Ozzy Osbourne was awarded the Lifetime Achievement Award by British GQ magazine, as part of their Men of the Year issue. And, as part of the achievement, they released a new photo shoot, where Ozzy is showing off those gray roots, and looking like a boss.
The feature also includes a video (at the bottom of the post) and an extensive new interview with many highlights. Here are some of the best parts.
Ozzy offered a health update and explanation of how he got injured in the first place: "The surgery I had knocked the crap out of me. But I broke my neck in a quad bike accident [in 2003] and when that healed it squeezed my spinal column, so I was getting all kinds of weird things happening to me. Iād be on stage and Iād suddenly get a sharp shock down one side of my body. Then one night 18 months ago I went to the bathroom in the dark and just hit the ground. I said, āSharon, Iām on the floor,ā and she said, āWell, get up then!ā But I couldnāt. Once youāre 70, the floodgates open and everything goes downhill. Mind you, Iāve got away with it for a long time."
Ozzy also is keeping safe. "I try my hardest. If I go out I wear a mask, but I donāt like wearing a mask, so I donāt go out much. The producer on my album [Andrew Watt] got the virus. Iād phone him up every day and he said he couldnāt sleep, because as soon as he went to sleep heād stop breathing. Heās not the same person now… Itās like anyone whoās had a near-death experience: heās become a bit careful with life. But my two granddaughters caught it and you wouldnāt think they had anything wrong with them. It just bounced off them."
Being a big fan of The Beatles, GQ asked if Ozzy thinks "Helter Skelter" is the first metal song. He disagrees. "Nah. Itās not heavy. Itās just a fast song about a helter-skelter. Maybe you could say āYou Really Got Meā by The Kinks or a song by The Who. But I donāt even consider myself as heavy metal. I did a few heavy things but Iāve done melodic things too, ballady things."
Ozzy did however feel that Sabbath had an influence on punk. "Punk was a spinoff of Sabbath. It was anti-Establishment. The only band of them I liked was the Sex Pistols; that one album was great, it captured something. But Johnny Lydon, whatever his name is, wants to stop talking and make some fucking music."
Ozzy on religion: "Iāve tried reading the Bible but itās in a fucking language that I donāt understand. Someone should do a version in my language: āAnd so Jesus said, āFuck off!ā And lo, they all fucked off.ā"
The highlight for me was reading Ozzy retell the story of meeting Queen Elizabeth for the first time. "When I met her [at Party At The Palace for her Golden Jubilee in 2002] she looked at me and said [adopts posh voice], āHello. So this is what they call variety, is it?ā"
The whole interview is worth reading. It also features some stunning photo editorial. See it here.