I Am Ozzyby Ozzy Osbourne with Chris Ayres
Ozzy Osbourne ~ "People ask me how come I'm still alive, and I don't know what to say. When I was growing up, if you'd have put me up against a wall with the other kids from my street and asked me which one of us was gonna make it to the age of sixty, which one of us would end up with five kids and four grandkids and houses in Buckinghamshire and Beverly Hills, I wouldn't have put money on me, no f'n way. But here I am: ready to tell my story, in my own words, for the first time. It haunts me, all this crazy stuff. Every day of my life has been an event. I took lethal combinations of booze and drugs for thirty f'n years. I survived a direct hit by a plane, suicidal overdoses, STDs. I've been accused of attempted murder. Then I almost died while riding over a bump on a quad bike at f'n two miles per hour. A lot of it ain't gonna be pretty. I've done some bad things in my time. I've always been drawn to the dark side, me. But I ain't the devil. I'm just John Osbourne: a working-class kid from Aston, who quit his job in the factory and went looking for a good time."
I've been waiting for years for Ozzy's memoir of his long and insane career and this book captures it pretty nicely. You're in the mind of a legendary rock n roll wild man and it's an entertaining place to be. He talks about his family, relationships, kids, parents, early jobs, jail time, drugs, sex, alcohol, guns, more drugs, more alcohol, Black Sabbath, solo years, Sharon and The Osbournes TV show. Some of the stories you've probably heard before, but it's good to hear Ozzy's version of peeing on the Alamo or what actually occurred in the conference room when he bit the head off of a dove or when he tried to strangle Sharon to death or when Randy's plane crashed or his side of the lawsuit by the parents of the kid who committed suicide. Sometimes it ain't pretty and I was frustrated with him for some of the stupid, self-destructive things he's done, but he doesn't back away from how much stupidity he's displayed in the past either.
Faults? Well he spent a lot of time on his drug and booze fueled antics and just flew right through a lot of his musical career. There's very little of Zakk Wylde and that whole era here, nothing to speak of about Jake E. Lee really, no mention of Joe Holmes on the Ozzmosis tour and just a few paragraphs really about his travelling metal show Ozzfest. There could be a whole crazy book on Ozzfest I'm guessing and I'd loved to have heard a lot more about Jake and Zakk and the songs and albums from those eras. That was disappointing. I think the book could add about 100-200 pages and hit these topics much heavier and be way more satisfying to the fans of Ozzy's solo work, not just of his fame and antics.
Still though, obviously a must read for fans of Black Sabbath (he covers these years pretty well), Ozzy Osbourne, and rock 'n' roll memoirs in general but it's highly memorable and recommended for anyone really. Ozzy has had a very "interesting" life to say the least. It feels very open and honest and is often quite humorous.
8/10
