upworthy

reality tv

Celebrity

Ozzy Osbourne's 1982 interview shows his softer side and is moving fans to their core

"But there's a side of me that wants to say 'Hey ya know. I want to go fishing in a lake.'"

en.m.wikipedia.org

Ozzy Osbourne in a photo.

There are some rockstars you just don't think could ever die. They're simply too iconic to leave this world. Their impact was so strong, it created a tsunami in the sea of rock 'n' roll. No one rocked harder, no one cared less, no one was as lovable (usually), and no one cleared such a lit (pun intended) path for metalheads quite like him.

And yet John Michael "Ozzy" Osbourne, AKA the Prince of Darkness, has left the building, most likely on the wings of a bat. Whether you knew him from his Black Sabbath days (he was a founding member and front man), his solo music work, his reality TV show stint, or just hearing his doting wife, Sharon, discuss him on TV—most of us knew Ozzy.

But we may not have known all the sides of Osbourne. In a beautifully odd 1982 interview for Night Flight, Osbourne sat down with short preppy hair—out-of-character for his usual gothic vibe.

He was still, of course, Ozzy. The clip begins with him rolling his eyes back into his head, perhaps signaling that we were about to visit his personal planet, far, far away. The interviewer wastes no time. She asks, "It has been rumored that you have bitten off the heads off doves, bats, dogs, everything. We want to set the record straight. What head did you really bite?"

  -Ozzy Osbourne gives an interview in 1982.  www.youtube.com  

Osbourne answers, "Well if you want me to be funny—I bit my own head off." He then goes on to reveal the infamous story of thinking a fan threw a rubber bat on stage, only to realize it was a real one after it was too late. As the interviewer tries to move on to the next question, Osbourne continues. "The taste of bats is very salty."

She redirects and asks him about his tattoos. He reveals a beautiful dragon on his chest, which he claims was drawn by the bat. "You see? Tattooed by the bat." He then shows another tattoo of a screaming skull-demon and says without hesitation, "That's my mother-in-law."

But despite his rather absurd and avant-garde hilarity, what happens next in the interview is quite telling. Osbourne tries to make a clear distinction between his true self and his persona. "It's like, I think there's a wild man in everybody," he says sincerely. "I'm a conductor of mayhem. I like to give myself to people as Ozzy (who is) sometimes a very unhappy person because on one side of my life, it's like constant work. And the understanding that people know me and like what I do.

But there's a side of me that wants to say 'Hey ya know. I want to go fishing in a lake.' I want to do what everybody else does. I said before we came on the air, I'm a split personality. Ozzy Osbourne and John Osbourne (are) two different people."

In this rarely seen gentle vulnerability, he says, "John Osbourne is talking to you now. But if you want me to [be] Ozzy…" (He changes his eyes and voice.) "To be Ozzy is kind of heavy. People expect you to bite the heads off things every time, every day they see you."

He goes on to share, "The reason I do what I do is because it's what everybody wants to do, but they ain't got the guts and all I am is honest." He describes what it feels like for fans to expect him to be a certain way. At one point, he even looks straight into the camera and says he's not that guy and that "them rabies shots hurt." Though when the interviewer responds, "So you're not gonna bite anymore bats?" Osbourne confesses, "Oh yeah."

"How do you psych yourself up to be Ozzy and how do you unwind to be John?" she asks next. "With great difficulty actually," he answers. "It's kind of difficult for me to answer these questions when I'm in myself, ya know?" He then shares he would never turn a fan down who was expecting Ozzy, but that he only hopes "they respect me as a person as well as an artist."

The interview takes a darker turn into questions about his issues with drugs and alcohol and an even darker one when he discusses his influences. But in classic Ozzy-ness, he couldn't quite articulate what he meant to say about the bleakest people in history. He had disdain for the horrors of certain dictators, but that he drew from their darkness as inspiration for this alter-ego character. (He later made it crystal clear that he wanted no affiliation with anti-Semites, seeing how his wife was half-Jewish.)

In just minutes after Osbourne's death was announced, the comment section came to life. Some quips were funny: "Today I decided to watch this interview, and an hour later bad news came. May you have a lot of cocaine in heaven." Some were heartfelt. "We love you Ozzy. Rest Easy." "Long live Ozzy from this life to the next!"


  - YouTube  www.youtube.com  

In typical Ozzy fashion, he went out with a bang on his own terms. Just a few weeks back, he and band members from the original lineup of Black Sabbath took the stage for a ten hour concert in Birmingham, England. Final bow, indeed.

