd's
and putting them on
Napster, I was not amused. Colin has trusted me with these and they
remainder will not see the
light of day unless he chooses to. Colin made them under Gyr-8 music. The
singer is named Robin
and hails from the Toronto area. Her voice can be heard on a few Chris
Sheppard mixes.
Q: Will Kelly (Ozzy's daughter) ever do a duet with her father?
A: Already been done. CHANGES, the old Black-Sabbath song.
Q: Did the Osbournes ever find their missing dog?
A: Yes, Pippi was returned to them by a neighbour.
Q: Are Kelly or Jack gay?
A: Apparently not.
-----------------------------------------------------------------------
3.7 Quotations
-----------------------------------------------------------------------
"We've got to save for when we get older" (Ozzy to his wife on her spending
habits. Yet they
are worth over 14 million dollars)
"In a weird way, Ozzy is a great anti-drug promotion. Look at him and how
fried his brains are
from taking drugs all those years and everyone will say, 'I don't want to be
like that.'" [Dan
Quayle]
"When I was a kid, I'd get one gift. It was a smelly old sock with a few
nuts in it, couple of
pennies, an apple and an orange, and that was it." [Ozzy, invoking the
spirit of Christmas past]
"Happiness to me is getting stoned" [Ozzy]
"I used to hate the sight of him, I couldn't stand him, and I used to beat
him up whenever I saw
him." [Tony on childhood with Ozzy]
"I know I ain't going to fucking live to be an old man. I know that." [Ozzy]
"I've come to the conclusion that people don't want to know the truth-that
I'm a happily married
man with three kids that I absolutely adore, and that what I do is entertain
people. I am not
f--king Dracula" 1989]
"I'm an absolute perfectionist. I'm never happy with a finished album.
There's always something I
don't like." [1990]
"If I had to start it all over again, the only thing I would change is I'd
learn to read a
contract better." [1992]
"To be honest, I am a little bit crazy. I accept that. I've always been
outrageous. I've never
been the every day you. I've always gone over the top with everything" [Ozzy
1985]
"Had he lived, I truly believe he'd have been one of the greatest guitar
players that ever walked
the earth. He was when he was here." [Ozzy on Randy]
"You get one and you can't stop. It becomes an addiction." [Ozzy on tattoos]
"I'm not the greatest singer in the world, but I do give people
entertainment" [1986]
"My mother said to me, 'Get a proper job. Quit this f--king around.' She
still thinks it's a
crazy f--king thing I'm doing" [1985]
"Every year I hear, metal is dying. It's been dying since f--king 1978!"
[Ozzy on the success of
Ozzfest]
"Musically they are completely uncompromising, and would rather starve than
sell out to more
commercial forms of music." [Vertigo Sab Promo]
"My mother was an amateur singer, my father was an amateur drunk" [1985]
"It took a lot of water to down just that fucking bat's head, let me tell
you. It's still stuck
in my fucking throat, after all these years. People all over the world say,
'You're the guy who
kills creatures? You still do it? You do it every night?' It happened
fucking once, for Christ's
sake." (Ozzy, Rolling Stone Online, May 1997)
"It's good fun and it's had great rewards. It's been such an eye opener for
me. Everything that I
have ever wanted to have has come from rock and roll. I've had happiness,
I've had sadness. I've
had everything.
I've experienced life, death, birth, marriage, divorce, and it's been a
whole bunch of fun. I
wouldn't have it any different. I'd do it all again tomorrow." [1986]
” I'm not proud of everything I've done. I'm not proud of having a poor
education. I'm not proud
of being dyslexic. I'm not proud of being an alcoholic drug addict. I'm not
proud of biting the
head off a bat. I'm not proud of having attention deficit disorder. But I'm
a real guy. To be
Ozzy Osbourne, it could be worse. I could be Sting.”
"I fell in love with Randy as a player and a person the instant I saw him.
He had the best smile
in the world. Randy was the best guy in the world to work with. There is no
comparison between
him and Tony Iommi, and I can only compare the two because they were the
only guitar players I
had ever worked with. I was attracted to Randy's angelic attitude towards
the whole business. I
didn't have to teach him anything; all that he was lacking was guidance. He
listened to every
word I spoke to him, and we had a great rapport together."
