“This photographer goes: ‘Give us your Ozzy face!’ You know, the mad face. “So there’s me, Grace Jones and Clapton,” recalls Osbourne. He was there to present an award with Grace Jones, and afterwards the pair had their photo taken with Clapton. Osbourne, then, was mortified when he believed he’d made a fool of himself at the International Rock Awards in 1989. Like Beck, the guitarist was an early icon to Osbourne: by the time Black Sabbath released their debut album, Clapton had already made seminal records with The Yardbirds, John Mayall & the Bluesbreakers, Cream, and Blind Faith, and there was graffiti across the country declaring him “God”. Next, Watt suggested approaching a musician Osbourne was certain couldn’t stand him: Eric Clapton. “You’ve got to have a book with the album to understand what they’re singing about! Me and Andrew write lyrics the everyday man can understand.” “Sometimes I think people can go too far out with lyrics,” he explains.
The whole thing is shot through with his characteristic humour – on “No Escape from Now” he even quotes Jim Carrey’s The Mask, bellowing: “Somebody stop me!”. “He’s got his own world, but me, I could sing about any old s***.” On Patient Number 9 Osbourne sings about lunatic asylums, vampires, and just plain old bad days. “In Sabbath, Geezer wrote the lyrics and sometimes I’d be singing them going: ‘What the f*** does this mean?’” he says affectionately. “We’ll have a conversation and he’ll say: ‘What you just said would be a great line.’” Back when Osbourne was starting out with Black Sabbath, lyrics weren’t part of his job. Watt was back behind the desk for Patient Number 9, and Osbourne credits the producer with helping him to focus and encouraging his songwriting. Now I don’t drink or smoke or f***ing do any of that s***. People wouldn’t know if I was gonna go through the door, the roof or the window. I was doing f***ing huge amounts of drugs and booze. What’s the secret of their long-lasting marriage? “Love, I suppose,” says Osbourne. “Maybe it’s because I’m back off holiday and I’m not spending any more money.” He bought his wife a ruby necklace for the occasion she got him a ruby-encrusted skull ring. He’s been in Hawaii with Sharon, celebrating their 40th wedding anniversary. Today, though, he’s enjoying that just-home-from-holiday bounce. That same year he was diagnosed with Parkinson’s disease, and more recently he’s survived a tussle with Covid. In June, Osbourne underwent “life-altering” surgery to deal with neck injuries he first sustained in a 2003 quad-biking accident, which were exacerbated by a fall in 2019. The 73-year-old is in fine form, sharp and witty despite various physical ailments. I’m not American and I want to come home, you know?” “I’ve missed going to the cake shop in Beaconsfield,” says Osbourne, infectiously enthusiastic about the move. There’ll be no high-powered psychedelics for tea this time. These days Osbourne walks with the aid of a black cane, and the only pure white lines are the roots near his centre-parting. After two decades here they’ve decided to go back to their Grade II-listed Buckinghamshire estate, Welders House. On the eve of his 13th solo record, Patient Number 9, Osbourne and his wife Sharon have put their stately mansion in LA’s leafy Hancock Park up for sale for $18m (£15.5m).
“You’ll have to ask the horse.”įifty years on, Osbourne is once again plotting a return to England with an explosive new album tucked under his arm. He’s a little hazy on the rest of the details. Osbourne wandered into a field and spent an hour talking to a horse before it turned round and told him to “f*** off”. “We used to take it all the f***ing time,” he recalls, that Aston accent still clear as a ringing bell. When it was done, their hell-raising frontman flew back to England and celebrated by swallowing 10 tabs of LSD. The year was 1972, and heavy metal pioneers Black Sabbath were in sun-kissed California making their stone-cold classic Vol 4. When he first came to this city to record, he was a wide-eyed, golden-voiced Brummie lad of 23, with a passion for fringed stagewear and as many cereal boxes full of cocaine as he could lay his nostrils on. Ozzy Osbourne is at home in Los Angeles, contemplating the passage of time.
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