I AM OZZY

http://www.littlebrown.co.uk/

I read this book in two sittings - that’s how gripping it was. Ozzy may have played the clown for forty years but take away the circus tent and you will find a family man as genuine as they come. This isn’t a contrived book written by a ghost writer with Ozzy’s face on the cover just to sell books at Christmas; what you have here is Ozzy telling his life story with the help of Chris Ayres. The book is well presented, with important facts and dates smoothly blended as not to bore your ass off with stat’s. Every so often there’s some cool personal photo’s where Ozzy tells you his feelings towards the pictures in written text. You discover the sad facts that Ozzy left school unable to read and write probably due to having dyslexia, “I’d look at a page and it might as well been written in Chinese. I felt like I was no good like I was a born loser”.

Ozzy gives you an insight to life for a working class family from Aston claiming the best day job he ever had was working in a slaughter house. There’s the forming of Black Sabbath thanks to an advert he placed in a music shop “Ozzy Zig Needs Gig” and his father took out a £250 loan to buy him a PA even though he could hardly put food on the table .Ozzy was sacked from the band and carried the scars for years to come .From John Osbourne the burglar sent to Winson Green Prison to The Osbourne’s, an MTV worldwide phenomena this is a story of a rock legend who should have died from drug and booze abuse yet survived mainly thanks to the business guile and the love from his wife Sharon Osbourne (even though he tried to strangle her).

If you think you know Ozzy after all the MTV contrived reality show then read this book and you will find out that behind the headlines is a shy man just trying to make people laugh and make a name for himself. Ok there are a few bits we have heard before like the time his wife took all his clothes so he couldn’t go out so he put on her dress and still went out. There’s a few bits Jazzed up and a few one liners he’s pulled out of the hat on many occasions but this is the real deal. Because of the chaos that followed Ozzy around the world through his hazy crazy drug induced days, people sometimes forget what a major contribution Ozzy has been to the world of rock music. From Black Sabbath he went on to even greater heights as a solo performer. He helped launch the careers of amazing guitar talents such as Randy Rhoads, Jake E. Lee and Zakk Wylde and has released a string of brilliant albums plus after 30 years in the business he enjoyed a number one hit single with his daughter Kelly with the song “Changes”. I Am Ozzy is the brown sauce on the Bacon and eggs, the sugar in the coffee, the toast on the side. It will make you laugh and it may make you cry? One thing for sure, once you start to read it you won’t want to put it down. I Am Ozzy is the best book I’ve read in years (it’s the only book I’ve read in years) Long live Ozzy the peoples champion.

http://www.ozzy.com