[Ozzy on Randy]
”I got rabies shots for biting the head off a bat but that's OK - the bat
had to get Ozzy shots.”
”When I was a practicing alcoholic, I was unbelievable. One side effect was
immense suspicion:
I'd come off tour like Inspector Clouseau on acid. 'Where'd this fucking
cornflake come from? It
wasn't here before.”
"...as you'll know, the word 'fuck' sort of is used quite a lot in my house.
Now, that's not to
say, I think to say 'fuck this' or 'fuck you' a lot more, so it should be
entered into the
English language, because it has a lot more impact when you say, 'I fucking
hate this thing.'"
(Ozzy Osbourne, MTV, 2002)
"I would hate my children to be the typical rock and roll brats. My father
always taught me that
if you haven't got anything else, the cheapest thing in the world is good
manners." [1986]
"I have no regrets except that I wasn't up to keep Randy (Rhoads) from
getting on that plane."
(Ozzy Osbourne, Guitar World Issue 37, 2000)
"A lot of other bands just have guys in the crowd. Ozzy has a mixed
audience. But groups like
Quiet Riot or Def Leppard attract just the girls, and I find the girls are
very fickle. Next
year, a prettier band will come up, and your dead. The men are more
faithful" [Sharon]
"Ozzy had no technical qualifications really. At least Tony or Geezer could
play their scales or
a B flat chord. Ozzy wouldn't know what a chord was if it fell out of the
sky and hit him in on
the head. He knew nothing about music whatsoever. All he had was feel. But
he had far more going
for him than the rest of the band. The band, in my opinion, was purely
Ozzy." [Jim Simpson
commenting on Ozzy when he was with Sabbath]
“I can honestly say, all the bad things that ever happened to me were
directly, directly
attributed to drugs and alcohol. I mean, I would never urinate at the Alamo
at nine o'clock in
the morning dressed in a woman's evening dress sober." (Ozzy, MTV News
Online, 1992)
"I'm the guy kids love and parents hate. The guy mothers love to hate. When
you've achieved that,
you've achieved a goal." [Ozzy]
"I'd rather do a club show to 1,000 people than a huge show to 10,000
people. It's just more fun
when you can see who you're singing to." [Kelly Osbourne]
"We've obviously got what the people want. It's aggressive music and I think
America likes
aggression." [Ozzy in Sabbath]
"Well listen, how does a sparrow make an emergency landing? With a
sparrowchute." [Ozzy talking
to reception desk in his hotel room]
"You hear your mother crying because she has no dough to feed you. Or my
father and her always
fighting over something. And I used to sit on the front steps all the time
and think 'one of
these days I'm going to buy a Rolls Royce and drive them out of this
shithole'. And I did it."
[Ozzy on life before fame]
"I never go on stage drunk or stoned or anything." [early days Ozzy]
-----------------------------------------------------------------------
3.8 Fan Club Info
-----------------------------------------------------------------------
You may e-mail Ozzy's fan club at:WorldOfOzz@AOL.COM
Ozzy Osbourne
P.O. Box 5249
Beverly Hills, CA 90209
Updates are also available at www(dot)ozzy(dot)com.
-----------------------------------------------------------------------
3.9 Ozzy and Black Sabbath books
-----------------------------------------------------------------------
Let The Madness Begin 2005 (ISBN: 1933324139) 263 pages
How Black was our Sabbath (ISBN: 0283073683) 2004
The Essential Black Sabbath 2004 (ISBN: 0634062514) 80 pages
Black Sabbath – Never Say Die 2004 (ISBN: 1901447162)
Black Sabbath Anthology (ISBN: 0825610842) 1986 – guitar tablature
Ozzy has an autobiography called "Ozzy Osbourne - Diary of a Madman" (1990)
by Mick Wall. The
ISBN number is 0946391467, Zomba is the publisher. Ozzy was unhappy with
this book however as he
wanted a more in depth look at things, not just the groupies and stories
that took place.
Black Sabbath by Chris Welch (1982)
Black Sabbath : Wheels of Confusion (1997) by Steve Rosen
(ISBN: 1860741495) 240 pages
Black Sabbath - The Ozzy Osbourne Years (Robert Conte) 2000
Diary of a MadMan 2002 (ISBN: 1560254726) 2002
Officially Osbourne 2002 (ISBN: 0743466195) 160 pages
Ozzy Talking 2002 (ISBN: 0711992908) 136 pages
Ozzy Unauthorized - Sue Crawford 2002 hardcover
Ozzy Knows Best - An unaithorized biography - Chris Nickson
The Osbournes - Unf***ingauthorized - Reed Tucker 2002 paperback
ISBN: 0553375989 48 pages
Ozzy Knows Best 2002 (ISBN: 0312311419) 272 pages
Ozzy "Talking" (Harry Shaw paperback 2002)
The Osbournes - (David Katz & Michael Robin 2002 paperback)
(ISBN: 0740731653)
The Osbournes: Bleeped (Kord Miller 2002 paperback)
There is also a biography out on Ozzy from Ballentine Biographies. The ISBN
is 0-345-33240-7 and
the Library of Congress catalog number is 86-91095. The first edition was
from May 1986.
Ozzy Osbourne by Garry Johnson (1985 paperback)
Monsters of Metal:Ozzy Osbourne by Ethlie Vare (1986 paperback)
Black Sabbath – An Oral History (ISBN: 0060529458) 128 pages
Guitar School presents Ozzy Osbourne 1997 (ISBN: 0793543118)
Maximum Ozzy by Darren Brooks (ISBN: 1842401726)
Ozzy Osbourne – The Randy Rhoads Years (tablature) 2002
(ISBN: 1575604388 and ISBN: 1575605546)
Ozzy Osbourne by Gary Sharpe-Young 2002 (ISBN: 1901447081) 352 pages
-----------------------------------------------------------------------
3.10 Ozzy's Movie Career
-----------------------------------------------------------------------
"The f***ing Monkeyz?"
...Ozzy in Jerky Boys movie
"These evil people have just got to be stopped"
...Ozzy in Trick or Treat
1986
----
Like some musicians, Ozzy has been in a few movies and in keeping with
Oz-tradition they are humorous roles. In the 1986 horror movie "Trick or
Treat", Ozzy plays
Reverend Aaron Gilstrom, a priest who wants the evil being spread through
music stopped :) The
movie starred Marc Price who played Skippy in the Family Ties television
show. Also stars Gene
Simmons as a DJ. [Note: Watch the movie all the way to the end, past the
credits and you'll see
Ozzy once again]
There is also mention of Ozzy being in the movie 'Riders of the Storm' as an
"urban animal". The
movie starred Dennis Hopper.
19xx
----
Though not a movie, Ozzy appeared in The Decline of Western Civilization -
Part 2 which was a
documentary about heavy metal directed by Penelope Spheeris, a well known
producer.
1994
----
In the 1994 Jerky Boys movie, Ozzy played a band manager who runs into the
Jerky Boys in a bar.
The band he manages plays 'Symptom of the Universe'.
1996
----
Ozzy plays a short part in Howard Stern's "Private Parts" movie, released in
1997.
2000
----
Director Penelope Spheeris, producer of Decline of Western Civilization
Parts 1, 2, and 3, and Wayne's World) took out a full crew on last year's
tour to capture the
Ozzfest. The people, the music, the excitement, the chaos. The feature
length documentary is
enhanced by the use of cutting-edge High Definition technology and a full
Dolby Digital Surround
Sound audio treatment. A special film tour is being planned for this year to
take the film across
the country, and, in addition to the feature presentation.
2000
------
Ozzy appeared in Adam Sandler's "Little Nicky".
2001
------
Ozzy appeared in "Adam Sandler Goes to Hell" and on the "Moulin Rouge"
soundtrack (voice)
Rock Survivors documentary
2002
-----
Ozzy makes an appearance in "Austin Powers - Goldmember".
2005
----
Documentary titled “Inside Black Sabbath”
-----------------------------------------------------------------------
3.11 Where are they now?
-----------------------------------------------------------------------
AIMEE OSBOURNE moved out of the house and chooses not to participate in The
Osbournes. She
doesn't wish to be typecast or judged. Aimee is writing for a fashion
magazine. Good luck to you
:)
JACK OSBOURNE has been quoted as saying he doesn't ever plan on moving out
from his parent's
house. Jack scouts new talent for Epic records. He has appeared on many talk
shows. Jack has lost
his weight and glasses and has given up smoking and alcohol. He has a new
British TV series
titled, “Jack Osbourne Ardenaline Junkie”
BILL WARD left black Sabbath in August of 1980, a day before they were to
play in Hawaii. He gave
personal reasons for his reason, however his constant alcohol and drug abuse
also played a part
in his decision. Bill has gone on to release two solo albums, "Ward One" in
1990 and, "When the
Bow Breaks", released April 29, 1997. Shortly before the 1998 Ozzfest was to
begin, Bill Ward
suffered a heart attack while rehearsing. His latest album is titled "Beyond
Aston" (his
hometown) which is set for release in 2005. Bill has his own web site at
www.BILLWARD.com
GEEZER BUTLER continued to shuffle between Ozzy Osbourne's band and Black
Sabbath. He has been
quoted as saying, "I am never playing with Black Sabbath again". He has a
band of his own called
"G/Z/R" (pronounced Gee Zee R). His band's first album was the 1995 "Plastic
Planet". Most of the
songs for the album were written during a two week period at a Massachusetts
farm. "Giving Up the
Ghost", is a song from the album which describes his feelings about Black
Sabbath, and how he
feels the band should be put to rest. Geezer released an album in 2005
titled OHMWORK.
TONY IOMMI is still with Black Sabbath. From the beginning, Tony would
always want to be part of
the band, and according to Ozzy, to be in control of the band. He released
an album called FUSED
in July of 2005.
BLACK SABBATH continues to play Ozzfest annually as recently as 2005.
JIM SIMPSON won the lawsuit against Sabbath and their managers. He was
awarded 35,000 pounds. He
now manages the Birmingham Jazz Festival. He was asked to provide
information for this FAQ, but
has not responded. You can find him at www(dot)bigbearmusic(dot)com.
RONNIE JAMES DIO (www(dot)ronniejamesdio(dot)com) is touring in 2005. Dio
calls Ozzy 'a fat slob
who looks like Benny Hill' and Ozzy used to use a dwarf in his shows whom he
would call "Ronnie"
:). He released “Evil or Divine: Live in New York City” in 2005.
PHIL SOUSSAN (www(dot)philsoussan(dotcom) says he didn't like waiting around
during the
retirement of Ozzy (No More Tours) and quit the band. A solo album is in the
works.
JAKE E LEE (www(dot)jakeelee(dot)com) went on to join Ray Gillen in Badlands
for two albums
(Badlands, 1989 and Voodoo Highway, 1991), until Ray's unfortunate death.
Jake released a CD in
April of 2005 titled RETRACED.
BRAD GILLIS (www(dot)bradgillis(dot)com) is still touring with Night Ranger.
A new album is
expected to be released in September 2005.
TOMMY ALDRIDGE toured with Whitesnake again in 2003. He gave up touring for
a while to
concentrate on freelancing. He has a Website at www.tommyaldridge.com.
BOB DAISLEY has been doing session work for studios around London. His
website is bobdaisley.com.
Bob is now living in Syndey, Australia. He has a live DVD due out shortly.
He is also making
appearances with GARY MOORE at festivals throughout Europe. The two will
also work on an upcoming
album.
RUDY SARZO (Quiet Riot/ Whitesnake/Sun King)was a member of Ozzy Osbourne’s
band from March 1981
to September 1982. He is currently playing with Ronny James Dio.
SHARON OSBOURNE sucessfully completed chemotheraphy for her cancer. She
remains Ozzy's wife and
manager. Sharon obtained her own talk show which debuted September 15th,
2003 and was eventually
cancelled in January 2004. She continues to manage Ozzy’s career.
ZAKK WYLDE has his own website at www(dot)zakkwylde(dot)com and is still in
Black Label Society.
He is still touring as of 2005.
