Ozzy Osbourne- Ozzmosis

Ozzy Osbourne’s biggest seller in about fifteen years, October 1995’s Ozzmosis contained “Perry Mason” (with the legendary Rick Wakeman on mellotron) and “See You on the Other Side”. Ironically Ozzmosis was released after Osbourne had announced a very high profile retirement. The album, his seventh solo studio project, peaked at #4 on the Billboard album chart with US sales over three million copies. So was Ozzy serious about retirement at the time? “I wouldn’t say that I was serious,” the now-deceased hard rock godfather didn’t mince words. “I’d say I was DUMB.”

“I have what we call in the family ‘wobblers’,” Ozzy explained, “I get pissed off. I had a pissed off day, and I said to (wife/manager ) Sharon (Osbourne), ‘I don’t want to do this anymore. I’m sick and I’m tired of being on the road, I’m sick of going to doctors. My voice is never right…’ Meanwhile, all the time I’m selling tons of records, the gigs are filled up. No one’s really complaining, but I am. And Sharon said to me, ‘Do you want to retire?’ And I replied, ‘ That’s it. I’ve done it, I’ve done it, I’ve achieved everything that I wanted to achieve. I want out. I want to know what it’s like to be a regular guy.’ So I learned one big thing: don’t ask for too much, because sometimes you’ll get it.” “Then when I had calmed down, I thought, ‘What have you done? It was fun for awhile. I didn’t have any commitments. I had my little house in England, I had my toys, my motorbikes, my cars…I got this weird habit when I get antsy. I sit in the kitchen, then keep standing up, open the refrigerator door, look in, close it, sit back down. Then stand up, open the refrigerator door, close it, sit back down.

And my wife says, ‘What’s wrong?’

‘I feel like a fish out of water.’

And she said, ‘Well, I only do what you tell me to do. You tell me you wanna disband, I disbanded. What you wanna do now?’

And I said, ‘Me without a band is like I’m walking around naked or something.’ ”

So hear about the emperor’s new clothes with the dearly missed Ozzy Osbourne in my classic rock interview about Ozzmosis (#4 Billboard, two million+ sold ) in this revealing in-depth conversation. –Redbeard