{"id":3032,"date":"2011-08-03T14:02:16","date_gmt":"2011-08-03T21:02:16","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/mmusicmag.com\/m\/?p=3032"},"modified":"2011-08-03T14:02:16","modified_gmt":"2011-08-03T21:02:16","slug":"ozzy-osbourne","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/mmusicmag.com\/m\/2011\/08\/ozzy-osbourne\/","title":{"rendered":"OZZY OSBOURNE"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/h1>\n

OZZY OSBOURNE<\/h1>\n

Rock \u2019n\u2019 roll\u2019s \u201cPrince of Darkness\u201d counts his blessings<\/strong><\/h2>\n

When Ozzy Osbourne got sober about seven years ago, he had to rethink the way he did a lot of things\u2014including recording. In the old days he would start work on an album by going into rehearsals with his band, and one thing would lead to another. \u201cI was ready to party,\u201d he says. \u201cTake away the band and the alcohol and the drugs, and you\u2019ve just got me thinking, \u2018How do you do this?\u2019\u201d For the new album, Scream<\/em>, he chose to write and record at his home studio with producer Kevin Churko. While he was initially skeptical that the Pro Tools rig could capture a truly hard-hitting sound, the pulverizing Scream<\/em> silenced his worries.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere\u2019s parts of the album that are very, very heavy indeed,\u201d he says.\u00a0In fact, Osbourne says that portions of the new album remind him of Black Sabbath, the band with which he and three hometown friends from the English city of Birmingham practically invented heavy metal in the late 1960s and \u201970s. After parting ways with the group, he reinvented himself as a solo\u00a0star\u2014and reinvented himself yet again with the\u00a0 early-2000s hit reality show The Osbournes<\/em>. In 1996 he founded one of the most popular and influential annual touring festivals of the last 20 years, Ozzfest, which hits the road this August for the first time since 2007.<\/p>\n

The genial Osbourne spoke with us from his home in Hidden Hills, Calif., as he geared up for this year\u2019s festival.<\/p>\n

How does your writing process work with Kevin? <\/strong><\/p>\n

We bounce off ideas. I don\u2019t play an instrument, so I have trouble communicating on a musical level. I don\u2019t know if that\u2019s the right way to do it or the wrong way. I\u2019ve said to people over the years, \u201cYou know, I\u2019m going to learn how to play an instrument,\u201d and they tell me, \u201cDon\u2019t! You\u2019re so unconventional.\u201d And sometimes that really works. I\u2019m not a clever guy, you know. I\u2019m just me.<\/p>\n

How did you shape the sound of <\/strong>the record?<\/strong><\/p>\n

Kevin was a big driving force. I can\u2019t take that much of the credit because he was the guy who sat in my studio from morning to night getting these tracks down. I\u2019m not one of these guys who sits there and says, \u201cIt needs to have a cymbal going\u201d (imitates cymbal sound<\/em>) for nine hours. I like to go home! The reason I used to do it with a band is that when I get that tickle up my spine I know I\u2019m onto a good thing. Whereas working in the studio the way we did the last two albums, it comes together in the end but it\u2019s not a spontaneous thing. I feel somewhat detached from the music now that I don\u2019t drink. I have to rely on other people now, which my ego loves. But being who I am, my ego gets me into trouble all the time\u2014or it used to.<\/p>\n

Any singer has to have an ego. <\/strong><\/p>\n

It comes with the territory. My ego is my defense mechanism. Here\u2019s the truth about me: I walk down the street, and if someone recognizes me, I go, \u201cOh, no<\/em>.\u201d At the same time, if I don\u2019t get recognized, I go, \u201cOh, shit! Nobody knows who I am!\u201d That\u2019s the truth of it, man. Ego causes me to moan a lot instead of recognizing how lucky I am.<\/p>\n

Why did you build the home studio? <\/strong><\/p>\n

I always wanted the luxury of doing an\u00a0album in the studio with unlimited time.\u00a0I thought, it\u2019s going to cost a lot of money\u00a0initially, but if I make a couple of hit records\u00a0it\u2019s paid for itself. But then, I\u2019m not the\u00a0business brain behind my thing, my wife is.\u00a0I can\u2019t negotiate a deal, I don\u2019t know how it\u00a0works. I\u2019m good at putting myself into a\u00a0guillotine. I get my head chopped off all\u00a0the time. I didn\u2019t get into rock \u2019n\u2019 roll to be\u00a0a businessman.<\/p>\n

