Like others in the music world, I’m mourning Ozzy Osbourne today, July 22, after hearing the news of his death at the age of 76.
I didn’t really know Ozzy Osbourne, but I did get to meet him. I was fortunate enough to interview him and his Black Sabbath bandmate bassist-lyricist Geezer Butler at Osbourne’s Beverly Hills estate nearly a decade ago.
Truth be told, I’m not the biggest Sabbath or Osbourne fan. I own Black Sabbath’s second album, the 1971 classic Paranoid on vinyl as well as Sabbath and Osbourne solo two-CD best-of collections. But I’ve never seen Ozzy or Sabbath in concert. My cousin was a big Sabbath fan and my high school swim team friends were very into 1980’s Blizzard of Ozz, but by that time, I was more into punk rock and post-punk to give Ozzy much thought.
Still, in 2019, when the offer came in to interview Osbourne and Butler for Yahoo! Music, I couldn’t say no. After all, they were both rock legends.
I was working for another company, Premiere Radio Networks, at the time, so I took the afternoon off and headed to Osbourne’s Beverly Hills estate. (It was a bit awkward when one of my co-workers from Premiere showed up for the next interview.
Most of the big celebrity interviews I’ve done over my career–from George Harrison and Madonna to Johnny Cash and Billy Joel–were done over the phone, since I’ve worked primarily as a print journalist, so I was nervous to interview Osbourne in person. The fact that the interview was being shot on video (with Ozzy and Geezer on camera, but not me) made it a bit more awkward.
Leave a Reply