Ozzy Osbourne

Ozzy Osbourne

Ozzy Osbourne (born as John Michael Osbourne 12.09.1948 in Aston, Uk) is a Rock-vocalist. He was the frontman of the first Metal Band Black Sabbath, has a successfull solo-career and was the star of his own reality-TV show The Osbournes.

Childhood

John Michael Osbourne was born as the fourth of six children of working-class couple Jack and Lillian Osbbourne. His father beeing a mechanist and his mother working in a char-factory, the Osbournes lived in lower-class two-room appartement. Ozzy attended school until he was 15 years old, he also got his nickname Ozzy from his school years. He started working with 15 years to support his parents but his jobs as butcher or plumber were badly paid. He became a thief and robber to get more money and was arrested for six months. In prison, he tattooed himself his nickname onto his fingers which became his trademark. After his released he became a singer for local bands. A bassist called Terry Geezer Butler answered on Osbournes add to form a blues band. Toghether with local guitarist Toni Iommi and drummer Bill Ward the Band Earth was founded in 1968, which was renamed into Black Sabbath in 1969.

Black Sabbath

With the name change the band also changed their style from playing blues and rock and roll: The idea was to play terrifying music. The debut album Black Sabbath was recorded in only 12hours but it defined and created a whole new genre: The Heavy Metal. Black Sabbath were the first band to use low and doomy riffs based on the blues sclae with guitar solos and Ozzy's melacholic vocals. Their vocals were about death and insanity and created a very dark atmosphere that oftern related the band to Satanism. The Bands music became popular in Great Britain pretty fast, their second Album Paranoid entered the charts on #1 and sold over 4 million times. With thier following albums the band became more an more famous and Ozzy fell victim to the Rock and Roll lifestyle: He became addicted to drugs and alcohol. His addiction was unbearable to the other band members so that Ozzy was thrown out of the band in 1979.

Solo Career

After his dismiss from Black Sabbath due to drug addiction, Ozzy turned his back to music buisness and stayed in the Le Parc Hotel in Los Angeles for months, doing drugs intensively. Sharon Arden (she will become his second wife later) encouraged him to star a Solo career and helped him to form a band with a certain Randy Rhoads as his guitarist. This lineup recorded the million selling records Blizzard Of Ozz and Diary Of A Madman and toured arround the World several times. During a gig in Des Moines, Iowa a fan threw a bat onto the the stage, Ozzy picked it up, thought it was fake and bit it's head off. This supported his Madman attitude which he kept alive through maniac behaviour on stage.

In a tragic plain crash his guitaris Randy Roades died in 1982 and Ozzy had to try out a coule of other guitarists until he found Jake E. Lee, with whom he recorded the hit records Bark at the Moon and The Ultimate Sin. In 1983 his wife Sharon put Ozzy into the Betty Ford Center to rehabilitate his drug addiction which turned him from a party monster into a caring husband but not for too long.

In 1988 Ozzy replaced the leaving Jake E. Lee with the 19 year old, unknown guitarist Zakk Wylde and reorded the Album No Rest For The Wicked. Ozzy fell back into his addictions and was even arrested for trying to strangle his wife. After that he finally and completely abandoned drugs and alcohol and recorded the hit-record No More Tears in 1991.

Personal Facts

Ozzy's Guitarists

Discography

--ZakkWylde 14:02, 17 May 2008 (CEST)