When Ozzy Osbourne coated John Lennon’s “Working Class Hero” in 2005, there have been layers of that means behind why the tune hit so near residence for him. Not solely may he relate to lyrics like “As soon as you’re born, they make you feel small… a working-class hero is something to be,” however Lennon was additionally a part of The Beatles, the band that sparked Osbourne’s ardour for music and in the end set him on a path out of the world he was born into.
“There ain’t many people who have had such longevity as I have,” the British heavy steel vocalist says within the two-hour particular, Biography: The Nine Lives of Ozzy Osbourne, airing September 7 at 9/8c on A&E. “I feel honored that people still want to see me.”
At 71 years previous, Osbourne remains to be, little doubt, one of many largest names in music. First discovering success because the Black Sabbath vocalist by way of the 1970s after which as a solo frontman within the 1980s earlier than changing into a actuality tv persona on The Osbournes from 2005 to 2008, what makes his journey all of the extra unimaginable is that he truly grew up within the humblest of situations.
“Dad is a kid from the streets who worked in factories,” his 34-year-old son Jack says. “He’s very much this working-class blue-collar guy.”
Osbourne ‘felt like a peasant’ as a toddler
Born on December 3, 1948, as John Michael Osbourne in Birmingham, England, the long run rocker spent a lot of his childhood operating across the manufacturing unit city, usually enjoying in websites that had been bombed throughout World War II.
With three sisters, Jean, Iris and Gillian, and two brothers, Paul and Tony, the home he grew up in at 14 Lodge Road wasn’t simply energetic — however crowded. “The bedroom I had back then was no bigger than two single beds, side by side,” Osbourne says within the particular. “There’s no inside toilet — it was a bucket to pee at the end of the bed. We had an outside toilet where you go to go for a dump.”
Instead of bathroom paper, they used newspaper — they usually didn’t even have cleaning soap and water. “I had quite a bit of shame when I was a kid because I always felt dirty,” he stated. “I always felt unclean, I felt like a peasant.”
Despite the situations, there was one thing about him that stood aside. “My father always said I’d do something big one day,” Osborne says. “He says to me, ‘You’re either going to do something very special, or you’re gonna go to prison.’ He was right.”
Ozzy Osbourne and his mom, Lillian, in February 1986
Photo: Birmingham Post and Mail Archive/Mirrorpix/Getty Images
He lived with a relentless sense of concern and doom
What his dad and mom, Jack and Lillian, did instill of their six youngsters was a devoted work ethic. “My father was a toolmaker,” Osbourne remembers within the documentary. “He never would miss a day from work, come rain, come shine.”
His father labored all evening, tag-teaming along with his spouse, who would begin her manufacturing unit shift when he got here residence. The routine proved powerful for younger Osbourne. “I was petrified most of the time, I was always a very nervous guy — fear of impending doom ruled my life,” he admits. “When my dad was sleeping through the day, I would be freaking out, thinking he was dead. I’d have to poke him to make sure he was still breathing. I can tell you he wasn’t too pleased about that.”
School wasn’t a lot of a haven both, particularly after discovering out he had dyslexia. “There was a lot of shame for me because if you had that learning disability, they would put you in the corner with a cone on your head,” he says. “They’d call you the class dunce — and the whole class laughed at you.”
Instead, he discovered humor as the category clown, usually in search of out the “biggest guy in the class” to make him snigger and be on his aspect. But wanting again, the singer thinks even that tactic could have been a cry for assist: “Most comedians I know offstage are very unhappy people. And that’s kind of true to my life. I’m making you laugh to make me feel safe around you.”
Osbourne was jailed for six weeks
By the time he was 16, Osbourne was on his personal and actually struggling. “I didn’t want to work in a day job, I couldn’t stand getting up for a job in the morning,” he says. “I could never hold a nine-to-five job ever. I’d go from plumber to a builder.”
One of his gigs was at a slaughterhouse. “I remember gagging all day,” Osborne says. “But eventually, you get used to the smell.”
His brother recollects him simply at all times discovering bother. “John used to go out and have a drink, get in fights and that was it,” Paul Osbourne says within the particular. “Dad was always telling him off.”
The pinnacle got here when he broke into a store behind his home. “A lot of kids turn to crime and I did for a bit, but I wasn’t really good at it,” Osbourne admits. “I wasn’t a career criminal — I kinda wanted to get caught in a way to be accepted by the rest of the bad guys.”
He quickly discovered himself in jail — and his dad didn’t pay the bail to show him a lesson. “When you’re in a place full of bad people, it’s a bit of an education,” the long run international famous person explains. “ They don’t want to kill you, they want to have sex with a young boy with long auburn hair.”
After six weeks, he knew he by no means needed to return to jail and that he by no means needed to work in a manufacturing unit.
Ozzy Osbourne, 1970
Photo: Chris Walter/WireImage
The Beatles impressed Osbourne to pursue music
But there was one factor he at all times discovered solace in. “Music was a very integral part of the family,” Osbourne remembers. “There was always music, with the record player, radio or the piano.”
When he turned 14, he actually found music by listening to The Beatles. “It changed my life,” he says. “It gave me the seed to want to do it myself.”
But how was a working-class child from Birmingham going to launch onto the worldwide music scene just like the Fab Four? Fortunately, he had a loving father, keen to offer his son an opportunity. He talked him into giving him a verify for 250 British kilos and Osbourne purchased a Shure microphone, microphone stand and Vox speaker.
“My dad was a good guy — I loved him,” Osbourne provides lovingly. “I thought it was the best gift ever.”
Without that, he by no means would have gotten his likelihood to start out: “The only thing I had a passion for was music.”
Osbourne’s humble beginnings formed his artistry
Now as a Grammy-award profitable artist and Rock and Rock Hall of Famer — who even has his personal music competition, Ozzfest — Osbourne isn’t simply one of many biggest, he actually laid the groundwork for the music business of the previous couple of many years.
“I don’t know what music would be like if it weren’t for the influence of Ozzy,” producer Rick Rubin says within the Biography particular. “Ozzy changed everything,”
Fellow rocker Rob Zombie credit all of it to his previous: “The working class thing is key because you grew up with nothing and you do everything you can every day so you don’t go back to nothing. It’s all about escaping your reality to something better.”
As for Osbourne himself, he chalks all of it as much as simply being true to himself. “The reason why I do what I do is because it’s what everyone wants to do but ain’t got the guts to,” he says. “All I am is honest.”
For a working-class child from England, the journey was at all times inside him. “I had a dream and it came true,” Osbourne says within the Biography particular. “I have a good life.”
“Biography: The Nine Lives of Ozzy Osbourne,” premiering Labor Day, September 7 at 9/8c on A&E traces Ozzy’s life from his childhood in poverty and time in jail to fronting legendary Rock and Roll Hall of Fame inductees Black Sabbath and profitable Grammy Award-winning solo profession, to one in every of rock’s elder statesman and a loveable 21st-century tv dad. Watch a preview:
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