John Michael Osbourne was born on December 3rd, 1948 in an industrial town in England where he and his five siblings, mother and father, lived in a 2 bedroom house. To say money was tight would be an understatement.
His family was in poor financial shape. The family had no car, and very little money or food.
Ozzy determined at an early age that he would change this.
Ozzy disliked school, and didn't do very well in it. He wanted out as soon as he could, and left when he was 15.
His parents argued a lot, and most arguments were about money,
so Ozzy thought he would rectify the situation by leaving school and getting a job, his first one being a plumber's assistant.
He would hold several jobs over the next few years, from toomaker's apprentice to killing cows in a slaughterhouse.
None of his jobs brought him satisfaction, and eventually he thought that perhaps there was more money to be made illegally.
He became involved in some petty theft and break and enters, but wasn't very successful at this either, usually getting caught. His first time in jail was for breaking and entering. He was given a fine, but couldn't pay it, and so was sent to Birmingham's Winson Green Prison for three months. He did time there again later for assaulting a police officer - punching him in the face. It was in Winson Green Prison where he tattooed the now famous letters O-Z-Z-Y across his left knuckles,
doing so with a sewing needle and graphite.Ozzy was determined to stay out of jail.
When he was fourteen, he had been in a band named 'The Black Panthers', and he decided to try music as a career. It had to be a more productive venture than crime. He bagan to look for bands to join and soon found one named "Music Machine" who were in need of a singer.
Later he joined a band called "Approach", but quit shortly after, disliking the band.
After leaving "Approach" he decided to call himself "Ozzy Zig", placing an ad in the local paper and music shop which read "Ozzy Zig requires gig. Owns own PA." Another 18 year old (Terence 'Geezer' Butler) saw Ozzy's ad on a shop bulletin board looked him up. The two then decided to form a band named "Rare Breed" which did two shows and then disbanded. Ozzy's old schoolmate (whom he had never gotten along with) was teaming up with an 18 year old truck driver named William Ward. They had begun to form a band of their own (The Rest) and recruited a singer named Chris Smith. The band moved north to Carlisle, renamed themselves "Mythology" and gained a large following.
Mythology eventually split up; Iommi and Ward returned to Birmingham and and ran across Ozzy's advertisment in the music shop. Iommi hoped strongly that this was not the same 'Ozzy' that he had so disliked in school, but of course it turned out to be the one and the same. They decided that it would not be a good idea to try to start a band together, given their dislike for one another, but Tony did later supply Ozzy and Geezer with a drummer - Bill Ward. Ward was at Iommi's place when Ozzy and Geezer approached him, and Ward agreed to join as the bands drummer if Iommi could also join. And so the group began to form, with a slide guitar player named Him Phillips and a sax player, they returned to Carlisle where Iommi and Ward had been enjoying some success previously the group wasn't happy as a six piece band however, and in order to be rid of what were considered to be two unnecessary members, they broke up.
Regrouping as a foursome that consisted of Ozzy, Iommi, Ward and Butler.The group learned eighteen songs their first week together as a foursome and Ozzy renamed the band "Polka Tulk Blues" apparently after a can of talcum powder, though some say that the name came from a Pakistani clothing store named 'Polka Tulk Trading Company'. Iommi was now the lead guitar player, and so Geezer Butler switched to playing bass guitar. The group couldn't afford a new bass guitar, so they simply removed two of the strings and re-tuned to. Another name changed occurred, and the group was soon know as "Earth".
While waiting to go into rehearsal one day, the group noticed a movie playing called "Black Sabbath" and Geezer said he thought it strange that people would go to a movie to scare themselves silly. They group decided to use the name for the title of their first original song. Until this point they had played other artists music. Geezer suggested that they change their name to "Black Sabbath' after the Karloff movie. This gave the band a name and title song.
Although Sabbath has long been plagued by cries of 'Devil Worshipers' and 'Satanists', the devil had nothing to do with the choice of the name, regardless of how dark and satanic the name sounded. As the band began to make news a group of satanists asked them to play at their "Night of Satan" at Stonehenge. They flatly refused, for which they were later informed by the head witch, Alec Sanders, that the group had placed a hex on the band members. Ozzy apparently asked his father to make them up some aluminum crosses,
and they wore them 24 hours a day for protection, seeming to take the threat seriously.
