After decades of drug use and Parkinson’s diagnosis, Ozzy Osbourne prepares her life’s last show

Somehow Ozzy Osbourne has managed to survive decades of alcohol, drugs and debauchery -to count on prison, accidents with risk of death and Parkinson- disease, but now he is preparing to perform for the fans for the last time.

Black Sabbath left an indelible brand in music by creating the sound that became known as Heavy Metal -e, and Ozzy practically invented the image of the wild rock star.

When drinking, smelling and fucking around the world in a state of semiconscient numbness in the 1970s, 1980s and 1990s, he secured his place in the rock ‘n’ roll infamy biting the head of some poor creatures along the way.

Then, in the 2000s, he and his family were catapulted to a new form of fame when unintentionally became pioneers of reality shows, while the cameras captured their unique (but affectionate) dysfunctional domestic life.

The “Prince of Darkness” has already threatened to retire before -but with the advancement of his health problems, the farewell show on Saturday (5) seems to be really his last act on stage.

The 76 -year -old will meet with his original Black Sabbath bandmates to present himself as the main attraction of a full -day show at a stadium, which will feature bands that they have influenced over the years, ”Slayer and Guns N ‘Roses and Rage Against The Machine. This was not by chance described as the largest heavy metal line-up of all time.

Titled “Back to the Beginning”, the show at Villa Park in Birmingham, will really take the band back to their roots.

The soccer field is a few steps from Ozzy’s semi -signed house in Aston’s suburb. On game days, young Ozzy and his friends charged fans to “take care” of their cars.

He jokes that his first job in the music industry was as an tuner of car horns at a region’s factory before working on a slaughterhouse, which allowed him to pranks Pubs by placing cow eyes on people’s glasses.

But he wanted to escape the monotony of daily work, and put an ad for a band at a record store. This eventually led to the formation of Black Sabbath, with his school friend and guitarist Tony Iommi, bassist and lyricist Geezer Butler and drummer Bill Ward.

Other groups had already created a heavy metal -like sound, but Black Sabbath actually established the model with its combination of pulsating rhythms, deep rock riffs and fantasy and horror images.

“They started absolutely out of nowhere and have become global superstars,” says Birmingham’s 47 -year -old fan Joe Porter, while admiring the band’s murals that were painted in the city before the show.

“If you watch their first shows, you will see that they had [equipamentos] Basic -a sound system, a small battery, a bass and a guitar, and only. The sound they could produce with these four instruments was as if there were 20 people on stage. “

“And Ozzy looks crazy on stage, but actually he’s just a normal guy.”

Their appeal crosses generations, judging by the audience in the new exhibition “Ozzy Osbourne: Working Class Hero”, on display at the Birmingham Museum and Art Gallery.

“They started the year my mother was born in 1968,” says Byron Howard-Maarij, 21. “I’m a big metal fan, so the fact that creators are coming back to where it all started is really exciting.”

Another fan, 25 -year -old Riley Beresford from Nottingham, inherited a copy of Black Sabbath’s single “Paranoid” single as a grandmother’s family relic.

“She bought a seven -inch disk from” Paranoid” And he passed to my mother, and now has passed to me. It’s going through the family, “he says.

“They created Heavy Metal, wasn’t it? Obviously, the song is great, but he’s wild only adds even more. There’s no one else like him, really, right?”

“I think the reason people love Ozzy is that he’s still very genuine,” says Toby Watley, director of collections at Birmingham Museums.

“He sees himself as an Aston working class guy. In fact, he hasn’t changed. He’s exactly what you’re seeing. It’s not going through a Hollywood lens and being glamorized at all. People really love and respect it. And it’s something Birmingham can be very proud.”

The exhibition features artifacts borrowed by Ozzy and his wife, Sharon, including gold records and awards, such as his three Grammys and two rock fame trophies ‘N’ Roll (one for being included with Black Sabbath, and the other as a solo artist).

They reflect their musical success, while photos and videos of him on stage give a small glimpse on their wilder side.

“You never know for sure what will happen next, and I think people like it,” Watley adds. “He is not someone who tries to follow the rules. He does everything in his own way, in his own style. I think this is a large part of the appeal.”

Some of their mischief became legendary.

The most notorious was biting the head of a living bat while on stage in Iowa in 1982. He played raw meat on the audience during the tour, which led fans to throw things on stage in return. He claims that he thought the bat was fake before giving a bite.

But he did not try to use the same excuse about the two doves whose heads he tore off with a bite during a record label meeting the year before.

His other exploits included being arrested by urinating in the Texas war monument, the Alamo, while wearing one of Sharon’s dresses; be expelled from Dachau’s concentration camp for being drunk and causing turmoil during a visit over a tour of Germany; Point a gun to the Black Sabbath drummer during an acid “bad trip”; delete and wake up in the central flowerbed of a 12 -track highway; and massacre the residents of his chicken coop with a gun, a sword and gasoline while wearing a robe and a pair of gallohings.

All of this contributed to Ozzy’s legend – but in reality most of his behavior was not very attractive or glamorous. He was a disaster, and alcohol and drugs gave him a personality like the character in the book “The Doctor and the Monster”.

In 1989, he woke up in jail, and was informed that he had been arrested on suspicion of attempted murder by Strangular Sharon. He couldn’t remember any of this. She withdrew the complaint.

In 2003, allegedly without drinking, he broke his neck after falling from a quad, and was diagnosed with Parkinson in the same year. In 2019, he suffered a spine injury in a fall.

Fans are waiting to see what state he will perform on stage this Saturday.

When it was included in the rock ‘N’ Roll fame hall as a solo artist last year, he had to sit on a large black -in -black throne with skulls and a giant bat. The same throne appeared in photos of this weekend’s rehearsals in Birmingham.

His body has survived more abuse than that of virtually anyone else on the planet -but the age and medical reality are reaching it.

Sharon said this will definitely be his last show.

He and his fans will probably be forced to accept this, although in the past he found it impossible to stay away from the spotlight for a long time.

“Do you know when I’m going to retire?” He asked in a 2020 documentary. “When I hear someone preaching a lid in my coffin. And then I’m going to make a bis.”

This text was originally published here.