Jimmy Kay, host of the Canada’s The Metal Voice, recently spoke to BraveWords scribe and celebrated metal expert Martin Popoff about his new book, Steal Away The Night: An Ozzy Osbourne Day-By-Day.

Popoff talks about the new hard cover book which includes a timeline from the Quiet Riot years with Randy Rhodes, Ozzy memorabilia quotes, interviews and photos. Popoff  also counts down his favorite Ozzy Osbourne albums from worst to first and goes into detail on his choices.

“This isn’t exactly a Top 10, Ozzy has exactly ten studio albums so essentially we are ranking from worst to first.” Popoff continues, ”What you are going to see I’ve actually put the latest three all at the end of this list I just found what is happening with Ozzy these days, is that these records are a little bit written too much by committee a little too grungy, and dark and so it doesn’t feel like the golden period for me.”

Steal Away The Night: An Ozzy Osbourne Day-By-Day aims to add to the shockingly slight representation of all things Oz-man in book form with Martin Popoff plotting the crazy 30-plus-year run of rocks most adorable madman, day by day, milestone after milestone, the hirings, the firings, the rehabs and relapses, the bats, the doves, Zakk Wylde, and most seriously, the tragic death of Randy Rhoads in a fly-by prank gone wrong.

 

 

 

 

The book is now available directly from the the author and Popoff states: "Yes, I’ve constructed as Ozzy book using the same format as my Maiden book of last year. It’s a full-color, hard cover extravaganza, making full plunder of all the Ozzy and band interviews I’ve done over the years, all that quote footage that has been in the archives forever waiting to be unleashed.

What I’ve done is used the day-by-day, diary (of a madman) format and stuffed in hundreds of journal entries and quotes, along with masses of live photography and memorabilia shots throughout.

Quick description: large format hardcover, 8 3/4” x 11 1/4”, full color throughout, est. 250 pictures, including ads, tour posters, rare sleeves, shirts, live shots from all eras, including lots of our beloved Randy.

But there’s real textual heft to this thing, at over 80,000 words over 252 high quality pages. No Ozzy book contains more factoids and has such a range of quotations. And despite the easy-read, day-by-day, bathroom read (!) format, I definitely get to say my piece, in the intro decade summaries, in comparative journal entries about other important bands and music trends, about world events. And if that ain’t enough, man, Zakk is off the hook. He’s the comedian in this thing, although Ozzy reels off some barnburners as well. The following is a look at the layout – just a quick scan of a few pages, done without breaking the spine of the book y’unnerstand:"

For more details visit Martinpopoff.com.

 

 

Adding to the considerable textual substance of the tome (which promises to leave no Oz-related scrap of trivia unearthed) is a running oral history of the band, making use of Popoffs extensive interview material with Ozzy plus various band members and producers (along with press quotes), augmented by an explosion of garish imagery culled from the bands record sleeves, live shows, ads, and memorabilia. Indeed, Ozzys shock-rock visuals are some of the flashiest in the biz, making each page of Steal Away The Night: An Ozzy Osbourne Day-by-Day explode with heavy metal power. Order via Amazon below: