‘If World War Three ever happens, and they start using the big shit, I’m going to put a big fucking target on my roof!” comes the defiant cackle emanating from a grand oak-panelled room in a palatial California mansion.
“I wanna be right under the fucking thing! I’ll just say, ‘You cunts! I bet you can’t hit our house.’ Even if they’ve got a 50-megaton bomb! Imagine if I crawled from the debris with half a body, shouting, ‘I’M STILL HERE!’”
Stop the press, please. You may have read numerous reports about Ozzy Osbourne’s health in recent years, but I can assure you that the man sitting in front of me is not, contrary to popular belief, being consigned to his darkened crypt just yet.
Instead, the vim and vigour that emerges from Ozzy Osbourne, 74, in the time I spend in his company leaves me convinced that, despite countless bouts of surgery and physical setbacks in recent years, only a fool would dare to write him off.
In a career spanning more than 50 years, Ozzy Osbourne has not so much become an enduring icon of heavy metal as much as he is the establishment-baiting, darkness-dwelling alchemist who was at the centre of the genre in the first place. It’s why he is the perfect choice for the first-ever Rolling Stone UK Icon Award, supported by Visit West Hollywood.
But on his icon status, Ozzy Osbourne is less sure.
“I wish I felt like a fucking icon!” comes the typically deadpan and sweary response, delivered in a warm and familiar Brummy brogue that hasn’t faded one bit. “I’ve had a long career, and I’ve raised a few fucking eyebrows along the way. I’ve met some amazing people. I’ve done some good gigs, and I’ve done some fucking bad gigs.”
Denne historien er fra December/January 2024-utgaven av Rolling Stone UK.
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Denne historien er fra December/January 2024-utgaven av Rolling Stone UK.
Start din 7-dagers gratis prøveperiode på Magzter GOLD for å få tilgang til tusenvis av utvalgte premiumhistorier og 9000+ magasiner og aviser.
Allerede abonnent? Logg på
BACK TO THE GRIND
The Clipse broke up when a spiritual path called to one of the brothers from Virginia. Now, one of the greatest duos in rap returns
THE SCREAM QUEEN NEXT DOOR
In just a few short years, Hunter Schafer has gone from small-town North Carolina to global runways, Euphoria stardom, and her first lead role, in the horror flick Cuckoo
Together in Electronic Dreams
Raphaella Lima of video game publisher Electronic Arts brings music to her childhood love of gaming to spotlight many of the most exciting emerging acts of the past two decades in the hit football game EA SPORTS FC
JAMIE XX WAVE AFTER WAVE
Nine years after his decade-defining debut album In Colour, Jamie xx returns with In Waves, a darker and broodier follow-up that saw him fall back in love with making music
"You can feel trapped when people perceive you as one thing"
On their career-best fourth album, Fontaines D.C. have shed their skin of old to deliver something more fantastical. Grian Chatten tells us the story behind their evolution
IN COMPLETE CONFIDENCE
Confidence Man's Janet Planet and Sugar Bones go bigger and wilder than ever before on 3AM (LA LA LA), an album made about partying, while partying, and perfect for partying to
Collective consciousness
Ezra Collective return with Dance, No One's Watching, the roaring follow-up album to last year's boundary-moving Mercury Prize win
DAYDREAM BELIEVER
Welsh techno-pop artist Kelly Lee Owens is the first signing to Dirty Hit's new dance label, dh2. She talks \"transcending my bullshit\" on the euphoric, thumping club tunes of fourth album, Dreamstate
A BUNCH OF (PRI)MATES
From the story of 'Gary', the title track of Stockport band Blossoms' fifth album inspired by a fibreglass gorilla, to breaking new ground with their own record label and staying friends after 10 years, the tightknit band tell Rolling Stone UK all about it
RULE OF LAWTEY
Stepping up to play a comic-book icon in the big-budget sequel Joker: Folie à Deux could prove a life-changing moment for Industry star Harry Lawtey. But he's trying not to think about it...
