OZZY OSBOURNE - "There Isn't Another Job In The World Where You Can Turn Up Pissed As A Wheel And Not Get Fired"
October 9, 2009, 15 years ago
BLACK SABBATH legend OZZY OSBOURNE spoke with Celia Walden from here about a number of topics including his new autobiography, I Am Ozzy.
Here is an excerpt from the chat:
Now a teetotal, drug- and alcohol-free zone, where the only addiction is the gym, Osbourne talks about the excesses of those years in a tone not that far removed from pride. "The first time I tried cocaine, I remember thinking, 'I've found the meaning of life!' But then I loved morphine and everything else, too. At my worst, I was buying kilos of the stuff every week.
"That said, by far the most addictive thing I've ever put in my body is tobacco," he insists, handing me a glass of sugar-free, pomegranate iced-tea. "By the end, I was chewing the gum, smoking the fake cigarettes, wearing the patches and smoking 20 a day. I tried cigars, but within a week I was smoking 30 Cohibas a day, and inhaling. Now I don't do anything any more. I got bored of always being fucked up on something or other."Fame alone was not to blame for his descent into addiction. Money, Osbourne claims, was a far more corrupting influence. "I was 18 when Sony offered us a deal for Black Sabbath. £105 they gave me – and I'd never seen so much cash in my fucking life. From then onwards," he peers up at me over those sepia-coloured John Lennon glasses, "I could get drunk morning, noon and night, and nobody would care. There isn't another job in the world where you can turn up pissed as a wheel and not get fired."
Read more here.