DON ARDEN still scouts for new talent and dreams of a comeback. His Jet
records folded in 1986
due to legal bills accumulated in connection with the assaults and other
illegal activities. In
2004 Don released a book titled “Mr. Big” Published April 2004 by Robson
Books.
Fanclub websites are located here:
http://www.billward.com (Bill Ward)
http://www.bobdaisley.com (Bob Daisley)
http://www.cozypowell.com (Cozy Powell)
http://www.eric-singer.com (Eric Singer)
http://www.gillan.com (Ian Gillan)
http://www.geezerbutler.com (Geezer Butler)
http://www.glennhughes.com (Glenn Hughes)
http://www.iommi.com (Tony Iommi)
http://www.jezzwoodroffe.com (Jezz Woodroffe)
http://www.ozzy.com (Ozzy Osbourne)
http://www.ronniejamesdio.com (Ronnie James Dio)
http://www.tonymartin.net (Tony Martin)
http://www.vinnyappice.com (Vinny Appice)
-----------------------------------------------------------------------
4.0 Closing Remarks
-----------------------------------------------------------------------
Black Sabbath are undoubtedly one of, if not, THE band, which created the
genre of heavy metal.
There are already a handful of tribute albums dedicated to Sabbath and
countless bands who were
inspired by Sabbath. Ozzy has repeatedly said he hates being classified as a
heavy metal artist
however since it has become so diverse. Alice In Chains and Bon Jovi are
considered heavy metal.
See his point? If you look at his albums lately, they really aren't heavy
metal. His albums
contain a diverse mix of gentle ballads to hard rocking songs with ear
splitting guitar licks.
These are our own personal tastes, but I think there is probably a song on
each one of his album
that everyone could enjoy. Classify his music as you will, the man deserves
some credit for his
part in music history.
True, he has led a life of ups and downs, much of it under the influence of
various drugs (though
he is now sober). He has made McDonald Happy Meals out of various flying
animals. He has been
accused by just about every religious organization to be a devil worshipper,
a promoter of
Satan's music. Yes, Ozzy's life has been surrounded by highs and lows, and
it is quite likely
that when he dies he will be remembered only as a lunatic madman.
Who is the real John Osbourne? Nobody but him really knows.
It is painfully obvious that he is getting old though. He no longer jumps up
and down like a wild
man, no longer runs back and forth from one end of the stage to the other.
His later concerts
show him either standing at the mic, hopping up and down or walking from one
end of the stage to
the other.
His voice can no longer make all the high notes it once did, and he will
sometimes mouth curses
at his frustration with this. Concert cancellations over Ozzy’s health are
not uncommon. The
reviews for Ozzy’s shows seem to contain more complaints each year.
The reviews for Ozzfest seem to indicate that Ozzy’s voice is failing as
each year passes and it
might be time for him to retire.
Despite the reviews, he’s still capable of releasing great albums.
-----------------------------------------------------------------------
4.1 Credits
-----------------------------------------------------------------------
The information from this file was gathered from various sources. If you are
a hard-core Ozzy
fan, you may recognize a lot of the information from a book or interview you
have read. The
information was *not* however, taken from any one web page. I've noticed a
lot of web pages had
carried the same information I had found while researching.
Information for this file was obtained from:
=> The Black Sabbath Story I VHS (Castle 38316-3)
=> Ozzy's official site
=> Chris Tetley Interview
=> Guitar World Magazine (Aug. 1988)
=> Rock-It's Black Sabbath and Ozzy comics
=> Ozzy Osbourne Biography by Ethlie Vare
=> Article by Steve Rosen
=> Guitar World, Dec. 1995
=> Alexander Rack's Black Sabbath FAQ
=> Mark Plummer article (Newcastle show, 1970)
=> Black Sabbath Mailing List
=> Ozzy on various talk shows
=> Scott Cohen's "Ozzy Osbourne" article
=> AOL/Ticketmaster Interviews
=> The Story of Black Sabbath by Steve Rosen (ISBN 1-86074-149-5)
=> Articles by Brian Harrigan, Mick Houghton, Royston Eldridge
=> Metal Edge magazine
=> Sabbathlive.Com (Thanks Rob!)
=> Ozzyasylum.com
=> Joe Siegler’s Black Sabbath web page (black-sabbath.com)
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