Rasta Poet Writes OSBOURNE Verses

April 14, 2005

BBC News is reporting that Birmingham-born poet Benjamin Zephaniah has written a poem about the Osbourne family to mark the final episode of their popular MTV reality series.

"I thought it was only fitting to put pen to paper and write them a fitting ode," said the Rastafarian writer.

"The challenge was to write a poem about a family that has become an alternative institution without it sounding too worthy," he added.

The last episode of "The Osbournes" will be broadcast in the U.K. on MTV this Sunday.

The show is based around the anarchic home life of heavy metal rock star Ozzy Osbourne, who also hails from Birmingham.

"Ozzy's not just the Prince of Darkness, but he's bona fide Brummy royalty too," said the poet, who famously turned down an OBE in 2003.

A stanza from his poem reads as follows:

There'll be no more father figure
And the mother we all crave
Will not inspire us sinners
As her children rant and rave
They'll be no one left to ruin us
And make us shout out loud
We need stuff that is ridiculous
To make us all feel proud.

"On the night I wrote the poem I was thinking about all the things that I loved and how much I would miss them if they went," said Zephaniah.

Ozzy, his wife Sharon and his children Jack and Kelly have become cult celebrities as a result of the show, which has earned them a reported $85 million.

Find more on
  • facebook
  • twitter
  • reddit
  • email

Comments Disclaimer And Information

BLABBERMOUTH.NET uses the Facebook Comments plugin to let people comment on content on the site using their Facebook account. The comments reside on Facebook servers and are not stored on BLABBERMOUTH.NET. To comment on a BLABBERMOUTH.NET story or review, you must be logged in to an active personal account on Facebook. Once you're logged in, you will be able to comment. User comments or postings do not reflect the viewpoint of BLABBERMOUTH.NET and BLABBERMOUTH.NET does not endorse, or guarantee the accuracy of, any user comment. To report spam or any abusive, obscene, defamatory, racist, homophobic or threatening comments, or anything that may violate any applicable laws, use the "Report to Facebook" and "Mark as spam" links that appear next to the comments themselves. To do so, click the downward arrow on the top-right corner of the Facebook comment (the arrow is invisible until you roll over it) and select the appropriate action. You can also send an e-mail to blabbermouthinbox(@)gmail.com with pertinent details. BLABBERMOUTH.NET reserves the right to "hide" comments that may be considered offensive, illegal or inappropriate and to "ban" users that violate the site's Terms Of Service. Hidden comments will still appear to the user and to the user's Facebook friends. If a new comment is published from a "banned" user or contains a blacklisted word, this comment will automatically have limited visibility (the "banned" user's comments will only be visible to the user and the user's Facebook friends).