Book #171: Last Rites by Ozzy Osbourne

 

Last Rites

Ozzy Osbourne

 Released: October 7th, 2025

My 37th book for 2026 was Ozzy Osbourne’s Last Rites.

This book briefly re-covers the life of British Heavy Metal singer Ozzy Osbourne before covering the years of his life after his previous book I Am Ozzy.  Certain chapters recall his feelings on various memories that have followed him in life.  These include the death of guitarist Randy Rhoads in an airplane crash, the ATV accident that caused him to literally die for several minutes, as doctors worked to resuscitate him, The 2012 English Commonwealth Games with Tony Iommi, the Rams Halftime Performance with Zakk Wylde, various ailments, injuries, and diseases he endured along the way and the legendary Back to the Beginning show in the Black Sabbath stomping groups of Birmingham, England 17 days before he passed away.  The rocker started off as the singer of Black Sabbath, before rising even higher with his solo band led by the likes of the late great classical guitarist Randy Rhoads, the 80's rad player Jake E. Lee, and the eternal Zakk Wylde.    

I'm a diehard Ozzy Osbourne fan.  I could write you a dissertation right here.  When I was a kid, my parents would act like he was some bad role model figure.  As I got older, I realized he is just a goofy person who always enjoyed a good laugh, lived a very different life behind the curtain (drugs and alcohol aside), and actually wasn't that bad of a person.

I got the reissued Blizzard of Ozz for Christmas when I was in 7th grade.  My great-grandmother got it for me.  I remember my parents laughing and saying "Here it begins..."  I loved that album.  Goodbye To Romance was the first Ozzy song I ever heard.  That's why I requested this specific album.  I grew to love the entire thing, including the bonus track.  I listened to that album around the clock.  Car rides to the El Ranchero Mexican restaurant in Hagerstown.  Mowing the lawn on Clearview Terrace.  Later I picked up Diary of a Madman, and my fandom was complete.  I could not get enough of Ozzy Osbourne and Randy Rhoads.  It is a criminal shame that Randy died so young.  As time went on, I got Bark at the Moon, The Ultimate Sin, No Rest For The Wicked, and No More Tears.  I wore out 2 CD copies of the Tribute to Randy Rhoads album.  I remember the day Black Rain released (Jamie tried to keep me from getting it).  Scream came out while I was at 88.7 WSYC.  Honestly though, it's his first 6 studio albums plus the Live Tribute album that stick with me.  I still remember being a Boy Scout at Camp Sinoquipe one year when I brought my CD player and headphones and fell asleep to the live version of Believer.  The music was catchy, the lyrics hit home, and it's an enjoyable experience.

I read I Am Ozzy back in 2009.  My ex at the time borrowed it from Coyle Free Library in Chambersburg.  I also read the book Crazy Train: The Life and Time of Randy Rhoads.  I want to reread both for the blog because both gave me stories that I still retell today.  Ozzy's naked Heimlich maneuver and Randy's love of trains are fresh in my mind.

As I read the section on Back to the Beginning, "Mama I’m Coming Home" started playing on the radio.  How fitting.  

I always have a bitter memory of Back to the Beginning.  I never actually planned to go, but I was curious as to how much tickets would be.  It was fun to dream of planning it out and stretching every penny to make the pilgrimage, but realistically unfeasible.  I searched for it on my phone and looked at the prices.  Unfortunately the living situation at the time led to the introduction of a new rule: "If you can afford to look up the prices of concert tickets, we can up your rent."  Wild.

I will always remember the day Ozzy died.  My friend Mark messaged me "

Definitely a sad day that day.  It's funny because I never had the opportunity to meet Ozzy, but it felt like his energetic spirit lived through me via his music.  His entire career and life story is just one of the most epic works of non-fiction ever.  There was always something crazy and chaotic going on in his life, all the way to the very end.  Say what you will about how he lived, it was undeniably very well-lived.  

Every time I go sing karaoke, and it's an Ozzy song, I do the frog hops, the crowd raising tactics, and just general goofiness.  I remember doing Bark at the Moon several times and getting entire bars of people to howl.  Great times.  

