Ozzy Osbourne and Metallica
Without Prejudice
I just had a young swain of 40 comment on my Facebook, he can't believe I am an Ozzy Osbourne fan. Little does he realise Ozzy is 64, closer to my age than his. I had commented that God Bless Ozzy Osbourne was on ABC 2.
Black Sabbath was one of my younger brother, Dave's favourite bands, along with Status Quo, Deep Purple. He modeled himself on Francis Rossi, long hair flowing down his back. He came back from the U.K. With heavy metal music and at the time I was bored and listening to John Denver. Countdown started and Skyhooks appeared A.C. D.C. and we were saved from a life of eternal Vanilla music. Head banging appeared and the kids and I rocked around the lounge room. Bliss
I know Baby Boomers have a tendency to not to want to grow old, but I find amongst my peers I am regarded as unusual for the music I admire. Even my much younger man, Nifty Nev, commented once that I should act my age when I turned up The Angels. I replied, that The Angels were my age.
I love Metallica too. The lead singer just gets better and better looking as he ages and their version of Turn The Page by Bob Seeger is one of my top three songs of all time.
Listen to it, it's so raw.
Back to Ozzy. I was not as big a fan as my brother but I admit I was hooked from Paranoid on. I watched the documentary and realised what a survivor, Ozzy is. He was so young, they all were when Black Sabbath hit big. They went the route of booze, marijuana, coke, pills, or Ozzy did. He became the most major multiple addict and in the end Black Sabbath sacked him. He was that fucked up.
And stayed that way for years but still performing solo. He had two lots of kids that spent most if their lives with a drunk or drugged Dad. Beautiful kids that prayed for him to get sober. And nowadays he is. He is so refreshingly honest about it all. Sober he is still Ozzy but a better version. He had esteem issues, was dyslexic and he was full of rage, angst, fear and anxiety. Drugs, booze killed those feelings in him.
He paints now and his comment that it soothes his high anxiety resonates in me. Also that he feels that the painting is "mine, mine, mine". I feel the same when I write, it's "Mine". It calms and satisfies and once it's on the page it's out of my head. Almost like having sex, another good release for high anxiety.
He doesn't remember most of the eighties he said. When he bit the head off a dove he was slaughtered on drugs. Then his fans thought he liked to bite the head off animals, so brought them to concerts. One fan threw a bat on stage and Ozzy thought it was a rubber one and bit it's head off. Then spent weeks having treatment for rabies.
He's had an extraordinary massive life and feels very lucky. He loves his kids, he loves his wife, even though while married to her he would fuck anything with a pulse, (his wife's words) snort, smoke or drink anything. And beneath all the addictions was alcoholism. He's worked hard for his sobriety. He takes nothing for granted. An extraordinary talent
I just had a young swain of 40 comment on my Facebook, he can't believe I am an Ozzy Osbourne fan. Little does he realise Ozzy is 64, closer to my age than his. I had commented that God Bless Ozzy Osbourne was on ABC 2.
Black Sabbath was one of my younger brother, Dave's favourite bands, along with Status Quo, Deep Purple. He modeled himself on Francis Rossi, long hair flowing down his back. He came back from the U.K. With heavy metal music and at the time I was bored and listening to John Denver. Countdown started and Skyhooks appeared A.C. D.C. and we were saved from a life of eternal Vanilla music. Head banging appeared and the kids and I rocked around the lounge room. Bliss
I know Baby Boomers have a tendency to not to want to grow old, but I find amongst my peers I am regarded as unusual for the music I admire. Even my much younger man, Nifty Nev, commented once that I should act my age when I turned up The Angels. I replied, that The Angels were my age.
I love Metallica too. The lead singer just gets better and better looking as he ages and their version of Turn The Page by Bob Seeger is one of my top three songs of all time.
Listen to it, it's so raw.
Back to Ozzy. I was not as big a fan as my brother but I admit I was hooked from Paranoid on. I watched the documentary and realised what a survivor, Ozzy is. He was so young, they all were when Black Sabbath hit big. They went the route of booze, marijuana, coke, pills, or Ozzy did. He became the most major multiple addict and in the end Black Sabbath sacked him. He was that fucked up.
And stayed that way for years but still performing solo. He had two lots of kids that spent most if their lives with a drunk or drugged Dad. Beautiful kids that prayed for him to get sober. And nowadays he is. He is so refreshingly honest about it all. Sober he is still Ozzy but a better version. He had esteem issues, was dyslexic and he was full of rage, angst, fear and anxiety. Drugs, booze killed those feelings in him.
He paints now and his comment that it soothes his high anxiety resonates in me. Also that he feels that the painting is "mine, mine, mine". I feel the same when I write, it's "Mine". It calms and satisfies and once it's on the page it's out of my head. Almost like having sex, another good release for high anxiety.
He doesn't remember most of the eighties he said. When he bit the head off a dove he was slaughtered on drugs. Then his fans thought he liked to bite the head off animals, so brought them to concerts. One fan threw a bat on stage and Ozzy thought it was a rubber one and bit it's head off. Then spent weeks having treatment for rabies.
He's had an extraordinary massive life and feels very lucky. He loves his kids, he loves his wife, even though while married to her he would fuck anything with a pulse, (his wife's words) snort, smoke or drink anything. And beneath all the addictions was alcoholism. He's worked hard for his sobriety. He takes nothing for granted. An extraordinary talent