How did you find your new guitarist, Gus G.? <\/strong><\/p>\n

Auditions. I must confess I was doing my album and writing a book and doing other things, so my office made the shortlist down to 10. I went to the rehearsal room\u2014and he shone more than the rest.<\/p>\n

How can you tell when you\u2019ve got the right person? <\/strong><\/p>\n

You don\u2019t know anyone until you work with them. I\u2019ve had guys get halfway through a tour and find God! I\u2019m very wary until I get to know someone. Gus is a great kid, he\u2019s a great player, but only time will tell if it\u00a0works out.<\/p>\n

You\u2019ve got a reputation for finding amazing guitarists. <\/strong><\/p>\n

I\u2019ve been very lucky. I\u2019ve had some phenomenal players over the years. I can\u2019t take all the credit, because there are other people helping me. I don\u2019t walk around with a black book going into clubs and saying, \u201cOh, that guitar player, I\u2019ll put him down for the future.\u201d Having said that, I could write a book on guitar auditions. The first God-knows-how-many kids just want to meet me, they can\u2019t really play. Then I\u2019ll get to the scientific section of the auditioners, who are like, \u201cYou know this song \u2018Suicide Solution\u2019 is in this\u00a0key, but it would be much better in this key.\u201d I\u2019m like, \u201cExcuse me, but what is the key it was written in? Play it the way it was written.\u201d It\u2019s a very difficult process.<\/p>\n

Do you have to be friends with people you work with? <\/strong><\/p>\n

It makes it a lot easier. The best band I ever had in my life was the beginning of Black Sabbath, and it was because we had one mission. We were four guys from Aston in Birmingham, England. I went to school with Tony [Iommi], I was in a band with Geezer [Butler], and then this thing happened. We had a dream. Some\u00a0business mogul didn\u2019t manufacture us. You\u00a0can\u2019t buy that camaraderie. You don\u2019t get that very often.<\/p>\n

Why did you decide to do Ozzfest again this year? <\/strong><\/p>\n

None of us expected it to get as big as it\u00a0did, and I lost the plot. I was doing it every year. Finally I said to Sharon, \u201cThis is like\u00a0a day job where you just get the paycheck and go home.\u201d It becomes routine. I wanted to relax and remember what I\u2019m doing it\u00a0for. So we\u2019re starting it up again, and it\u2019s either going to be good or it\u2019s time to pull\u00a0the plug. Either way I can\u2019t complain,\u00a0can I?<\/p>\n

How do you keep your voice healthy? <\/strong><\/p>\n

I don\u2019t smoke, I don\u2019t drink, I don\u2019t do drugs, I don\u2019t stay out late anymore. I exercise with a vocal teacher before I start touring. But I get colds, I\u2019m human. Imagine going to a ballgame and screaming for your team every other night of the week\u2014anybody\u2019s voice would get sore. And I\u2019m not a singer who just stands there and says, \u201cThank you, ladies and gentlemen. The next song I\u2019m going to do\u2026\u201d I\u2019m jumping all over the place.<\/p>\n

What\u2019s your goal at this point? <\/strong><\/p>\n

Survival.<\/p>\n

\u2013Chris Neal<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

OZZY OSBOURNE Rock \u2019n\u2019 roll\u2019s \u201cPrince of Darkness\u201d counts his blessings When Ozzy Osbourne got sober about seven years ago, he had to rethink the way he did a lot of things\u2014including recording. In the old days he would start work on an album by going into rehearsals with his band, and one thing would […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[7],"tags":[80,2280,970],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/mmusicmag.com\/m\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3032"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/mmusicmag.com\/m\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/mmusicmag.com\/m\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mmusicmag.com\/m\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mmusicmag.com\/m\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3032"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/mmusicmag.com\/m\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3032\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3034,"href":"https:\/\/mmusicmag.com\/m\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3032\/revisions\/3034"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/mmusicmag.com\/m\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3032"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mmusicmag.com\/m\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3032"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mmusicmag.com\/m\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3032"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}