Here is what I learned:

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• Ozzy was 6 when his father died.
• The Osbourne’s 4 pups were Wesley, Pickles, Elvis, and Rocky.
• Ozzy used to drink 4 bottles of cognac a day.
• Ozzy grew up at 14 Lodge Road.
• Ozzy used to stage dive into bed every night.
• Rick Wakeman played on Black Sabbath’s “Sabbra Cadabra” for 2 pints of Directors bitter.
• Ozzy owned a Ferrari 458 Italia.
• Ozzy loved Guinness.
• Cocaine is alcohol’s best friend.
• Ozzy owned an Audi R8.
• Ozzy’s drug dealer lived in High Wycombe.
• “If a cat has nine lives, I must have thirty-three.”
• It takes 3 weeks to grow back a shaved eyebrow.
• “They say it's physical and spiritual, addiction. The physical part is the craving from the brain. And that robs you of your spirit. And by getting sober, you're earning your spirit back.”
• “So when I got sober, I forced myself to stay away from the medical profession as much as I could.”
• Robin Williams had Lewy Body Dementia.
• Ozzy has 10 grandchildren.
• His kids would take turns flying out to every gig to spend time with him and keep him sober.
• Ozzy once did 6 weeks for burglary.
• Ozzy sang Cliff Richard’s “Living Doll” for one of his sister’s talent shows.
• The first band he ever joined was the Polka Tulk Blues Band when he was 19.
• They later changed their name to Earth.
• They finally changed it to Black Sabbath.
• Geezer Butler reads Dennis Wheatley books.
• Tony Iommi was a grade above Ozzy at Birchfield Road Secondary Modern.
• Tony Iommi once joined Jethro Tull for 2 gigs before quitting.
• To Ozzy, the first proper “heavy” song was “You Really Got Me” by The Kinks.
• Ozzy was nicknamed the “Prince of Darkness” after a line in John Milton’s poem “Paradise Lost”.
• After getting fired from Black Sabbath, Ozzy lived in a small apartment complex called Le Parc in West Hollywood for most of 1979.
• Ozzy considered Randy Rhoads a gift from God.
• Randy enjoyed White Russians.
• Ozzy once bit the head off a dove at a record executive meeting for Blizzard of Ozz.
• He regrets it later in life, feeling the bird did not deserve it.
• Dimebag Darrell was killed on December 8th, the same day John Lennon was killed 24 years earlier.
• Ozzy once got 3 staph infections on 2 fingers.
• “If there's one thing I've learned over the years, it's that the absolute worst thing you can do after being told you've got some heavy-duty medical shit is look it up on the internet. I mean, half the stuff on there is made up - and the other half is usually wrong. So all you're gonna do is freak yourself out.”
• “Mr. Osbourne, your hand has been completely numbed.  Only a person with a truly incredible tolerance to…Oh…er…I see.  Sorry about that.”
• Ozzy was pre-diabetic.
• “Before smartphones, you had to be in really deep shit before the paparazzi showed up.”
• “An iPad’s an amazing thing, but it’s got nothing on a kid’s imagination.”
• Ozzy’s father enjoyed drinking Mackeson Stout.
• The Sunset Marquis hotel in West Hollywood was once the center of the rock ‘n’ roll universe.
• “When you become known for doing crazy things it’s the easiest thing in the world to take a step too far.  Or just get your timing wrong when society changes.”
• While he supports more modern acts, Ozzy isn’t a fan of modern metal.
• “What always strikes me when we do an Ozzfest is what a broad spectrum 'metal' is. I mean, some of the stuff you hear on those outdoor stages sounds like people being tortured. It's way above even my head. I almost want to apologise to the kids in the crowd. But to each their own, y'know? If you like listening to a noise like someone having their eyeballs removed with a pneumatic drill, go ahead, knock yourself out.”
• The best show Ozzy felt he ever did was the 1984 Monsters of Rock Festival with Van Halen and AC/DC.
• “When you’re younger, it never occurs to you that you might never get to see or talk to someone again.”
• Ozzy was the voice of King Thrash in Trolls World Tour.
• Ozzy’s former house has a private elevator.
• December 8th, 2003 was the date of his quad bike accident.
• Ozzy had great respect for hospital workers.
• Ozzy got the Whooping Cough at age 6.
• Ozzy’s mom was Catholic.
• Ozzy’s father was against religion.
• One time, Ozzy attempted to stage dive into bed, missed, and had to go to the hospital.
• Zakk Wylde told Ozzy to get a second opinion on neck surgery.
• Zakk’s wife’s name is Barbaranne.
• As a child, Ozzy would fantasize one of his sisters marrying Paul McCartney.
• In the 60’s, Ozzy was obsessed with The Beatles and their album “Please Please Me”.
