This former frontman for the seminal heavy metal
outfit Black Sabbath is an urban legend unto
himself. In 1981, he bit the head off a live dove during
a meeting with Epic Records executives; a few
months later he unwittingly bit into the flesh of an
actual bat that he mistook for a rubber toy. A year later, he peed on the
Alamo and was banned from San Antonio, Texas for years; he's incurred a
legion of fines and lawsuits and has been blamed for myriad riots and several
teen suicides. Yet, despite the lurid B-movie tales he seems to inspire, Ozzy
Osbourne enjoyed his early solo years with a pair of platinum albums,
Blizzard Of Ozz and Diary Of A Madman. The titles brought together the
strong songwriting triumvirate of Osbourne, guitarist Randy Rhoads and
bassist Bob Daisley, who churned out a string of hard rock classics
including "Crazy Train," "Goodbye To Romance," "Flying High Again" and
"Over The Mountain." Unfortunately, Rhoads perished in a 1982 plane crash
and Osbourne sank into a cycle of alcohol and drug abuse that rendered the
rest of the '80s a veritable career washout. But by 1988, the artist was back
on track with No Rest For The Wicked, and since then, he's returned to the
touring circuit with his own Ozzfest, a hugely successful heavy metal allstar
tour that has showcased the Sabbath-inspired Sepultura, Pantera, Danzig
and Slayer, as well as Marilyn Manson and the main attraction, a reunited
Sabbath. Now, with the second Ozzfest behind him, Osbourne and his
Sabbath bandmates (including Bill Ward) are about to release a live reunion
album, appropriately titled Reunion. 

Osbourne was featured in an interactive video interview in Issue No. 19 of the
LAUNCH CD-ROM. The full transcript of the artist's conversation with
LAUNCH executive editor Dave DiMartino appears below. 


LAUNCH: 
Let's start with your persona--it's safe to say that you're "bigger than life."
Are people surprised by you when they first meet you? 

OZZY: 
Oh yeah. For instance, the other day, I went to a chiropractor. He's just a
regular chiropractor. Whenever I meet someone who doesn't know me, they
say, "Oh you're the guy who bites the heads off everything." I get kind of
cheesed off with it, but at least they remember. The thing that pisses me off
is that that's not what I'm about. If that's what you think Ozzy Osbourne's
about, then you're way off. 

LAUNCH: 
What is Ozzy Osbourne about? 

OZZY: 
I'm about caring, I'm about people, and I'm about entertaining people. I'm a
family man. A husband. A father. I've been a lot of other things over the
years, which we don't really want to talk about. I'm always working on trying
to better myself, you know? I think that that is an ongoing thing with me. I
think I'll do that for the rest of my life. I'm always thinking of what I can do
today to better my life. Like quitting smoking. 

LAUNCH: 
That's tough, huh? 

OZZY: 
Yeah. You know, I've had every known chemical--cocaine, booze--and
tobacco is the hardest one in the world for me to quit. 

LAUNCH: 
It's amazing. You have lived a pretty wild life. Do you ever stop and wonder
how you've survived? 

OZZY: 
I don't know, somebody said to me this morning, "To what do you attribute
your longevity?" I don't know. I mean, I couldn't have planned my life out
better. By all accounts I should be dead! The abuse I put my body through:
the drugs, the alcohol, the lifestyle I've lived the last 30 years! Now, some
rare fly will fly over me, crap on my shoulder, and I'll drop dead, you know?
My life story is a real-life story. If I have people I've admired from a distance
and have the occasion to meet them, I've been very disappointed. I've had
this picture in my mind, and when I meet them, it's never right. I'm a big
Beatles fan; I was on the Concorde with Paul and Linda McCartney. I could
have met them but I didn't because I didn't want to shatter my fantasy. I
would have loved to meet Lennon. 

LAUNCH: 
Tell me about that tattoo that spells out "O-Z-Z-Y" across your fingers. 

OZZY: 
When you're young, you're stupid. You do silly things. I did it when I was 14.
I was in jail for something. I could have had it removed, but why? It's my
trademark. People stop me and say, "Let me have a look at your hand." 

LAUNCH: 
You must be pleased with the success of Ozzfest, eh? How did that start? 

