Is Ozzy Osbourne the most famous drug addict in heavy metal history?
Goldmine interviews the Prince of Darkness, part of the interview is below and Ozzy is asked; “You may be the most famous drug addict in rock ‘n’ roll/metal history. Do you regret that?” See what Ozzy says.
Goldmine By: Jeb Wright — Ozzy Osbourne sat down and chatted with Goldmine Magazine about the event that heavy metal fans around the world have been dreading … the official end of the band Black Sabbath. Where many bands and solo artists, including Ozzy, have said there would be no more tours and then went on to tour once again, Ozzy is adamant this won’t be the case for the Sabs.
In the interview that follows, Ozzy speaks with the familiar charm that the Prince of Darkness has always been able to muster up once the red light of the recorder comes on. Unlike many stars of his stature, however, Ozzy is always genuine, often humorous (sometimes not meaning to be), and very real.
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GM: I am glad to hear you’re doing well, Ozzy. I am not ashamed to admit that I have been clean and sober for many years, and I have followed your struggle for a long time…
OZZY: I am coming up on three years sober, and I’ve just come back from a meeting, actually. I’ve reached a really weird place with it. I am not really happy being sober, but I don’t want to get drunk. Someone told me that at three years sober they felt exactly the same. With meetings, you’re never alone with your thoughts. My disease will go, “You can take this, or you can do this” when I spend too much time alone with my thoughts. If I listen to it, then I go back and I am alright for a tour. It only stops being alright when I am f**ked up everywhere, you know.
GM: Do you have any regrets about your drug use? You may be the most famous drug addict in rock ‘n’ roll/metal history. Do you regret that?
OZZY: No, because it was my destiny. I am lucky enough to have seen the errors of my way and wanted to do something about it.
The first thing I quit was tobacco. I was just in Cuba with my son and I hadn’t been going to meetings for a while. We were in this restaurant and this guy goes, “Do you want to go upstairs and have a cigar?” I don’t smoke, but my son Jack said he would like one. We go into this private room and there are these bottles of f**king rum everywhere. I thought to myself, “It wouldn’t be that bad.” Then I go to myself, “F**k off. You’d start with the puff of a cigar and then I know I would have a shot of booze.” I said to my son, “I have to leave here.”
Since I got back I’ve been going to meetings every day. It scares me. I hear all the time people say that they have another drink in them but they may not have another sobriety in them. I don’t want to put myself in that situation. When I’m left to my own ways, I am going to come up with a stupid idea that makes sense at the time. I end up going, “What the f**k is wrong with me, man?” People in their church, and kings and queens make mistakes because they are human. I’ve said the wrong things and I’ve done the wrong things, but I’m human. These days I just try not to make the same mistake twice.
To be honest with you, I will think to myself, “What the f**k was wrong with me when I thought a good night was getting a belly full of booze and bag of f**king cocaine?” You’re sitting in a f**king hotel room, jacked to the gills and the sun is rising and you’ve got to do a gig that day. It’s f**king dreadful. I’ve got no desire to do that stuff. When we discovered that f**king marching powder it was the beginning of the end … but, we came back with the No. 1 album and we are doing our farewell tour.
GM: With this being the last tour, it is natural to look back and reminisce. Have you been doing that?
OZZY: People ask me all the time, “What’s my favorite album” or “what’s my favorite song?” To me, each album is like a living diary for me. “Paranoid” was in the age we were becoming stars. On our first album we had never made an album, so that made it special. Every album has got a story for me. Some albums I look at and I realize I was not in a good place and I couldn’t wait to get it over with. Fifty years, or 48 years, have gone by so quickly I can’t believe it.
GM: It may be the end of Black Sabbath, but it is not the end for you…
OZZY: It is the end of Black Sabbath, but if Tony phoned me up and said he was doing a blues album and he wanted me to sing on it then I would ask him where he wanted to meet. The same goes for Geezer. The one thing that I am happy about is that we’re all still alive, you know. David Bowie dying was f**king hell. What a talent he was. I met him once or twice. Once I was walking across the road and he shouted “Hey, Ozzy!” He sat next to me in a restaurant and he was reading the newspaper. He was a very, very, very talented guy.
GM: We lost Lemmy as well.
OZZY: He was a close friend of mine. Believe it or not, on the day that he died, me and Sharon were just getting in the car when the phone call came in that he died. We went, “F**king hell.” We went to his memorial. Some really nice stuff was going on there. Lemmy was lovely. He would have loved the memorial.
GM: Black Sabbath may have never happened if Tony Iommi had not had an accident where he cut off his fingertips. That accident led to him detuning the guitar which led to the classic Sabbath sound.
OZZY: That was before we actually formed. I went to the same school with Tony. He went his way and I went my way. We didn’t really hang out in school. He was working in this metal sheeting factory and he cut his fingertip off. It was before we even started. He was playing guitar then.
After that happened they told him he would never play guitar again. He’s a guy that if he cut one leg off and you told him he can’t run the 500-yard dash, he would find a way around it, and he will. Time after time I say to him, “How the f**k do you know when you’re touching the strings?” He says, “You just do.” Tony is a very, very clever guy.
GM: If that would have happened to me I would have probably given up…
OZZY: I would have been sitting in the f**king room feeling sorry for myself!
GM: I have to tell you this: Despite all the sh*t, you’re a hero to many people.
OZZY: That is kind of nice. I wish I was a hero to me, sometimes. I do a good job of beating myself up. As long as the kids have fun, arrive safe and go home safe, it’s all good. When I hear about a kid who had too many beers and he wraps his car around something, then that really saddens me. I know I am going to sound like an old man here, but if you’re going to come to the concert and you’re going to drink then please get somebody to drive the car for you. It happens, you know.
GM: Do you have any words you’d like to say to the Sabbath fans for sticking around all of these years?
OZZY: God bless everyone for sticking with us. Without our fans, we wouldn’t have had a snowball’s chance in hell. I want to tell the fans “thank you for your support” and come out to the show. We love you all, and God bless you.
Read the entire Goldmine interview with Jeb Wright HERE