• In the 70’s, Ozzy was obsessed with Elton John’s album “Your Song”.  It made him teary eyed.
• In the 80’s, Ozzy was obsessed with Peter Gabriel’s album “So”.
• Ozzy also enjoyed Phil Collins.
• He also enjoyed pop electronic music including all of Kraftwerk’s albums, “Rock Ne Amadeus” by Falco, Prince’s “1999”, and Eddy Grant’s “Electric Avenue”.
• Ozzy was not a big fan of hip-hop.
• A bathroom is called a “bog” in England.
• Ozzy and Sharon regret not getting a second opinion as Zakk suggested.
• Ozzy never shot up drugs.
• Ozzy requires about 8x more drugs than the average person due to tolerance.
• Ozzy talks about how much Birmingham has changed since he started.
• “When I last went back to Lodge Road, there was a Muslim bloke with a Brummie accent who lived in one of my old neighbours houses. Nice bloke, actually. Made me a cuppa and gave me a biscuit. It was weird. But whatever, man, things change.  In our day, it was the Irish Catholics who were moving in.”
• Ozzy had not talked to Bill Ward for nearly 10 years.
• Van Halen opened for Black Sabbath’s “Never Say Die” tour.
• Van Halen blew up as Sabbath declined.
• Ozzy never really hung out with David Lee Roth.
• Ozzy doesn’t dispute the cocaine duel with Roth, but also admits it could have happened.
• Ozzy didn’t know you could sing a song in a different key until he met Randy Rhoads.
• Black Sabbath would write songs in church halls and community centers and then test them out at a gig later that night.
• It’s much easier to write words to a melody than to write a melody to lyrics.
• There is a Jazz band called Jazz Sabbath who do covers of Black Sabbath in Jazz style.
• Tony and Geezer preferred to fly where Ozzy and Bill would drive.
• Bill Ward would start every morning on tour with a cup of coffee, a glass of orange juice, a pint of milk, and then a beer.  In that order.
• Bill Ward was once covered in human feces.
• Bill Ward is 40 years sober.
• Eddie Van Halen once asked Ozzy to front Van Halen before Sharon put a stop to it.
• Ozzy made his peace over Dio replacing him in Sabbath.
• Black Sabbath reunited with Ozzy was part of the Philadelphia part of Live Aid in 1985.
• Ozzy was served a lawsuit at Live Aid.
• Rick Rubin wanted to do a Sabbath album in the late 1980’s.
• Ozzy and Tony Iommi co-owned the Black Sabbath name 50/50.
• Tony Iommi had lymphoma.
• Brad Wilk from Rage Against The Machine joined Black Sabbath for the 13 album.
• Geezer’s wife had beef with Sharon.
• For the Post Malone song, Ozzy got Andrew Watt a rock star dinner of spaghetti heavy cream sauce and 2 scoops of caviar.
• The Ultimate Sin is what Ozzy considers to be his worst album.
• Ozzmosis was his most difficult album.
• Ozzy prayed for mercy one night after mixing vodka and codeine.
• Post Malone’s real name is Austin.
• Ozzy had a bit of emphysema from his smoking days.
• Ozzy was big into air guns.
• Shooting was therapeutic for Ozzy.
• Motörhead was the opener for Ozzy’s first solo tour in 1980.
• Ozzy was lifelong friends with Lemmy Kilmister.
• Lemmy enjoyed speed.
• Lemmy enjoyed reading and was a highly intelligent man.
• Sharon Osbourne has Jewish heritage.
• Lemmy collected Nazi memorabilia.
• Lemmy earned more from songwriting royalties on No More Tears than he did his entire Motörhead career.
• Lemmy did not sugar coat things.
• The patio at the Rainbow is called Lemmy’s Lounge now.
• While on his deathbed, the Rainbow removed the video poker machine and delivered it to his house.
• Keith Moon once drove a Lincoln Continental into a Holiday Inn swimming pool.
• Ozzy once threw lit M-80’s out of a car in Hawaii.
• His sister Jean was the one who told him of Bon Scott’s passing.
• Sharon was cancelled in pop culture for defending Piers Morgan.
• Morgan gave an opinion saying he didn’t believe anything Meghan Markle said.  This caused people to consider him racist.
• Sharon was on “The Talk” for 11 years.
• Sharon once smashed one of Randy Rhoad’s guitars.
• Ozzy and Sharon used to drink at P.J. Clarke’s in Midtown NYC.
• “The way I look at it, that’s how you learn, by making mistakes.”
• Ozzy never got the chance to thank his father for getting him the PA system that helped him join Black Sabbath.
• After Randy’s death, the band took a 2 week break from the tour to mourn.
• Tour insurance did not exist in the early 1980’s.
• Rachel Youngblood was a Christian who took the Ozzy gig to help her church get a new roof.
• Randy’s funeral was in Burbank followed by a burial in San Bernardino.
• Randy is buried in Mountain View Cemetery.
• Zakk Wylde was at the 1982 Madison Square Garden show in 1982 that Bernie Tormé filled in for Randy.