OZZY: 
The real story of the Ozzfest: 10 years ago, a friend of mine in the music
business who does TV and radio in England said to me, "God willing you
survive, I could see you in the future having a rock 'n' roll circus--you being
the ringmaster." All of a sudden in 1996, Sharon, my wife, said, "What do
you want to do?" and I said, "I wonder if it would work--what Jonathan King
said. Could I work my nuts off for two-and-a-half hours?" She said, "Give it a
whirl!" I did four Ozzfests in 1996. They sold out right away. In 1996, I
launched Ozz Records. I wanted to sign new bands. We never said we were
looking for strictly metal bands--I wanted folk, jazz, poetry, just to give
someone a break. The one mistake I made was calling it Ozz Records, so
people said, "I'm not sending my record in because it's not metal and he
won't listen to it anyway." Our office was full of mail of new kinds of metal
bands. Which was okay. But then Ozzfest took off and the label went to the
back burner. So in 1997, Sharon asked me if I wanted to do it again, and we
did 22 more shows and word-of-mouth spread like wildfire. We were the
second-highest-grossing tour. And this year looks like it will be even bigger.
But we're not fools. I'm not taking it for granted that this will last forever. It will
peter out eventually. And I'll move on. It's all exciting. Usually you write,
record, tour. Write, record, tour. But you have to let the mouse off the wheel
after a while and do something with a different approach, you know? 

LAUNCH: 
What's the stupidest thing you've done in your career? 

OZZY: 
There's not a stupidest thing--I've dressed in women's clothes, I've dressed
as a Nazi. I've gone onstage naked. I've gone on so drunk I didn't even know I
did a show. I've done so many stupid things, but it's all part of Ozzy. I never
pre-planned 99.9% of the things I've done. Some were drastically wrong,
some were drastically right. I don't know if you saw the VH1 thing [VH1's
Behind The Music Ozzy documentary] recently. In one hour, it's impossible
to write my life down. I come from a rather large family, three older sisters
and two younger brothers. On the documentary, they interviewed my sister
and it was the first time I'd seen her in years. I've had a very, very unique life.
I often sit back and remember when I had no money--when you're in the
middle of it, you get depressed thinking it's going to last forever. All of a
sudden, out of nowhere--a bolt of lightning--here I am! I'm very well-off; I've got
property all over the place, I've had a very fruitful career. But I've never had a
No.1 album in America. But I've lasted several generations and somebody
says to me, "Do you notice any difference in the audience?" I've been
doing it now for 30 years. Some of the fans are older, but I've picked up new
fans along the way. But when you listen to one of my first albums I don't
sound like I'm 21, I don't sound like I'm 49. I sound like Ozzy, do you know
what I mean? 

LAUNCH: 
Do you ever stop and think about how amazing it is that you've been around
for 30 years? Could you ever have foreseen the kind of influence you
would have on music and pop culture? 

OZZY: 
It still doesn't hit me. I'm not one of these people who says, "I'm going to
plan next year out and this is going to happen." I'm a very lucky man. I don't
even play an instrument. I just sing and entertain. I don't consider myself a
great singer. I have a connection with the audience. I'd like to be them, and
I'd like them to be me for an hour-and-a-half. I get criticized for being the
anti-Christ, causing kids to commit suicide. That's total bullshit. My
intentions are not that. But every year, they have Halloween, and all I do is
take Halloween night out on the road every night. It's like a Halloween party
every night. 

LAUNCH: 
Earlier you mentioned your wife, Sharon. She's very involved in your career,
right? 

OZZY: 
When it comes to the merchandising and the financial side of Ozzy--the
business decisions--I have complete and utter faith in my wife. Sometimes
she's wrong, but most times she's right. 

LAUNCH: 
So is she your business adviser? 

OZZY: 
Every married man's business adviser is his wife. Here's a typical thing: The
other day, a truck got delivered to my house. I'm like, "What's this all
about?" My wife comes running in, "Thank you for buying me the car!" I said,
"I haven't bought you a car." She said, "I did, but I thought you wouldn't
mind." I said, "What about me having a car?" She said, "I've sent my BMW
to be repaired; you can have that one." I said, "Who's the rock star around
here???" 

LAUNCH: 
You guys have been married a long time. 

OZZY: 
I've had my fun in the day, my groupies, my one-night stands. Sharon is the
love of my life. She's great. For instance, I slept in today, and I phoned her
up and I asked her, "What should I wear to this interview?" She says, "You're
49! You're asking me what to wear?" But if I didn't...she'd say, "You're
wearing THAT?" So if you phone up, you get your ass chewed out, and if you
don't phone up, you get your ass chewed out. 

