•
Rating:
Ozzy Osbourne, the prince of darkness, the bat eater, the whimsical character who yells at his dogs on the MTV reality show. In this biography, the "Godfather of Heavy Metal" traces, step by step, the stages of his reckless life, made up of music, drugs, alcoholism, fortune, and misery, while always remaining consistent with the character he has built over forty years of activity.
The contribution to modern music by this rustic jester from the outskirts of Birmingham has been incredible; the obstacle of poverty and chronic dyslexia did not stop his dream. Even now, after years of undisputed leadership in the world of heavy metal, after domestic accidents, sold-out concerts, reunions with his (Ex?) colleagues from Black Sabbath, documentaries, reality shows, biographies, he remains one of the most beloved icons of rock. One might not appreciate the strictly musical side, but I think we can all agree to give credit to this man whose and his (Ex?) fellow travelers' intuition was the starting point for a music genre that, after four generations, continues to have fervent admirers.
Nothing is born by chance: in Aston, the far outskirts of England, life is not easy. The proletarian subculture is certainly light years away from the plush salons of Cambridge. Squalid and abandoned pubs are the meeting place for workers, who still soot-stained, spend their time at the counter talking about Aston Villa and guzzling dark pints of double malt bitter. Yes, it's bleak, but never as much as the dilapidated shacks that the poor worker is in no hurry to return to. This is life here; there's no escape, and John Michael Osbourne was a young man doomed to become an obsolete cog in the machine. After working in a slaughterhouse cleaning up calf vomit, almost losing his hearing as a horn tuner, and losing the first of a series of neurons by inhaling toxic waste in a factory, Ozzy, as he was already calling himself, quickly found a way out of anonymity: he ended up in jail for theft. Even the dishonest career of a burglar wasn't for him, as he was caught on his very first attempt, but perhaps after the tragic experience in a cell among murderers and pedophiles, it was time to change again. The story of this maladjusted teenager alone would be enough to explain why Black Sabbath didn't sing about "Sunshine of Your Love" "Interstellar Overdrive" or "California Dreaming" like their flowery colleagues.
Here we face the birth of a type of music whose unprecedented violence derived directly from a social status: The last in the food chain one day turn up the amplifiers and forever change the way music is made. Almost as crazy as him, Geezer Butler, Tony Iommi, Bill Ward, were his fraternal companions from concerts in front of four people to the stages of the largest international festivals. But it's precisely here that they begin to lose control. Alcohol and cocaine take them beyond the threshold of fun, assuming an emblematic role in the lives of the Sabs and particularly the already insane Ozzy. The second part of the story, interspersed with fascinating archive photographs, begins with his expulsion from the Sabs and Ozzy's rehabilitation as a solo singer. The figure of Sharon, manager, lover, wife, will be fundamental for his artistic rebirth and also for his slow individual recovery. At the beginning of the eighties, Ozzy already had a failed marriage behind him, two children that, due to his alcoholic life, he almost doesn't remember having, and very low self-esteem. Thus, Ozzy Osbourne, the madman, the histrionic prince of darkness, is born. He is rebuilt (though not cleaned up) and uses his dark image to give the audience of the nascent Heavy Metal a sorcerer performing sacrificial rites on stage, a werewolf, a vampire, a puppet of his shrewd manager wife Sharon. But indeed, if it had not been for her, we would have missed a fundamental piece of Ozzy's artistic life. Detoxification from alcohol and drugs is a mirage; the death, as tragic as it was bizarre, of the loyal young guitarist Randy Rhoads will mark an indelible pain, fillable only with the enhancement of his self-destructive behavior. Indeed, the central element of the biography is the relationship Ozzy had in his life with drugs. It becomes the reason why he makes music, but also the reason for his dismissal from Sabbath.
Moreover, the story is a succession of comic and tragic events, exposing the singer's most intimate side, who continually refers to his mistakes as a husband and father with quite a bit of regret. Perhaps pumped up, perhaps too absurd, but the fact remains that the book is entertaining and surely enjoyable even by those who have never even heard "Paranoid", accompanied by cynicism, sarcastic black humor, and enriched by the colorful language of good old Ozzy. Maybe it's all made up, but we like to believe it's not.
God bless you Ozzy Osbourne
Loading comments slowly
