Ozzy Osbourne – Not The Man You Think He Is   (Nov. 4)

  “I have the flu and I feel terrible,” said Ozzy Osbourne. I had waited five hours and gone through weeks of red tape for a five-minute interview. After listening to his music, plus that of his former band Black Sabbath, for several decades, I felt it was time to speak to the madman himself. After all this time, the first thing he said to me was that he was not feeling well. It was 1995 and his tour promoting his then new CD, “Ozzmosis,” was in full swing and passing through San Antonio. After all this time, I was now standing face to face with the man himself.

However, due to Ozzy’s bout with what we call the “Texas crud,” our interview was moments away from not happening at all. I was quickly whisked away from the small meeting room buried in the bowels of the Alamodome and introduced to Joe Holmes, Ozzy’s newest guitar player. If you can’t talk to Osbourne, they reasoned an interview with his ace guitarist would be the next best thing. They were right about Holmes. He turned out to be a great guy and an incredible musician. Ozzy has a knack for finding young guitar heroes and turning them into huge stars.

His story began when John "Ozzy" Osbourne was born on December 3, 1948 in Birmingham, England. A child of a working-class family, young John left school at age 15 to work a series of low-paying jobs, including a car horn tester and slaughterhouse worker. He soon became tired of these low paying jobs and turned to a life of petty crime. He was eventually caught and put in jail. It was in jail that he received the now-famous tattoo of O-Z-Z-Y across his knuckles. When he was released, Osbourne decided to go straight.

One day he ran into an old friend who was in a band that needed a singer; Osbourne joined immediately, even though he couldn’t sing a note. With sheer determination, Osbourne soon learned to sing and actually became very good. Soon he was in big demand as a rock singer and was asked to join a hot local band called Earth. This rock outfit featured Tony Iommi on guitar, Geezer Butler on bass, and Bill Ward on drums. After discovering another band had the same name, the members of Earth changed their name to Black Sabbath, taking the name from an old Boris Karloff movie.

Black Sabbath released their self-titled debut album on Friday the 13th, in February 1970. Within a matter of months they developed a huge following in both Britain and America. Once they released the follow-up, “Paranoid,” in 1971, the rest became history. One classic metal album followed another as Black Sabbath conquered every country in their path on the road to stardom. During this period Osbourne married Thelma Mayfair and they had two children. Unfortunately, he and the rest of the band became seriously dependent on alcohol and cocaine, and gained a reputation for trashing cars and hotel rooms. Sometime while at home in 1976 Osbourne grew frustrated and, in anger, shot a bunch of chickens he kept in a coop in his backyard, starting rumors that he tortured animals for fun.

Black Sabbath was also accused of Satanism because the media misinterpreted some of Ozzy’s weird lyrics. In 1977, after his father’s death,   Osbourne left the band for a brief period and soon became increasingly uninterested in Black Sabbath and stopped showing up for practices. At the end of the “Never Say Die” tour the band had enough and kicked Osbourne out of Black Sabbath, replacing him with ex-Rainbow vocalist Ronny James Dio.

After months of despair and drug abuse, which ultimately led to his divorce from Thelma, Osbourne retreated into the shadows of self-abuse.

A chance meeting with Sharon Arden, daughter of rock manager Don Arden, would change Ozzy’s life. For whatever reason, Arden began dating Ozzy and helped him turn his life around. With a keen business sense, Sharon encouraged Osbourne to launch a solo career and, taking on the role of manager, helped him every step of the way. She tried unsuccessfully to stop his substance abuse but did get his solo career off to a fantastic start. Band auditions discovered guitarist Randy Rhoads and together they recorded his 1980 solo debut, “Blizzard of Ozz.” The album was a huge success and Osbourne hit the road performing Black Sabbath tunes as well as his new material.

After the tour, Osbourne fell back into the grueling schedule of releasing an album, then going on tour to promote it. On tour for the “Diary of a Madman” album, Osbourne had a new gimmick where he threw raw meat into the audience. Soon he started getting pelted with disgusting things in return, including, at one point, a live bat. Thinking it was a rubber toy, Osbourne bit into the animal only to find it was alive. Osbourne had to receive a series of rabies shots after the bizarre incident, which was quickly blown out of proportion by the media and, of course, caused his record sales to skyrocket.

Another incident that would plague him for years happened in 1982 on a tour stop in San Antonio. Sharon hid all of his clothes so he couldn’t sneak out to find drugs and alcohol. Osbourne found one of her dresses and slipped down the stairs to freedom. Already drunk, he stop on a dark corner to use the restroom. Little did he know that the brick wall he was urinating on was a part of the

Alamo. He was promptly arrested, outraged half of Texas and alienated thousands of fans. It would be ten years before San Antonio would allow him to perform in their city.

