Ozzy Osbourne’s ‘Ordinary Man’ the First Album He’s Made Completely Sober
Ozzy Osbourne's latest effort — Ordinary Man, released last week (Feb. 21) — is the first album the musician has ever created completely sober. That's what the rocker revealed to Apple Music around the time the record arrived.
Speaking to host Zane Lowe, Osbourne discussed his previous reliance on alcohol and other substances. In fact, the "Prince of Darkness" confessed to still using drugs around the time of his last album. But it seems that Ordinary Man represents an entirely new achievement for the musician.
"I thought it was the drugs and the alcohol that made it all work," Osbourne told Lowe, as Rolling Stone reported Monday (Feb. 24). "But it's not true. All I was doing for years is self-medicating 'cause I didn't like the way I felt. But then this is the first album I've co-wrote and recorded fucking completely sober."
He continued, "The last album, I wrote some of it stoned." However, Osbourne admitted that he "quite like[s]" being sober now. "'Cause at least I can remember the fucking thing I did yesterday," he said.
Elsewhere in the chat, Lowe brought up the alcohol- and drug-related deaths of Linkin Park's Chester Bennington and Alice in Chains' Layne Staley. See Ozzy's solemn response in the video toward the bottom of this post.
"I'm not being funny and I'm not being cocky, I can remember times when I've fucking woke up with puke down me," Osbourne explained. "I've fucking woke up with a bed full of blood, when I've fallen down and banged my head or whatever. My friend John Bonham, I used to go drinking with him. He died. Bon Scott, he died."
Ozzy's substance-fueled mid-period was portrayed on screen in the recent music video for Ordinary Man's "Under the Graveyard." Last month, the musician revealed he has Parkinson's disease. Ill health and continued treatment then caused the rocker to cancel his 2020 North American tour.
Ozzy Osbourne, Ordinary Man Interview Clip (Apple Music)
Photos: Ozzy Osbourne Through the Years