“A total phoney”: The artist Ozzy Osbourne said lied through his teeth
Ozzy Osbourne has never claimed to be some towering god whenever he goes out onstage. He may have the persona of being one of the most sinister figures in all of rock and roll, but whenever he gets of the stage and the glasses come off, he sounds like one of the most unassuming men in the business, usually being more than happy to have a spot onstage playing music than biting bats in his spare time. A lot of the darkness was for show, but Osbourne knew not to take things too far in certain places.
Then again, it’s not like Osbourne was a choirboy behind the scenes, either. He did have those handful of moments where he was doing wild stuff in his spare time, but it’s not like he was deliberately trying to make people angry. His story of taking a piss on the Alamo may be wild and crazy for any layman, but when someone’s on tour that much, he was bound to get tired and disrespect landmarks almost by accident.
That’s not to say that parts of it aren’t entirely manufactured. The story of him biting the head off of a bat may look like one of the most insane things any artist has ever done, but according to Osbourne himself, the whole thing was done by accident. He may have looked badass for about five seconds, but I’m sure he would have done without the rabies shots he had to get hours after the show.
But when heavy metal was first born, this kind of shock value was half the battle. The whole reason Black Sabbath got on the charts was because of how demonic Tony Iommi sounded whenever he played the guitar. Even going back further to Screamin’ Jay Hawkins, songs like ‘I Put A Spell On You’ worked because of how legitimately insane he sounded when shaking his mojo stick whenever he went onstage.
However, if Osbourne seemed sinister only in jeans and a leather jacket, Gene Simmons wanted to take that to the nth degree. He might not have indulged in many other illicit habits Sabbath did, but as long as he said the right words and donned the most intimidating face paint ever, he was sure to get attention. But for Osbourne, he knew that Simmons was always going to be smoke and mirrors when he attempted to open himself up to the public.
While Osbourne had taken a risk by showing his family life on TV, he felt that Simmons taking a swing at his own reality TV show made him look ridiculous, saying, “Actually, you won’t have seen this, but when we’d done our series, Gene Simmons from Kiss tried to copy it and it was an absolute fucking disaster. I mean, he was there on TV going on about these 400,000 chicks that he’s fucked and people just don’t want to hear that kind of shit. The Osbournes is real, but Gene Simmons was trying too hard to be real so he came across as a total phoney.”
And as much as both series look absolutely insane today, The Osbournes does still have a tiny bit of credibility. There simply wasn’t that many artists willing to be honest about what they did when they left the stage, and while Osbourne’s role as a bumbling father could have easily tanked his reputation, it’s almost refreshingly wholesome to see him talk about looking after his kids than listening to Simmons trying to impress someone at every turn.
Because when trying to be one of the most lavish rock stars of all time, Simmons forgot the first rule about reality TV. There might be pieces that could tug on the heartstrings of those who don’t know any better, but if the only reason you’re making the show is for attention, it’s easy for the audience to tune out and not care about a word that’s coming out of your mouth.
