Ozzy Osbourne was sued in November 1985 after the suicide of teenager John McCollum. McCollum's parents claimed John was listening to "Suicide Solution" prior to killing himself, but ultimately failed to prove that the song had anything to do with the suicide. The case was dismissed in December 1986.
Ozzy recently revealed in conversation with Billy Idol guitarist Billy Morrison that the song doesn't even mean suicide as a solution to your problems. Instead, it refers to alcohol as a suicide solution (solution in this case being a liquid mixture).
The conversation between Osbourne and Morrison is as follows.
Billy Morrison: There's another song on the album that created a fuss. You know, if you don't want to talk about it, it's okay. But the Suicide Solution thing,
Ozzy Osbourne: Well, that was all taken out of perspective in their respect. So we wrote this song about… I was, we were all doing some serious pounding of the booze back down into the booze. Then I I'd been drinking heavily for a long, long time. And he's like, Suicide Solution means solution being liquid. Not a way out?
Billy Morrison: Right.
Ozzy Osbourne: People get the fucking thing all wrong.
Billy Morrison: Were you shocked when it ended up being this whole fucking court case?
Ozzy Osbourne: Sharon phoned me up in England. Get on a plane because you got to come out with, so I just tell me what I've got to come out with. She said, ‘I'll tell you when you get here.’ I said, ‘is he going to be, a problems’, she just ‘get on a fucking plane’. We I get to LAX…come to the continent terminal. And there must've been 200 cameras when I'm thinking, I'm looking over my shoulder and I'm standing and about 15 microphones coming to me. What do you think of the lawsuit? I'm going, what lawsuit, I'm going to go back to the hotel. I'll find out what he's all about. You know.
Billy Morrison: You were shocked
Ozzy Osbourne: More than shocked
SiriusXM's Ozzy's Boneyard will premiere their 40 Years Of Ozzy Osbourne's Blizzard of Ozz on September 18 at 5:00 p.m. ET and 11:00 p.m. ET.
