Ignore Your Better Instincts

I Am Ozzy (book)--Ozzy Osbourne--Seems like every time over the past few weeks I mentioned I was reading Ozzy's book, people rolled their eyes. Why? they ask. He's a clown, druggie, etc., etc. And who listens to him anymore, anyway?

Let's start with the last point: His latest recording, Scream, made it up to #4 on Billboard's Top 200 chart. So somebody, including me, bought the CD (which is pretty good, by the way). And the book I Am Ozzy made it to the upper echelons of the NY Times bestseller list. Aside from all that, yes Ozzy is a clown and was a druggie. He's also lived an interesting, funny, tragic, ridiculous life, if you believe even half of I Am Ozzy. And did I mention funny? This is an outrageously funny book.

He writes how his dad said he'd be "big" one day--or he'd go to prison. Dad was right, he points out, because he was in jail before turning 18! From there Ozzy and co-writer Chris Ayres take the reader on an F-bomb-replete road rage defined by abject poverty in post-war England; dyslexia; loving but dysfunctional parents; trips to jail, sometimes in bizarre garb; terrifying, violent death; waking up in unusual places; rock & roll, and an abiding love of The Beatles; booze and drugs and even more booze and drugs; loads of dough and even more loads of dough; and, we hope, permanent sobriety. Note: The part about Ozzy's employment at a slaughterhouse is worth the price of the book.

So ignore the advice of friends, co-workers, and family, as well as your better instincts. Read I Am Ozzy. It's vile, scatological, offensive and a scream.