OSBOURNES To Appear At 'Comic Con Midlands' In July

Ozzy Osbourne and his family will appear at the Comic Con Midlands in Birmingham, United Kingdom just days after his last-ever concert with BLACK SABBATH.

The legendary heavy metal singer will be joined by his wife/manager Sharon and their children Kelly and Jack at the NEC in Birmingham the week after SABBATH's "Back To The Beginning" event as special guests of the convention.

A Comic Con Midlands description of Ozzy's participation in the event reads as follows: "With Ozzy Osbourne's legendary music career, Sharon's powerhouse presence in entertainment, and Kelly and Jack's unforgettable personalities, the Osbournes have cemented their place in pop culture history."

As for the Comic Con Midlands itself, the organizers state: "We're all a fan of something, and Comic Con Midlands is the best place to celebrate all things pop culture. As well as having the chance to meet your heroes, get an item signed or a photo, many guests will also appear live onstage so you'll get to hear directly about their new projects and previous roles."

Ozzy Osbourne's MTV reality show "The Osbournes" followed the lives of the BLACK SABBATH singer and his family.

In 2023, Ozzy said during an episode of SiriusXM's "Ozzy Speaks" that "The Osbournes" TV show was inspired by another MTV hit, "MTV Cribs", in which various music stars showed off their luxurious homes.

"That was the most one they wanted to see over, and I went and I said, 'Why don't we do an extended 'Cribs'?" But Ozzy admitted that it "gets pretty old very quick when you got cameras stuck in every room."

Osbourne went on to say that the concept for "The Osbournes" "grew out of" "Cribs" and "then it was an extended 'Cribs' for a week at the Osbournes, which turned into a month at the Osbournes, which turned into 'The Osbournes', which started this fucking whole thing."

Osbourne also credited his wife and manager Sharon for being "courageous" when she allowed the MTV crew to continue filming after her cancer diagnosis.

"And the guy from the crew said, 'I suppose you want us all to go,' and I said, 'Let's see with Sharon,' and Sharon says, 'No. Let him stay.'"

Lamenting the fact that current reality shows are "all scripted," Osbourne insisted that wasn't the case with "The Osbournes". "That was not scripted at all," he said.

"The Osbournes", which became the highest rated original program in MTV's history, started in 2002 and ended in 2005. The "fly-on-the-wall" TV series followed the lives of Ozzy and his family, including Sharon's battle with cancer, as well as younger children Kelly and Jack Osbourne's stints in rehabilitation for drug and alcohol abuse.

"The Osbournes" was credited with being the first show where cameras followed celebrities around and led to a number of copycats like A&E's "Gene Simmons Family Jewels", which followed the life of KISS bassist Gene Simmons and his family, and A&E's "Growing Up Twisted", about the family of TWISTED SISTER frontman Dee Snider.

Six years ago, Ozzy said that he was "falling apart emotionally" during the making of "The Osbournes".

"All I can say to you is this: number one, if someone offers you a shitload of dough to be on television, you'd have to be a mug to turn it down," he told Metal Hammer. "I thought it was gonna be a piece of cake, but you have a camera crew living in your house for three years and see how you feel at the end of it. You feel like a fucking laboratory rat.

"It got to the point where I was falling apart emotionally," he continued, "because you can't fucking relax. It doesn't matter where you go for a piss, you're paranoid there's a camera in there. But I'm not ashamed of it and it's a big hit. Would I do it again? It's now Kardashianville. The world's changed, man."

In a 2012 interview, Sharon said that her family's "lives were never the same again" after "The Osbournes". "Everybody's grown up with Ozzy, everybody loves Ozzy, but for us, we were a family," she said. "You know, we weren't in the public eye at all, and it changed our lives so much."

In "The Osbournes", the legendary singer would often be seen running on a treadmill and getting fit. But he told The Daily Record back in 2009 that it was all a charade. Once the cameras stopped rolling, Ozzy, supposedly a recovering alcoholic, would go to a room and get stoned.

Sharon said: "As Ozzy will tell you, the three years that we were filming, Ozzy was stoned the whole time. He wasn't sober for one day."

Ozzy revealed: "When the filming ended, I'd go in my little bunker and smoke a pipe and drink about a case of beer every day.

"I'd give myself some goodness and get up early in the morning and go jogging for six miles."

Ozzy admitted he couldn't watch the show — because it's obvious by his body language in front of camera that he didn't know what time of day it was.

He said: "I used to do a lot of prescription drugs as well."