Ozzy: It could be worse.. I could be Sting
Despite Parkinson’s, the heavy metal legend vows he will work to the grave
my life. Life goes on. Right now, right here, today. I’m f***ing great.
“I ain’t done yet? I’ve a lot left. We’re doing an album.
“My father said I would always be a big something one day. He said you are either going to do something special or go to prison. I had a dream and it came true. I have a good life”
In the interview, to be shown on US TV next month, Ozzy speaks of growing up in poverty in Aston, Birmingham, one of six children.
He says: “There was no inside toilet. You didn’t have soap and water. I had a lot of shame as a kid. I always felt dirty, unclean and like a peasant.
“As a kid I was afraid of everything.
So when you do find a bit of booze or dope, you go f*** I’ve found it. Alcohol and dope and being the class clown sums it all up really. I used the talent of making people feel somewhat entertained and goofing around, to take it on stage with my music.”
His dad bought him a £250 microphone and PA system, which was key to forming Black Sabbath and turning Ozzy into a global star estimated to have earned more than £150million.
When Black Sabbath’s Paranoid topped the charts in 1970, Ozzy treated himself to a beer, a pair of shoes and socks and a bottle of Brut “to smell better” for women.
He went on to blow fortunes on drink and drugs. He says: “I never drank socially. I never took coke socially. I never did anything socially. I did it to get f***ed up, you know? Sobriety f***ing sucks.”
In 1971, he wed Thelma Riley. They had two kids, Jessica and Louis, but it ended, as he admits, because he behaved “f***ing badly”.
He says: “Chicks wanted to f*** me.
From being a grubby little s*** from Aston – this is the big time.” When his dad died, he leaned on drugs and drink even more, then in 1979 Sabbath fired him for missing writing sessions.
He says: “That was one of the lowest points of my life.”
Sharon Levy pulled him back from the brink. As his girlfriend and manager, she put a band together to back him as a solo star.
They wed in 1982, but Ozzy carried on womanising, so much so Sharon said
“his d*** might fall off ”. In 1989, high on drugs, Ozzy tried to throttle her.
He was arrested and woke up in a cell without a clue why he was there. When he was told what he had done, he says it “hit me like a f***ing hammer between the eyes. I could have killed Sharon. That is a desperate feeling. She is my soulmate. I love her.”
She dropped the charges and the couple, who have three kids Jack, Aimee and Kelly, have stuck together.
Sharon says: “It’s been like a four ring circus, our life. It’s like a tornado.” ■ Biography: The Nine Lives of Ozzy Osbourne, A&E, September 7, in US.
I had a lot of shame as a kid. I always felt dirty, unclean and like a peasant
OZZY OSBOURNE ON GROWING UP IN POVERTY