Down To Earth With Ozzy, Part 3
Talking songwriting, solo albums and possible TV projects with the lovable metal icon in 2001
“A guy that works in the circus is a clown,” Ozzy Osbourne told me in August 2001, the first of many times that I would sit down with him for an interview over the next two decades. “He doesn’t go home with his big boots on and his fuckin’ silly hat and his nose; he takes it off and he’s a normal guy.”
And though I was practically quaking with nervousness when he first walked into the lounge at Scream Studios, I left that day feeling pleasantly surprised by how much of a “normal guy” Ozzy actually seemed to be. Sure, he was heavy metal’s greatest living icon, a notorious wildman with a string of legendary misadventures to his credit — but he was also clearly just a bloke from a humble background who loved music, loved his family even more, and was still utterly gobsmacked by the massive success he’d managed to achieve. There wasn’t a trace of pomposity about him, and he spoke to me for well over an hour without any evidence of affect or filter. He was, indeed, a genuinely likable gent.
At the time — and as mentioned in Part 1 and Part 2 of our interview — Ozzy was putting the final touches on Down to Earth, his first new studio album in six years. The newly health-minded rock star was also preparing to embark on the Black Christmas Tour, a co-headlining jaunt with Rob Zombie that would soon be renamed the Merry Mayhem Tour in the wake of the 9/11 attacks, which occurred less than two weeks after this interview took place. But as Ozzy himself admitted, his head was still very much in the studio at this point…
As with the previous installments of this interview, this concluding portion — which touches on everything from the late guitar legend Randy Rhoads to his favorite (and least favorite) solo albums to a certain MTV reality series that was just about to get underway — is available in full as a special treat for my paid subscribers. For just $5 a month (basically the price of a coffee or a beer at your local) or $50 a year, you can support my writing and get all kinds of awesome music-related reads delivered straight to your inbox in return, enjoy full access to the 300 or so still-evergreen posts in the Jagged Time Lapse archive, and listen to all the complete episodes of the CROSSED CHANNELS podcast that I do monthly with my friend and esteemed music journalist colleague
. I think that’s a pretty good deal, and I sure hope you will, too!And now, on to Part 3 of my August 2001 interview with Ozzy…
What can you tell me about your upcoming tour with Rob Zombie?
I don’t know anything about it! It starts in October or November, and it’s called the Black Christmas Tour. And that’s really all that I can tell you!
Do you have a specific regimen these days to prepare for going on tour?
I’ve been eating many small meals a day; no flour, no pastry, no pasta, no potatoes.
Lots of protein, then?
Oh, yeah. Cottage cheese got a lot of protein. I get pissed off when I put weight on, now. Especially in this town; if you don’t fit in the grid, they look at you like you’re a sick person.
When I’m on tour, on the days off, I just take a day off; I found out that working out was affecting my performance, leaving me too exhausted. I ain’t gettin’ any younger! My trainer comes around every morning, and he has me stretching and doing things very gradually. I used to wake up and not be able to move my legs, because I never stretched or did any of the right things. He’s regimenting me with the food, and it’s working out really well.
Is he going to go on the tour with you?
I don’t know. To be honest with you, I’m not really there yet; I’m still in the studio, wrapping up this album, which is turning out way better than my wildest dreams.