Black Sabbath's first completed album was released on Friday February the thirteenth, 1970. It was recorded in only eight hours and cost only 800 British pounds (approx. $1200 US). It was recorded on four tracks on an eight track machine. The band was not very popular at the time of the recording, and they simply wished to do what they liked best - sing about the darker aspects of life. They likely never thought that they would make it big in the music business at this point. In fact Ozzy has said that he was just happy to show his mother that his voice could be recorded on a piece of vinyl. It was not an altogether easy process - it took 14 tries before Jim Simpson finally found a company (Vertigo) that would carry the album. The record company took it upon itself to place an upside down cross on the gatefold of the album, and this immediately caused people to associate the band with Satanism. Sabbath did not want the upside down cross, but bowed to the record companies marketing methods. Inside the inverted cross was a poem that seemed to correspond with the album's cover - a woman standing in a countryside, in a gothic appearing setting.
One of their first American shows was played at the Fillmore East. Drummer Bill Ward speaks of the prodding the band would engage in trying to get the audience to do more than sit and listen to the music: In New York, the audience was doing this, and the band, putting 150% effort into their songs, was becoming discouraged by their idleness. Ozzy would often yell at the audience to get up and go crazy, and on this particular show this had no affect. Bull Ward, frustrated, picked up his drum set and threw it at the audience. As a result, Ward claims that the band did seven encores that night. By the time they reached Los Angles, people were talking about this band called Black Sabbath.
While working on their next album, the band released a single called "Paranoid". The single was amazingly popular. On October 23 1970 the band was playing at the Mayfair Ballroom in Newcastle, to a drunk and noisy crowd, who began to crawling over the stage and equipment. The group begins playing "Paranoid" in an attempt to get them off of the stage, but by the time the show is over, the band has had equiptment smashed and stolen. The audience had gone crazy over the new single. Ozzy, extreemly upset by the ordeal, said "If it means us having to give up putting out singles then we will. We want people to listen to us, not try to touch us. I was really terrified, shocked out of my mind." This gig would also give birth to the song "Fairies Wear Boots" which was written as a result of the band being attacked in the street by a group of skinheads. Iommi's arm was seriously injured during the attack, and they were forced to cancel their next show.
The song "Feiries Wear Boots" was the bands way of making fun of the 'punks'.
It was fairly common practice for Sabbath to become verbally abusive if the audience was not responding well to their performance. If they were talking, the band would crank the music louder.
In 1971 Ozzy married his first wife, Thelma. It was also the year that the "Master of Reality" album was released.
It hit 5th place in UK and 8th place in US song charts. This album would raise eyebrows with the song "After Forever", which was clearly a religious song. Churches called it blasphemy, and others began to speak out against the band, perhaps partly because of the song, or what the band represented. In any event, 1971 turned into a rollercoaster of events, from the groups dressing room walls being decorated with crosses painted in blood in Memphis, to a Satanist jumping on stage with a sacrificial knife during the same show. The local witches coven later gathered outside the band's hotel, Geezer trying to scare them off with a fake hex. That year threats were made against the band claiming that they would be shot sometime during their US tour. At one show the lights suddenly failed in the middle of their third song, and Ozzy stood on the stage, frozen with fear. Adding to the conflicts of the year, the group put a song called "Sweet Leaf" on the album, which spoke of using marijuana. The song begins with a coughing sound that was reported as being Iommi coughing as he finished smoking from a water pipe and the sounds were included in the final version of the song.
The following year, 1972, "Volume 4" was released.
Again the record company took control of the album title, no allowing the group's original title "Snowblind" to be used. They felt it was too controversial, being another drug reference, and changed it to "Volume 4", it being the bands fourth album. At this time the group was becoming heavily involved in drugs of all kinds, including cocaine, and it is claimed that during this albums recording the band sat around in a Jacuzzi snorting coke, getting up every once in a while to record a new song. Not being allowed to use their preference for the album's title, they added a line to the albums sleeve that read: "Thanks to the COKE-Cola Company". This year, while Ozzy was deep into the drug would, he and Thelma had their first mutual child, Jessica.
