AUTOBIOGRAPHY
The Age
Saturday November 21, 2009
HAVE realistic expectations of this book and they will be met. The only surprise is the infrequency of the f-word, but kudos to the ghostwriter who achieved fluency while maintaining an authentic voice. John Osbourne was born in a working-class suburb of Birmingham and seemed destined for jail or a life of drudgery before Black Sabbath took off, followed by a solo career and the MTV series The Osbournes.I Am Ozzy is mainly enjoyable light entertainment, with plenty of jokes: Ozzy first played the clown at school, and just kept going. He mostly makes light of his drinking binges and substance abuse, although he expresses some regrets. Sometimes we veer into more disturbing territory, as when Ozzy admits to hitting both his wives. He pleads ignorance to biting the head off a bat (he assumed it wasn't real) but a few pages earlier admits to knowingly biting the head off a dove in a record company meeting. But even at these moments the book is shamefully engrossing.The following passage is just one example of how it can simultaneously appeal and appal: "It became one of our trademarks, throwing butchers' offcuts into the audience. As well as the catapult, we used to get the midget to come on stage with buckets of offal and throw them into the audience before he was hung."
© 2009 The Age