I Am Ozzy (2010) by Osbourne Ozzy

Author:Osbourne, Ozzy [Ozzy, Osbourne,]
Format: epub
Publisher: Grand Central Publishing
Published: 2011-01-14T19:10:53.093000+00:00

While I was Sleeping

We were in the tour bus, on our way from Tennessee to

Florida, when Randy broke the news.

'I don't think I want to be a rock 'n' roller any more,' he said.

I waited for him to crack a smile. But he didn't.

We were sitting at a little picnic table in the kitchen area of the bus, which was like a five-star hotel on wheels. It had TVs hanging from the ceiling, shag-pile carpets, air-conditioning, limo-style windows, a flash gold and white paint job, and - of course - a fully stocked bar.

I'd been drinking gin all night. After that bad scene at the Alamo, I'd gone easy on the Courvoisier for a while.

Randy was smoking fags and sipping from a can of Coke. He hardly touched the booze. He only liked that horrible aniseed shit. What's it called? Anisette . Like a thick, milky liqueur thing. Didn't do drugs, either. Mind you, he made up for it with the fags. He could have won a gold medal in the Lung Cancer Olympics, could Randy Rhoads.

'Are you joking with me?' I said, trying not to choke on my drink.

'No, Ozzy, I'm serious.'

I couldn't believe what I was hearing.

It was long after midnight - maybe three or four in the morning - and me and Randy were the only ones still awake. Sharon was in the bedroom at the back. Rudy and Tommy were sprawled out on the bunks, along with some of the crew members who travelled with us, like Rachel Youngblood, an older black lady who did all our wardrobe, hair and make-up.

I was amazed they could sleep, 'cos the bus was rattling and shaking and groaning like it was gonna fall to pieces. It was a seven-hundred-mile journey from Knoxville to Orlando, and the driver was going like the clappers. I remember looking out of the window at all the headlamps of the cars and trucks flying past in the other direction and thinking, Any minute now, the wheels are gonna come off this thing. I had no idea that the driver had a nose full of coke. I only found that out later from the coroner's report.

Mind you, I had no idea about anything, me. I was out of my skull with all the booze and the coke and the fuck-knows-what-else I was shoving down my throat, twenty-four hours a day.

But I knew I didn't want Randy to leave.

'How could you quit now?' I said to him. 'We've only just broken through, man. Sharon says Diary of a Madmanmight sell even more copies than Blizzard. It's going fucking gangbusters all over the world. Tomorrow night we're playing with Foreigner!'

Randy just shrugged and said, 'I want to go to university. Get a degree.'

'Are you mad?' I said. 'Keep this up for a couple of years and you can buy your own fucking university.'

At least that made him smile.

'Look,' I went on. 'You're just knackered. Why don't you get some rest, give yourself a bit of a break, y'know?'

'I could say the same thing to you, Ozzy.

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