By 1974 the band is living a fast life filled with drugs, sex and cars. One thing they didn't see much of however, was money. If they needed something, they asked management for it, and received it swiftly. They became very successful, especially in the UK charts, but all material posessions were provided by management.
September 1975 Black Sabbath soon decided that they needed a new manager, and Don Arden was hired. Arden was from the same company that Sabbath's previous management had parted from. Arden's daughter, Sharon, worked as his receptionist (then 18 years old) and Ozzy met her when he walked into Arden's office with a tap faucet around his neck, and sat on the floor, refusing a chair. Sharon was immediately terrified of Ozzy, and tried to get someone else to deal with him, rather than look after him herself. Later the two would get to know each other, as her father continued to manage the group, but on the first meeting she wanted nothing to do with him.
In 1977 Ozzy's father passed away, taking a drastic toll on the singer. Ozzy quit Black Sabbath. His father had always feared that his son would end up in prison, but died knowing that he had made something of himself. While away from Sabbath, Ozzy approached Glenn Hughes (a vocalist who would later spend time with Sabbath) about forming a band together. Hughes was not interested in Ozzy's idea, and Sabbath continued working on it's upcoming album - "Never Say Die."
When they began to work on the next album, "Heaven and Hell", Iommi approached Ward about getting rid of Ozzy.
Iommi had met Ronnie James Dio (formerly of Rainbow) and was interested in having him as a vocalist. Ward was not comfortable with the idea of kicking Ozzy out of the band, having become close friends with Ozzy, but admitted to wanted him out nonetheless. Many people ask how Ozzy really came to leave the group, and he and Iommi both agree that he was in fact fired. The friction within the band had become unbearable to Ozzy, and he was ready to go in another musical direction, and so claims to have been relieved when asked to leave the band. 1978 saw the end of the original Black Sabbath. Their last tour would be the "Never Say Die" tour. Appropriately named.
Once fired from Sabbath Ozzy spent three months staying in his hotel room, having pizza, booze and cocaine brought to him. He thought that his life was pretty well over. His friend, the woman who was so afraid of Ozzy on their first meeting, suggested that he start a new band. This would be the beginning of an even greater career for Ozzy.
Ozzy then decided to tour, his first solo concert being in Glasgow, Scotland on Sept. 12, 1980. He did have two shows prior to this, under the band name of "Law". The night of his first solo concert, Ozzy and Sharon paced the streets nervously, as, being in Scotland where people usually did not pre-pay for concert tickets, they had no way of knowing how many people would actually show up. Their fears were proven to be unfounded however, as the show was a great success. That night Ozzy played all of his Blizzard of Ozz album, and some Sabbath songs. He broke down and cried at one point, realizing that he could in fact make it on his own without the other Sabbath members. While with Sabbath Ozzy contributed very little as far as writing was concerned, Geezer writing most of the song lyrics and Ozzy doing the vocals. Now though, he and Rhoads were the main writers and had equal say as to what went into the songs.
The following year saw the release of "Diary of a Madman". On the album cover appeared Ozzy's son, Elliot. Production of the album was rushed toward the end so that the band could begin the tour, Ozzy still said later that he liked Diary better of the two. The album soared to the top 15 on US charts , while "Mob Rules", which was released by Black Sabbath at the same time, reached only #29. Ozzy's first two albums would sell over six-million copies.
In 1981 Ozzy divorced his first wife, Thelma. He came home one day (drunk) to find all of his belongings outside and was told that if he went into the house he would be arrested. Rather then go through the hassels of divorce proceedings to determine who got what, Ozzy told her to keep everything. Ozzy would often leave home for days at a time, and so Thelma's reaction couldn't have been suprising, even to Ozzy.
Ozzy and Sharon had gotten to the point where they were ready to be married. Sharon hoped that this would also get Ozzy a better deal since her father was the one managing his recording and managerial contracts.
Ozzy and Sharon were married on a Honolulu-Hawaii beach on July fourth, 1982.
Once they were married the better deal they had been hoping for did not come through. Sharon did not want her father controlling Ozzy's future, and so they decided to buy out Ozzy's contract from him. Ozzy had to release one more album before this could happen ( thus "Speak of the Devil" was a purposly low-budget project, a live recording done at the Ritz in New York on Sept. 26th and 27th) and even then the couple had to pay Sharon's father 1.5 million dollars to purchase the contract.