LAUNCH: 
When you look at your life, what would you say is the most important thing
to you? 

OZZY: 
We have a passion for dogs. We have like 10 dogs. Our kids are really
important to us. I was married to a woman before, but because of my alcohol
and drug abuse, I screwed up the marriage and it affects the kids the most.
They're the silent sufferers. They don't understand why Daddy's not coming
home anymore. It always affects the kids. The one thing about America
that's weird is, like, you'll get married, I'll get married; we'll go out to dinner,
we get divorced, I'll marry your wife, you marry my wife...why not just swap
for a night? If I wanted to be friends with my wife, I would have divorced her,
you know? Marriage is so flippantly taken on here: "Oh I'm bored, let's get
married this week." When I got married, I didn't understand what it was
about. But the marriage contract is one of the heaviest contracts you'll ever
sign in your life. And when there are kids involved...they automatically come
first. I did a good job of screwing up my first marriage and nearly screwed up
the second. 

LAUNCH: 
I've read a lot of stories over the years about your "retirement," but you seem
to always be working. 

OZZY: 
You know I'm one of these people that if you catch me on the wrong day, I'm
like, 'F--k you, get away from me." I go crazy. I told Sharon, "I've been doing
this for so long. I've never been able to reap the benefits of my hard work. I
want to retire." She said, "Okay." So we made No More Tears and we
announced the retirement tour, which was a huge success. I retired and I
went home and I suddenly discovered: Now what? One thing I discovered is
that you have to have something to retire to. It's not like I'm retiring from a job
that I hate for someone that I've hated for years and years and I can't wait to
quit. At the end of the No More Tears tour, I got home and I was so bored! I'd
get up, open the fridge, close it, sit down, get up, open it...Sharon said,
"What's going on?" I said, "I'm bored." She said, "You drove me crazy about
retirement!" She said, "You can't retire then un-retire!!!" I'm one of these
people that when I'm on the road I want to be home, and when I'm at home I
want to be on the road, so I'm always jumping over the fence. You've got to
have something to retire to--if you're sitting and looking out the window every
day then you'll die. 

LAUNCH: 
So what's the latest on the career front? 

OZZY: 
Right now I'm doing a Black Sabbath CD. We just mixed a live Sabbath
album, and we recorded two new studio albums. There are two separate
Ozzfests in England and America. I'm doing a Sabbath tour in the Fall and
hoping to do an Ozzy album in there somewhere. I haven't given that a lot of
thought. I still haven't abandoned my solo career. I want to try and reinvent
myself. I've gotten kind of predictable--write, record, tour. It's more work than
ever, but it's a different pattern than ever. Every August for the last 10 years,
I've known what I was doing. 

LAUNCH: 
Hey, I've always been curious about that collaboration you did with Kim
Basinger. That is so weird! How did that come about? 

OZZY: 
Don Was had a lawyer--this was in 1981 or
82--and I'd never heard of Was (Not Was). What
happened was, the original singer didn't show up
for some session. I don't even know who the original singer was, but Don and
I were both staying at the same hotel in New York at the time, and I
volunteered. I go down to this studio and it was called "Shake Your Head." A
couple of months later, they decided to do a different version of it, so I did
two versions. Then, later, I saw Don in L.A., and he said, "You'll never guess
who the chick singer was on the first version: It was Madonna! Ozzy and
Madonna: It's got to be a winner." He must have gotten in touch with
Madonna and she gave him a point-blank refusal, because he got somebody
else to do Madonna's bit. Kim Basinger replaced Madonna. I never met her.
But it was a huge, huge hit in England and Europe, because that's what
they're into--all this techno stuff. It was a huge, huge hit. I just said to Don,
"That would be great: Ozzy and Madonna," but the Kim Basinger one did
just as well. 

LAUNCH: 
You're full of surprises. 

OZZY: 
I have a saying: "Never judge a book by its cover." I say that because, I don't
even know who Ozzy is; I wake up a new person every day. But if you've got
a fantasy of Ozzy, who am I to say? I mean, if you think I sleep upside-down
in the rafters and fly around at night and bite people's throats out, then that's
your thing. But I can tell you now, all I ever wanted was for people to come to
my concerts and have a great time. I don't want anyone to harm themselves
in any way, shape, or form--and my intentions are good whether people want
to believe it or not. I'm not going to suddenly become a Jesus freak or
anything. But I do have my beliefs and my beliefs are certainly not satanic.



  dave_dimartino