• Bernie has a looser more bluesy style than Randy.
• Brad Gillis replace Bernie.
• Brad left after the tour and formed Night Ranger.
• Night Ranger scored a hit with “Sister Christian”.
• Jake E. Lee replaced Brad.
• Jake is half Welsh, half Japanese.
• Ozzy once had a bass player named Don Costa.
• One time in Texas, he and Don went to see ZZ Top play.  Halfway through the stage begins to move out of sync with the music because Don was having sex with a woman under the stage as the band played.
• Ozzy punched and fired him for trying to kiss him on the tour bus after being asked to stop.
• Don became homeless in L.A. years later.
• Ozzy retreats the way Jake E. Lee left the band.
• Ozzy had a bass player named Phil Soussan and a drummer named Randy Castillo.
• Phil and Randy had beef with Jake.
• They told Ozzy that Jake was talking behind his back, and Ozzy believed them.  Years later he found out it was not true.
• Zakk Wylde replaced Jake.
• Ozzy has PTSD from Randy & Rachel’s accident.
• Ozzy’s band did not hang around after a show.
• Andrew Aycock was a Chicago bus driver.
• While working in the Middle East, Andrew had been involved in a fatal helicopter crash.
• Why is mispelled “whey” on page 262.
• Rachel used to collect small booze bottles from the dressing room, and when Ozzy ran out, she would offer him some, telling him not to go too crazy cause “Mama’s gonna worry” as the lyrics goes in “Flying High Again”.
• Ozzy was 8 years older than Randy.
• “You could study Randy’s songs in a university-level musicology class and bang your head to them in a 7-Eleven parking lot.”
• Ozzy confesses that his drinking worsened as the 1980’s went on over the loss of Randy.
• Ozzy thought he made an enemy of Eric Clapton after a crazy pose for a picture at the 1989 International Rock Awards.
• Ozzy and Sharon almost moved to Las Vegas during the COVID-19 Pandemic.
• She wanted to do it so Ozzy could get a Vegas Residency like other famous musicians.
• Kelly owns a farm in Iowa.
• Jack owns a farm in Idaho.
• Black Sabbath’s first major gig was a residency at the Star-Club in Hamburg, Germany.
• Jake E. Lee was shot and injured while walking his dog in Las Vegas.  
• Prince Charles sent Ozzy a bottle of scotch after his quad bike accident but Sharon confiscated it.
• King George VI was King when Ozzy was born.
• Queen Elizabeth II took over when Ozzy was 4.
• When he got married, Ozzy missed his own stag party because he passed out before it started.
• They had a second Jewish wedding in L.A.
• Ozzy was a huge fan of the Concorde, and at one point flew it like a London cab.
• Ozzy was busted for drugs early on, and so his passport had a special code requesting an extra search.
• Ozzy had not been back to England in 8 or 9 years before the Commonwealth Games.
• The original British bulkdogs were bred to go 10 rounds with a bull.
• Tony’s parents once had a corner store called Iommi’s.
• Geezer Butler is a vegetarian.
• "What I've realised is that the one place where I'm free of all my demons is on a stage. At Back to the Beginning, sitting on that throne, I felt at home, I felt at peace... I felt comfortable. I'm gonna miss doing it, going on stage. It's the only world I've known for fifty-seven years. There's nothing better than a good gig. The roar of a crowd, man, it's so contagious, so addictive. That's the magic, right there. It's funny, I spent my whole life trying to get high from every substance known to man. But looking back now, I realise I was just trying to get back the feeling of when I was up there on stage, doing my job.  The packed arena.  The thump of the bass drum you can feel in your stomach.  Forty or fifty thousand voices singing back your words.  All along, that's what I was chasing.  It was the best drug I ever took."
• John "Ozzy" Osbourne passed away 17 days after the Back to the Beginning concert.

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Overall, I'll start by saying this: I AM BIASED!!!  B-I-A-S-E-D.  So keep that in mind.  But this is an excellent read.  I flew through it.  You can see the emotion, the humanity, and feeling in the man who many marked off as a crazy drug riddled idiot, who in spite of those challenges could rock a crowd anywhere.  The fact that the book recounts the last part of his life, with elements of death and finality in it, make it all the more fitting.  In spite of my biasedness, I give this one my highest recommendation.

Highest Recommendation.

On to Book #172: Surviving At The Top by Donald Trump

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Need to catch up?  See previous blog post: Love Wins.