From Your Site Articles
ozzy osbourne
CelebrityPop Culture
Popular

'Bachelor in Paradise' alum makes epic point about negative comments on social media

Instagram / Jade Roper Tolbert

What is it about having a kid that makes people think it's okay to give unsolicited feedback? It's almost as if holding a toddler is the same thing as holding a sign that says, "Tell me how to parent."

A lot of the time, the unsolicited advice is either rude, judgey, or a combination of both. Former "Bachelor in Paradise" star Jade Roper just put someone on blast for giving an unsolicited "opinion" about her daughter. Roper posted videos of her husband, Tanner Tolbert, playing with their 22-month-old daughter, Emmerson, in the park. A follower messaged Roper, saying her daughter was "kind of showing signs of autism." Roper did not hold back in her response.

Roper posted a screenshot of the message to Instagram stories. "So cute. But how old is she? She's kind of showing signs of autism. Just thinking. She's so precious!!!" said the message.

RELATED: New research shows that children who grow up near nature become happier adults

"You all, these are NOT okay messages to send people," Roper wrote next to the screenshot. "If you all mean well, it's still not OK to say she has autism or needs speech therapy or to comment any sort of thing like that to anyone about their child. We are her parents, we have a great pediatrician, and we know her development. Comments like this really throw me for a loop."

Apparently, a few people still think it's okay for a stranger to tell a mother their kid's weird. Some followers then told Roper that posting about her daughter is an invitation for people to write negative comments. "What's the point of posting [then]?...........The public notice YOUR post that YOUR daughter doesn't speak…..Say thanks and move on or you're defensive cuz you're afraid she really isn't speaking," another follower said. "Who knows. But if you post things, it IS OKAY to comment."

Roper said that being on social media doesn't mean it's okay to act in a way that's anything but social. "I'm saying people would never come up to someone in public and say these things," Roper replied. "There needs to be some sort of internet etiquette. You don't get to go rogue because you're behind a keyboard."

"Also my daughter says plenty of words. I share parts of my life to bring joy and because they bring me joy. But she is not a monkey to dance for you (or in this case to show you how many words she knows/doesn't know)," Roper continued.

Roper also said she was "going to assume the people commenting these things are NOT parents because they clearly don't have a clue."

RELATED: Dad's reaction to his son's spilled Slushee shows positive parenting in action

Roper met her husband on "Bachelor in Paradise," so it might seem like she's putting herself out there to get judged. But is it ever okay for a stranger to question a child's development process - especially to the mother? A toddler developing is an entirely different situation from Colton jumping a fence or Hannah continuing to give Luke P. a rose.

Related Articles Around the Web
Culture
More

A trans contestant on 'Survivor,' 1 huge mistake, and 7 ways others helped make it right.

Life is messy and complicated, but there are important lessons to be learned.

"There is deception here," Jeff Varner said. Ordinarily, on "Survivor," this would be normal. What he said next, however, wasn't.

"Why haven't you told anyone that you're transgender?" he said, looking at contestant Zeke Smith. Uh-oh.

All GIFs from SurvivorOnCBS/YouTube.

Outing someone as transgender — even if it's for the chance to win $1 million on a reality TV show — is 100% not OK.

Luckily, this story has a (somewhat) happy ending.

Not all trans people are "out" as trans, or might only be open about it to close friends and family. Not every trans person goes around announcing they are trans — especially to millions of people on TV — nor should they feel obligated to.

That said, the idea that trans people who don't disclose being trans to everyone around them are being "deceptive" is an all-too-common trope, and it can have some really nasty consequences.

It was a shame to see Varner champion that idea, but if you look to how the other contestants reacted, it was a perfect demonstration of how to be a good ally to trans people.

All photos from CBS/"Survivor."

1. The other contestants jumped in to let Varner know what he did wasn't OK.

When Varner asked why Zeke didn't tell the other contestants he was trans, Zeke was caught off-guard and sat in stunned silence. Thankfully, his fellow contestants spoke up, letting Varner know what he did was wrong.

2. They helped educate Varner about why outing someone is wrong.

Outing people can have very real, negative consequences. Trans people are subjected to discrimination and violence based on their gender identity, and in many states it's still legal to fire someone, deny them housing, or ban them from using restrooms because of who they are.

Understandably, many trans people carefully select who they will and won't come out to. It's a decision that should never be left up to someone else, and the other contestants let Varner know.

3. They gave Zeke the chance to speak for himself when he was ready.

"There are people who know [that I'm trans]," said Zeke. "But then I sort of got to a point where I stopped telling people because when people know that about you, that's sort of who you are. There are questions people ask. People want to know about your life. ... It sort of overwhelms everything else that they know about you."

