Hello everyone! For this blog, I will be writing about a book I have just recently finished called “I Am Ozzy” by the Prince of Darkness himself, with the help of author Chris Ayres. Before I begin writing about this book, I would just like to say a few things about Ozzy. I was a child in the 1980s, and around this time Ozzy was famous all over the world. Most notably he was more infamous for some of his stage antics, which included biting the heads off animals with wings. This was before the Internet, so when you heard things people did, there was no way you could fact check it yourself. So as a kid hearing many of these rumors, I really did believe that Ozzy WAS the Prince of Darkness, and I should probably stay away. And I did.
Look up the album cover for his album No Rest for the Wicked and tell me I’m wrong.
When Ozzy came out with an actual TV show in the late 1990s, it was huge and everywhere. It was also on MTV, which was on all the time in our college apartment. But he was a little older then and not as scary. Watching the show, it also became clear that he was hilarious, had more than one dimension, and seemed cool and nice? Ozzy??? Prince of Darkness???
When he passed, I decided to lay down all my prejudices and preconceptions and just listen to the music. What I discovered was an artist who yes, played to a schtick, but also put out great tunes. He barked at the moon, rallied the hounds of hell, and to my shock rocked to the highest degree on each album. Which now finally leads me to the book, lol.
So yes, I started the book because now I had to know the story about this guy who I assumed was Satan but then lived a life I saw on TV as shockingly normal, even though it was TV so a “produced” life, but still.
This book begins with Ozzy sharing stories of growing up in Birmingham, England. He was one of six children. His mother and father were both of the working class. England had just come out of the Second World War. Ozzy was dyslexic but did not know it back then. He dropped out of school. He did odd jobs. He worked in factories, slaughterhouses, and eventually began a life of crime to attempt to escape poverty. He put an ad in a local paper and music store searching for a band to front. Friends from the school he had gone to answered it, and they became Black Sabbath.
I would recommend this book to rock lovers, but also to people who enjoy reading about an underdog. I also need to say that there were many, many times I had to set this book down to laugh hysterically. If you have ever seen a snippet of an interview with Ozzy, you will know he is an incredible storyteller. Here you will experience it with each turn of the page. He did have faults, he did have a lifetime of trouble with drugs and alcohol, but in the end, he was uniquely “Ozzy.”