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In jail before he could legally smoke, John Michael Osbourne soon left his Mum, Dad and five siblings in the industrial badlands of Birmingham while still a teenager, and has since toured, written, recorded, and snorted for over five decades, selling over 100 million albums and arguably inventing heavy metal in the process. Recently Ozzy called to talk Sabbath, 12-bar blues, and how in the hell he wrote a 388-page book that’s so informative, funny, and articulate.
How did you go about writing a book?
Well, believe me, I didn’t sit down and put pen to fucking paper. I’d still be writing the first page. I got a ghostwriter, Chris [Ayres], and he was relatively easy to work with. I have a thousand and one stories, so it went pretty quickly. We actually had enough for two books.
**I Am Ozzy is an autobiography, details your childhood in Aston with five siblings, and there’s a lot of wild stories, like when you carved O Z Z Y into your hand on a park bench one day—but there’s also a lot about music, beginning with the inception of Sabbath. **
Yeah. Tony [Iommi] and I went to the same school, though we never hung out. And he was a really great guitar player. But I was already in a band with Geezer [Terry Butler] and then we split, and then Bill [Ward] and Tony came to mine. I had my own PA system, and that was a good plus. And I couldn’t hold down a job. So it was a good way to be with guys you want to be with, travel, and have fun—drink beers, fuck chicks, you know? Meanwhile, none of us had ever been more than 50 miles from Birmingham before.
Can you talk about how you found the Sabbath sound?
Black Sabbath was originally a six piece 12-bar blues band. Blues and metal are very close, in respect to how the guitar works. But for me there was Jack Bruce and Ginger Baker and the early Fleetwood Mac—they were a blues band with a bottleneck guitar. And the rest of the band was very keen on jazz, which I wasn’t crazy about. But when we first used to jam, there was a lot of jazzy Sabbath.
Was there one record or album or band that you most identified with, soundwise?
** **Well, Cream. Think of N.I.B [by Sabbath] and it’s DA DA, DA DA, DADA. And then think of Sunshine of Your Love: DA DA, DA DA, DA, DUN, DUN, DUN, DUNDUN. They’re very similar. Also, the first Led Zeppelin album took me on another journey. They were fucking awesome.
**
Ted Nugent, who is your age, credits his energy to sobriety, and has said that your lifestyle has been damaging, and yet you’re still writing, recording, and touring ...**
Touring can wear on you, but opposed to working in a fucking factory, it could be a lot worse.
What keeps you going?
All people in music are incredibly fucking fortunate, let alone to last as long as I have. And when I see my audience, I feel privileged to be in front of them, you know. And a lot of people in the game think the audience is privileged to see them. That’s a crock of shit, because if you lose them, you’ve lost your fucking gig.
**
Your fans now have kids who are fans. That’s got to be amazing**.
We’ve got fathers, and we’ve got grandfathers. Fuck, you know?
Thank you, Ozzy
You’re welcome. God bless.