The next month, while stopped at an airstrip in Florida, the bus driver, who was also a private pilot, offered to take the band on rides in a rented plane. With Randy Rhoads and Osbourne's wardrobe assistant on board, the drunk bus driver tried to "buzz" Osbourne's tour bus, but instead slammed the plane into a garage, killing everyone aboard. During this time Osbourne became very unstable due to his growing drug problem and the depression over the death of his guitarist. To celebrate a new contract with CBS Records, Osbourne showed up carrying two doves, which his wife Sharon suggested he release at the meeting as a symbol of peace. Osbourne arrived so drunk that he bit the head off one of the birds, causing yet another media uproar.

By 1991 Osbourne had completely sobered up and released a softer, more personal album, “No More Tears,” which featured another unknown guitarist named Zakk Wylde. He announced that the 1992 tour would be his last one. The tour and album were extremely successful, causing the Ozzman to put his "retirement" on hold. He hired Joe Holmes, a former student of the late Randy Rhoads, and hit the road to promote the new album “Ozzmois.” As I stood in the tiny dressing room, crammed full of guitars and amps, Holmes explained how he landed the job as guitarist for the most notorious singer in rock and roll.

 “I took guitar lessons from Randy out in Los Angeles,” explained Holmes. “And when I auditioned for Ozzy, he mentioned that my style was a lot like Randy’s. I never told him I knew Randy until after I got the job. After I told him about Rhoads, he was very excited.” After our interview was done, he took me back to see if Ozzy was feeling any better, but he wasn’t. In spite of his poor health, Osbourne put on a fantastic show, giving no clue of his illness.

As 2001 comes to a close, Ozzy has released what may be his best album yet. On “Down to Earth,” former guitarist Zakk Wylde rejoins Ozzy, replacing a departed Joe Holmes. Osbourne recorded a few tracks with Holmes, but just didn’t quite capture the sound he was looking for. Wylde was brought in to finish the project and decided to stay on board through the upcoming tour. With Mudvayne and Rob Zombie opening, the journey began on Halloween night in Phoenix.

His first studio set in six years, “Down to Earth,” finds Osbourne in good spirits these days and for good reason. Thanks to the guidance of his wife Sharon, the 52-year-old singer is still at the top of the metal kingdom. After 31 years in the music business, Osbourne is definitely a survivor. He’s seen and done more than 50 men, yet has somehow remained sane and able to be a major force in today’s music world. Gone are the days of rock star parties that included gallons of booze and pounds of cocaine. Today, the Ozzman is fit and slim, thanks to daily workouts with a trainer. He loves cottage cheese, sushi and admits to an occasional glass of wine. The father of three teenagers is proud that he has gone more than six months without a cigarette.

This is not the wicked character most of us remember, in fact the hard-touring Osbourne has become such the lovable husband and father that being in New York City on September 11, he ended up taking a bus across the country to be reunited with his family in Los Angeles. He's just a regular guy these days, which is the point of the album's first single, “Gets Me Through.” It’s a letter of thanks and explanation to his fans, in which he sings, “I'm not the kind of person you think I am, I'm not the anti-Christ or the iron man.” The latter being a reference to the huge hit song, “Iron Man,” he wrote with Black Sabbath.

Osbourne titled his new album "Down to Earth" partly because that's how he sees his personality and also because the cover photo resembles an "alien coming down to earth," he says with a laugh. The title also has a reference to the name of his first band, Earth. The CD contains something for every fan. “Facing Hell” will melt your speakers in typical Ozzy fashion. Elton John fans will love the piano ballad simply titled “Dreamer.” Wylde whips his guitar into a speedball frenzy on “No Easy Way Out,” a song that will remind his older fans of his past hit, “Mr. Crowley.”

The former madman even sings about the difficulties of fatherhood on the bittersweet “You Know.” On “Alive,” the listener is bombarded with a pounding bass while the lead guitar tears through a riff faster than a speeding Metallica. As a fan of his music, I stand amazed at his constant ability to keep coming back with new music that sounds as fresh as it did in his Black Sabbath heyday. In concert, he remains one of the best, constantly selling out every venue he plays. The current tour comes to Texas on November 9 with a show at the Compaq Center in Houston. Who knows, maybe Ozzy is just a normal guy after all. But, like they always say, “you don’t have to be crazy to work in the music business, but it helps."