Ozzy Osbourne is one of the most famous musicians in the world, having fronted the heavy-metal band Black Sabbath since the late 60s, and managing a successful solo career since then.
The Osbourne family as a whole then rocketed to fame when they began their reality show The Osbournes, and, when they weren’t living it up in their plush LA mansion, matriarch Sharon Osbourne spent years as a judge on The X Factor.
Yet through it all, a constant battle of alcoholism and drug addiction raged, with Ozzy struggling since he was a teenager.
Ozzy’s struggle with alcoholism got so bad that even his wife Sharon thought he was going to die.
She told Variety that expecting him to have an accident or choke on his own sick in the night was a fear she lived with for many years.
Sharon went on to say the worry became so all-encompassing she always had to make sure Ozzy was being monitored when he was on the road, checking on him at night and staying by his side all the time.
“It was always in the front of my mind,” the presenter added.
In their joint interview, the singer revealed his dad begged him to stop the cycle and sort his life out, but sadly it did little to change his attitudes at first.
Ozzy is finally sober and his son Jack, who went through his own war, has managed to reach 17 years of sobriety.
Speaking in the interview about his journey, Ozzy shared: “One of the last things my father said to me before he died, he said, 'Do something about your drinking.’ So I had a drink."
Unfortunately, Ozzy admitted he thought he’d be drinking until the day he died at the time, so his father’s words hadn’t quite had the emotional punch he needed.
It took a major row with Jack, now 36, to make him realise just how much he was missing as a dad to his own children.
"I had a row with Jack. I had to talk business. And I said, 'What have you ever f*****g wanted? I’ll give you whatever you want.
“He says, 'What about a father?' That kicked me in the balls so hard. It knocked me sideways.
“I went, 'Oh, my God.' I’d give whatever materialistic things they ever wanted. But the most important person wasn’t there,” the rock legend added.
While Ozzy’s struggles with addiction have been very long-winded and public throughout his life and career, and the star admitted while he was “loaded” he didn’t “give a s**t” that his children were watching, the star seems dedicated to move forward without it.
The interview appears in Variety's Recovery issue, which hit newsstands yesterday.
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