OZZY OSBOURNE: 'Life's Full Of Regrets, But That's What Makes You Who You Are'

Sarah Ventre of the Phoenix New Times recently conducted an interview with legendary heavy metal singer Ozzy Osbourne. A couple of excerpts from the chat follow below.

Phoenix New Times: You talked a lot too about your beginnings in Aston, and how it was really important to you not to divorce yourself from your roots in a working class home.

Ozzy: You know — so many people in this business — number one, I think we're all so fucking blessed to be doing what we're doing. I don't think there's another job in the world that I would like to do, you know. I mean, it's not a job. It's a paid hobby. I don't know. It's — I mean, most days I wake up with my eyes open. I don't have to get up at six in the morning. I remember having dinner a while ago with the band CHICAGO, one of the horn players. And he says to me..."I've got an apartment overlooking the 405...every morning...I look [over] and there's this traffic bumper to bumper going to work." And he goes, "I'm so lucky not to be in that traffic jam. I'm so lucky not going to a job I positively hate for a person I don't really like, and I go home and have the same thing every day. I don't have a routine like that, you know?" It's so true as well, you know.

Phoenix New Times: Do you think that if you had grown up in slightly different circumstances — maybe if you were of a different social class, that you would've still ended up where you did? Or for you, did you see...

Ozzy: You know what — it's like, I was watching a program on the TV about a week ago. It was a story about Eric Clapton. And he was saying, it's very true — you get to the crossroads, and whatever one of those crossroads you take, you got the good, the bad, and the ugly with it. You know — you gotta accept what comes along. So if I hadn't been a singer, I don't know what I'd be. I mean, people say, "Do you think it would've easier?" There's a good chance, but I don't know. I do know...it wasn't just...wonderful. I mean, we got ripped off by the manager. There was drugs involved in my life. There was a lot of good, and there was a lot of bad, and a lot of ugly things that happened in my life, but that's part of — that was the road I chose...For instance, this morning I went to the doctor for my annual physical. And if he gets...the results and it's bad, then...I can't go, "Oh no — I'll come in and have another physical tomorrow. It might be better." You have to [live] with [the] fact that is, you know. So I mean, you know — if I hadn't come from Aston, Birmingham, and I hadn't picked up a microphone, and I hadn't fell in love with THE BEATLES, and I hadn't got my trip going — sometimes we have to pinch ourselves and go, "Did it really happen that way?" you know.
Phoenix New Times: You said in your younger days that getting into trouble was sort of a way that you tried to be accepted by other people — by the older, cooler kids at school. Do you think that this was part of the reason you later became so heavily addicted to so many things?

Ozzy: No. I mean, it was — it was fun. I mean, for instance, when we used to smoke pot, it was a good giggly, munchies — you know, you'd go to your room with a few people you'd take back to the hotel. You'd have a case of beer. You'd have a few beers, smoke some pot, eat loads of pizza, and try and get laid, you know. I mean then — but now, the pot you smoke now, you say, oh. The last time I smoked it...[unintelligible]...a hole into your ass, you know... You're gonna fly...into it. And it wasn't good — I didn't like it anyway. It's too strong, you know. But that's what the kids want, you know. I don't — I mean, it was all innocent fun. But then cocaine and all this other shit came along. I would just say it was a part of success, you know. I mean — it's what rock and rollers do, you know. The main thing was alcohol, really with me. [Unintelligible] For instance, right now if I was to go..."I'm gonna go to a bar and I'm gonna have a drink," I know — I know, without any shadow of a doubt, if I was to do that, it wouldn't be too long after that that I would be asking strangers for cocaine. And then [if it weren't] cocaine I'd be off on a fucking 'nother binge for a month. I know that's part of me and I know very well, and every now and again my addictive personality goes, "You know, you've never tried ecstasy — wonder what that would be like." Or, "You haven't tried methamphetamine — I wonder what that would be." You know — I know my head tries to trick me all the time, but, I just don't act on my mind, you know — on what I think, you know...

Phoenix New Times: Yeah. Do you have many regrets? If you could go back and do it again how would you do it differently?

Ozzy: ...Life's full of regrets, but that's what makes you who you are. I mean, I don't exactly regret — I mean, I don't exactly feel happy about the fact I used to [beat] both wives at one time. I used to hit them, and — at least Sharon, she'd buck right back. She wouldn't take it lying down. She phoned the police and all that, you know...That's a big regret, and I regret the children from my first marriage, the way I treated them, and my children from this marriage. But I was a young guy, who got successful very young - and I thought, you know — get married, get a wife, get a house, have a car, you know, and have kids. But I was 21 — before I knew it, I was a father, you know. It's too young, you know. As you get old — by the time you get old, if you make it that far, you get sensible, but it's too late to do anything about it, you know.

Phoenix New Times: You've gone through quite a lot personally, which you talked about quite extensively in your book. You died twice. How do you see life differently after coming out the other end, still alive and still sane? How do you think about the way you live your life?

Ozzy: I don't think about it, I just move on, you know. It's no use — you know, you don't go every morning..."That was a good year," and whatever. You know, I lived a Hell ways for a long, long time, you know. To be honest with you, it wasn't fun anymore at the end of the day. I wasn't having any fun with it. Now I look back and go, "I used to think that was fun?", you know? Killing yourself to live, as they say. But you know, that's not what I want people to get out of the book. Just — it's a humor, so I'm not trying to educate people about the dangers of these things, because — it's just my story. It's just a very truthful, human story...

Read the entire interview from the Phoenix New Times.