A long-buried Ozzy Osbourne interview has resurfaced online — and it captures the vocalist at his most unfiltered, accusing his former Black Sabbath bandmates of hypocrisy in the years following his dismissal from the group.
Osbourne famously split from heavy metal’s progenitors after the release of their eighth album, Never Say Die!, in 1978. The recording sessions were fractious, with the members battling heavy substance abuse. It came to a head when Ozzy temporarily quit halfway through.
He was briefly replaced by Dave Walker (Savoy Brown/Fleetwood Mac), who fronted the band on the BBC’s Look Hear, before Ozzy returned to complete the record.
While work began on the band’s next album, Heaven & Hell — ultimately fronted by Rainbow vocalist Ronnie James Dio — guitarist Tony Iommi fired Osbourne over his substance abuse.
Speaking in a 1990 interview uploaded to YouTube by Sunset Vinyl, Ozzy zeroed in on what he saw as the two-faced nature of his dismissal.
“We were always very heavily into alcohol and drugs, but the drugs got worse as it went along, because we thought that was the thing to do,” he said. “We sampled LSD in a big way. When we discovered cocaine, that was another wonderful thing.
“We’d sit there waffling our fucking brains out about how we were going to conquer the world, talking horse shit for three days, and end up with a jaw ache, waiting for the next Valium to bring you down.”
As Ozzy makes clear, the drug issues at the heart of the band’s implosion weren’t his alone. Iommi, bass guitarist Geezer Butler and drummer Bill Ward were equally culpable.
“I can’t change it, but there are things I would have done differently,” Iommi told the BBC in 2013 of his own substance abuse. “Had I known the things I know now, I certainly wouldn’t have dabbled to that extent.”
Asked whether he agreed with Ozzy’s assertion that “cocaine was the cancer of the band,” Iommi didn’t hesitate.
“It was, absolutely,” he said. “Initially, we thought it was great, and it helped us create. But at the end of the day, when it came to the point where we had to replace Ozzy, we were in a bad way. It did a lot of damage.”
Iommi later described firing the founding member and two-time Rock and Roll Hall of Famer as “awful.” But in 1990 — seven years before the classic lineup officially reunited — Ozzy was still eager to call out what he saw as rank hypocrisy.
“It was ironic that the three of them fired me because I’m drunk all the time,” he said. “Tony’s locked himself away in his room with his bag of Quaaludes and a fucking vase of cocaine. And he’s got Bill come and fire me, and he’s got a can of Budweiser in his hand, because I was always getting drunk [laughs].
“As I look back, it’s funny now — you know, the pot calling the kettle black.”
Heavy metal history, however, may owe something to those chaotic years. Without his firing, Ozzy Osbourne might never have launched his solo career — certainly not with Randy Rhoads by his side — and his story would have unfolded very differently.
Ozzy was recently the subject of an all-star tribute at the Grammys, while Lita Ford has recalled the time the Prince of Darkness came to her family home for Easter lunch.
