I Am Ozzy

I'm going through a bit of a stage of reading autobiographies at the moment. I've just finished reading "I Am Ozzy". It's a frank account of his life by the remarkable Ozzy Osbourne. Having just read Dave Mustaine's book I have to say, this one is a great deal better. It's not often that I read something and actually laugh out loud, let alone the frequency of it with this book. This man has a Quentin Tarantino style ability of making you laugh at things you most definitely shouldn't be laughing at.

The book touches on Ozzy's early life in dreary Aston, in the Midlands of England, as a working class boy with very little in the way of prospects. There wasn't a lot of dwelling on this though. After a few laughs and an introduction to his family he moves swiftly on to Black Sabbath. Thankfully he spends almost half the book warmly regaling his memories during his time with the band. Even though you can feel his pain when he is booted out of the group he doesn't try and paint any of the other band members in a bad light. In fact he takes a much more "bygones will be bygones" sort of approach. Again he had me in stitches on many a tube journey. In fact most of the funniest stories were when he was in-between recording or touring, often at his home in the countryside.

He moves on to his solo career, his relationship with Sharon and his eternal struggle with drink and drugs. The last chapter of the book covers his success with "The Osbournes" on MTV and what he has been doing from there.

His honesty and openness to his feelings and experiences really endear you to him. It almost takes away from the multitude of tragedies that he has had to endure throughout his life. The man is an absolute trooper. I think what I love about Ozzy is that here you have a guy that has literally broken every rule in the book and is still phenomenally successful. It's a testament to his incredible character. This man literally is a legend.

In a nutshell, this book is something for everyone, even if you're not in to metal. It's so funny, it feels as if you're in the pub actually listening to Ozzy talking about his life. Laugh out loud stuff and I for one thoroughly enjoyed it.

Boojay