One of the conditions for the transfer of Ozzy's contract from Don to Sharon was that she get him to enroll in the Betty Ford center for his drinking problems. Ozzy would also begin work on his next album, Bark at the Moon. The title track is about a creature who has come back to seek revenge on those who scorned and buried him. In the video Ozzy is being confined to an asylum because he was a mad scientist. In the asylum he sees this werewolf running around chasing him. This song would later cause controversy, along with several others earlier released by 'The Mad Man'.
Ozzy's band now consisted of Jake E. Lee on guitar, Tommy Aldridge, Don Airey on keyboard, and Bob Daisley on bass.
After the release of Bark at the Moon and it's tour, Ozzy began working on The Ultimate Sin album, which came out in 1986, being long awaited by Ozzy fans. Ozzy felt this album was one of the poorest he had put out, saying that most of the songs sounded alike, and many fans agreed with him.
The year 1991 was a year of major changes in Ozzy's life. He began a fresh battle with sobriety, and this time seemed to have a grip on his addictions. He admits that 'No More Tears' was the first album he had ever done sober, and the album has a totally different feel than anything he released previously. It is a combination of soft ballads, such as "Momma I'm Coming Home" to upbeat, hard rocking songs like "hellraiser". Many of the songs were co-written with Lemmy of Motorhead, "Mama I'm Coming Home" being entirely written by Lemmy. "Road to Nowhere" was an overview of Ozzy's life, while "Mr. Tinkertrain" discusses child molestation issues. Ozzy won a Grammy for the song "I Don't Want to Change the World", a testament to the higher quality of work that could be produced when the drugs and alcohol were taken out the the picture.
Ozzy worked had to become a healthier man, dieting and exercising. Once free of the bondage of drugs, he began to look at life differently, and this became apparent in his lifestyle and his music.
In 1993 Ozzy was officially retired. He went home and did want he wanted to do - be a father. He spent time with his family, and bought various toys such as Motorcycles, guns and night vision goggles (to see animals running at night). It was a whole new lifestyle for the man who had been performing and running wild on stages all across the world for his whole life. And, it proved to be too different. Soon he began longing for the old life, and a short while after retiring, Ozzy decided to put another band together and tour again. It was nearly two years before some of the rumors became facts. There was an album coming, and a tour to support it. The album would be called "Ozzmosis".
Geezer Butler played on Ozzmosis, and toured with Ozzy. The album was recorded in Paris, and was produced by Micheal Beinhorn. Zakk Wylde was busy with Pride and Glory, and so it was arranged that Steve Vai would contribute to the album, as rumored. The songs were to be split so that both Vai and Wylde would appear, but the record company rearranged things so that only Wylde's material made it to the final product.
On October 24, 1995 Ozzmosis hit the stores shortly after the album's first track, "Perry Mason" had been reciving radio play. Now all that remained was to begin touring.
Ozzy would name his Ozzmosis tour, "Retirement Sucks" in an obvious statement about his feelings towards his short lived retirement. It was now time to begin touring. Zakk was talking about playing with Guns and Roses so Ozzy decided to audition new guitarists, thinking Zakk would not be around for the tour. Zakk's manager, Doug Goldstein, called Sharon and told her that Zakk would be available. He later phoned to say that Zakk was still negotiating for the gig with Guns and Roses. Ozzy did not know what Zakk was planning to do because he was negotiating with both groups, and so asked Zakk to let him know what his plans were. When Zakk did not return the phone call as promised, Ozzy decided enough was enough and found a new player. Ozzy and Zakk are still on good terms however.
In 2002 he and his family made it to MTV in a "reality sitcom," called The Osbournes,
a video journal of their wacky life in an L. A. mansion.
The former Black Sabbath frontman has been ridiculed over his career, mostly due to rumors denouncing him as a psychopath and Satanist. Despite his outlandish reputation, however, one cannot deny that Osbourne has had an immeasurable effect on heavy metal. As a showman, his instincts are nearly as impeccable; his live shows have been overwrought spectacles of gore and glitz. Indeed, Osbourne has managed to establish himself as an international superstar, capable of selling millions of records with each album and packing arenas across the globe, capturing new fans with each record.
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