Tribute To A Legend: OZZY OSBOURNE

Vicki Arkoff

There are few rock ’n’ roll legends to match the amazing Ozzy Osbourne. Many stories have circulated about his controversial concerts (he’s bitten the heads off live doves!) and songs (some have cried “devil” because of his darkthemed music), but the soft-spoken Englishman is quick to dismiss the rumors and to explain the distinction between Ozzy the performer and Ozzy the down-toearth family man. His original band, Black Sabbath, practically invented heavy metal, and he’s still defining it as he reigns as one of the biggest rockstars today. His latest album, Tribute, honors the late, great guitarist Randy Rhoads whom Ozzy credits as a good friend and teacher.

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What do you remember most about Randy?

He was phenomenal. He was unbelievable. I mean, I don’t only remember him as a guitar player, but as a real good guy.

Do you have mixed feelings about releasing the tapes for Tribute?

I thought that people would think I was cashing in on his death. But then Randy’s mother encouraged me to put out a live album so that Randy wouldn’t be forgotten. And Randy didn’t get a chance to record much, just two records. He was such a special man to work with after working with Black Sabbath, who never gave me the time of day. I can’t play an instrument and I can’t write music as a musician can, so Randy would sit down and we would work it out. As much as my background helped him, he helped me a tremendous amount. It seems like yesterday.

How did Randy become such a legend?

I don’t know! I didn’t realize that he was becoming a cult figure until I went to Japan and the Japanese loved him! And a Japanese magazine asked me such weird questions like: “Are you in any spiritual contact with Randy Rhoads?” What.. . ? It’s like when I watched MTV one day and it said “Ozzy Osbourne has shaved his hair off and has gone to Tibet!” I don’t believe this! I can’t even take a break without stories circulating. I can’t even go to a coffee shop without someone writing that I sat there eating a bat sandwich and drinking ox blood!

Are you often under attack from people you meet in the street?

Only in certain parts of America, mostly down South. It’s peoples’ quest to iron out my “evil ways.” I’m a family man: I have three beautiful children (soon four children—Ed.), I have a wife, I eat real food, we don’t eat like pigs. We live quite normally. I do believe in God. I don’t choose to go around handing leaflets out to prove that I believe.

Tribute To A Legend: OZZY OSBOURNE

So when fundamentalists criticize you. . .

.. .Their minds are already made up. I’m fed up trying to justify something that I haven’t got to justify. All it is is role play. Alice Cooper doesn’t go to bed with his make-up on! I don’t look now like the fiend on the album cover or the guy that comes down on the throne on stage, do I? It’s purely theatrics.

You’ve led quite a colorful rock career for nearly 20 years. Will there be a 30th anniversary?

I don't know! But I’m not going to stop making music to become a full-time actor. I don’t want to say I’m retiring from rock ’n’ roll to become an actor then flop and pick up a guitar again. That’s phony. I’m still taking my rock ’n’ roll very seriously.

In retrospect, have your two careers— first with Black Sabbath and then as a solo artist—developed the way you wanted or expected?

When I went out on my own, I was lucky, I got successful. It might have turned out that nobody’d ever heard of me! When I got fired from Sabbath, I remember sitting in a hotel room, thinking that it was all over—I’m finished. I never dreamed that my solo career would go bigger than Sabbath had ever gone. I’m a lucky guy to have had two successful careers. And now it looks as though I’ll make a go at the movies, so it may be three careers.

Does the Tribute LP capsulize your career?

The tapes are five years old, so it only capsulizes one part of my career, a part that can never happen again. I could reform Black Sabbath and do that again, but I could never do this because Randy’s not here anymore.