4. They took the opportunity to grow as individuals.

"I'm just thankful that I got to know Zeke for who Zeke is. I've been with him for the last 18 days, and he's super kick-ass," said Sarah. "I'm from the Midwest, and I come from a very conservative background. It's not very diverse when it comes to a lot of gay and lesbian and transgender and things like that. I'm not exposed to it as much as most of these people are. The fact that I can love this guy so much and it doesn't change anything for me makes me realize that I've grown huge as a person."

5. They offered Zeke solidarity, making a unanimous decision to boot Varner off the show.

They didn't even have to vote. Even Varner knew, saying, "I'm ready to go." He took responsibility for his actions. He knew he made a mistake almost immediately and what the consequences would be.

6. Varner offered a heartfelt apology without condition or qualifications, and he's doing the necessary work to atone for his wrongdoing.

People make mistakes, and while we rarely have the opportunity to undo them, we can try to learn from them and make the world a better place. That's what Varner seems to be doing.

In an interview with Parade, Varner owned up to what he did:

"I just pray and hope for his safety. What I did that night was horrible. I opened him up to discrimination and to danger and to crime. Everything horrible. I robbed him of his ability to be. ... There are no excuses for what I did. Not at all."

But beyond that, he used the opportunity to speak out about what's going on in his home state of North Carolina.

"We have to stop as a society discriminating against trans people and minimizing and separating from them. ... We need to lift their voices and help them and not reduce them to body parts and surgeries and things that objectify and dehumanize them. These are wonderful people who are not only trying to live their authentic lives, but thrive. And I think stupid bathroom bills and things like that, especially in the state of North Carolina ... it’s not about bathrooms. It’s about whether trans people have the right to exist in public."

7. As for Zeke, he's trying to make the best of a bad situation. Life's messy, and forgiveness can be a complicated act.

Writing at the Hollywood Reporter, Zeke outlined exactly why what Varner did was wrong.

"In calling me deceptive, Varner invoked one of the most odious stereotypes of transgender people, a stereotype that is often used as an excuse for violence and even murder. ... I don’t believe Varner hates trans people, just as I don’t believe conservative politicians who attack trans people actually care where we use the bathroom. For both, trans people make easy targets for those looking to invoke prejudice in order to win votes."

On whether he forgives Varner:

"But forgiveness does not require friendship. Forgiveness does not require forgetting or excusing his actions. Forgiveness requires hope. Hope that he understands the injury he caused and does not inflict it upon others. Hope that whatever torments his soul will plague him no more. I have hope for Jeff Varner. I just choose to hope from afar, thank you very much."

Out of one horrible act came messy progress.

More
More

'Born This Way' is the reality TV show we all need to see.

True
A&E Born This Way

"We have Down syndrome. Don't limit us."

Seven words that say it all.

The opening line for the Season 2 trailer of "Born This Way" is a perfect depiction of the reality TV show that's opening the eyes of millions.

Left to right: Cristina, Steven, Rachel, Sean, Elena, John, Megan. All images via A&E, used with permission.

The hit show from A&E features seven young men and women as they follow their passions and navigate life with Down syndrome.

Whether it's John pursuing his music career or Elena figuring out how to express her feelings, "Born This Way" is an important and refreshing take on reality TV — probably because it actually feels realistic. And it's about time.

1 in 5 Americans have a disability, but you wouldn't know that from the little amount of representation in the media. And when it's there, it's often wrong.

"Born This Way" is working to get it right.


"I don't want the whole society to limit me because I have this," says cast member Megan, who is all sorts of amazing as a motivational speaker, college student, and manager of her own clothing company.

In the show, you also meet Steven, who considers himself the Matt Damon of the crew; Rachel, who works at an insurance company and is out to find love; and Cristina, who hopes to take the next step with her long-term boyfriend by moving in with him.

The show is not only entertaining audiences through a reality TV lens, but it's educating them, too.

Studies show that people with disabilities, including those with Down syndrome, can work successfully, live relatively independently, and be incredibly productive members of society.

With about 400,000 people in the United States living with Down syndrome, "Born This Way" is an intimate and supportive way to help bust some of the misconceptions many have about the syndrome.

Each cast member has their own persona with their own hobbies and obstacles they face during taping. Some focus on their jobs, some on romance, some on living more independently and working on their self-confidence. They are defined beyond their disability.

The show takes you through the good, the bad, and the just plain "whatever" moments. You know: the moments we all have.

"I'm here. I'm alive. I'm human. We have to stick together and be the person we are, because we're all humans," says cast member and music man John.

A show that's moving and helps us understand each other a little better? Yes, please.

More
Trending Stories