Diary of a Madman

The unique life and (very) high times of John “Ozzy" Osbourne

- JOEL McIVER

WITHOUT A SINGLE doubt, the most familiar character in heavy metal, the late Ozzy Osbourne, was presented to the public as a madman, a maniac and a court jester whose life was a constant ricochet from one chaotic episode to another. There was a degree of truth to this exaggerated persona – in his younger years, Ozzy was definitely prone to extreme actions when under the influence of alcohol or drugs – but he also earned our sympathy for his flaws, our admiration for his music and our respect for his talent for recognizing guitar genius.

Born John Michael Osbourne in the war-damaged suburb of Aston in Birmingham, England, on December 3, 1948, Ozzy (as we'll call him from now on) was one of six children to Jack and Lillian Osbourne, a toolmaker and factory worker. At school he enjoyed acting in drama productions and, quitting education at age 15, became a singer in various short-lived Aston bands. He was also a part-time criminal, if an ineffective one; he was jailed twice, once for stealing clothes and again for punching a police officer in the face. The Army wouldn't take him (“They told me to fuck off,” he later admitted) and he was obliged to take on a sequence of terrible jobs, including one in an abbattoir and another in the truly hellish environment of a car-horn factory.

Ozzy first sang alongside guitarist Tony Iommi, bassist Terence "Geezer" Butler and drummer Bill Ward in the Polka Tulk Blues Band, renamed Polka Tulk and then Earth before borrowing their permanent name from the 1963 horror film Black Sabbath. Iommi was briefly recruited by the folk-rock act Jethro Tull, leaving Sabbath for two weeks and appearing on screen in