BARELY able to suppress his tears, Jack Osbourne described the passing of his rock legend father Ozzy so soon after his farewell gig “the ultimate mic drop”.
Just four months ago, the Black Sabbath frontman died from a heart attack, aged 76, only 17 days after his swansong concert, Back to the Beginning, in July.
Now father-of-four Jack, 40, has bravely gone into the I’m A Celebrity jungle to honour bat-biter Ozzy’s legacy and his wish for him not to be “moping about and being sad”.
“I’m still navigating it all, it’s been three nearly four months and so it’s still pretty fresh,” he admitted in the Bush Telegraph, after an emotional chat with soapstar Lisa Riley.
Ozzy’s death, following a six year battle with Parkinson’s Disease, reshaped Jack’s perception of their relationship with him now “really cherishing moments” – even the difficult ones.
Many of those darker times stemmed from the singer’s lifelong addiction issues, which by his own admission should have left him “dead 1,000 times” over.
Known as The Prince of Darkness, he truly lived up to his name at times – including at his most troubled point, when he attempted to murder his wife Sharon during an alcohol-induced mental breakdown.
Yet Ozzy was 12 years clean of booze at the time of his death and the person to thank for his sobriety, after five failed rehab stints and countless other attempts, was his son.
Jack also battled addiction, believing it was “just a matter of time” for him to fall victim to the cursed compulsion to drink and take drugs, like his dad, due to his personality traits.
He has been sober since 2003 and was the only person able to get through to the Godfather of Heavy Metal – a man who once consumed 105 litres of alcohol “just to get through Christmas”.
Sobriety, supported by his son, enabled Ozzy to finally shun his “very selfish disease” and become “the most important person” to his family, which he said “means everything to me”.
But that journey was far from smooth and the ramifications of his addiction rippled through the whole family.
‘Inevitable’ addiction
By Jack’s own admission his “childhood wasn’t exactly normal” and not just because the family were the focus of groundbreaking reality TV show The Osbournes.
He believes the MTV hit, which ran for four seasons until 2005, worsened his issues and “sped things up to the inevitable”.
At first, Jack tolerated the intrusion of being on a reality show because he was being paid £38,000 to appear – at just 15 years old – but soon things got out of hand.
This was in part due to the family home being flooded every day by a minimum of 16 people who were filming the show. The pressure from it only worsened Ozzy’s addiction issues.
The rocker would admit: “It was a bit crazy. The kids were doing drugs and alcohol and I’d gone back on the booze.
“When the filming ended, I’d go in my little bunker and smoke a pipe and drink about a case of beer every day.”
Similarly Jack and Kelly were battling addiction too, which they believe was behind many of their explosive onscreen rows.
Kelly was popping up to 100 pills of painkiller vicodin every day and at one point was regularly throwing up blood.
Meanwhile Jack was reliant upon cannabis and alcohol, before getting hooked on powerful prescription opioid OxyContin, which led him to seek treatment at a rehab facility.
In 2003, before getting help he said: “I want to be in control of my life. I don’t want my life to be controlled by a drug.”
I said, ‘What have you ever f***ing wanted? I’ll give you whatever you want.’ He says, ‘What about a father?’
Ozzy Osbourne
Jack later recalled: “I was really loaded, and I just sat on my mum’s bed, and I just said, ‘I am going to go pack my bags… I’m ready to go. I want to go. I need to go.’”
Roadie at 10
It would lead to sobriety, which would become a major bonding point and repair much of the damage caused by his dad’s addiction.
Prior to then, Jack and Ozzy had an unusual father-son bond.
The rocker acknowledged he was “not even present really” for much of his kids’ early lives due to addiction being a “very selfish disease” that left him at times unable to walk or talk.
When Ozzy was “loaded”, typically on a toxic cocktail of cannabis, alcohol and prescription pills, he admitted he “didn’t give a s***” and neglected his parenting responsibilities.
Yet there were still positive memories, with Jack fondly recalling being allowed to go on tour with Black Sabbath and even became an unofficial roadie for them at the age of 10.
He remembers his parents were “never strict about my attendance” at school and while travelling with the band he “would just run riot” due to being excessively spoiled.
Once Jack asked for a PlayStation and within an hour one appeared. He was also getting £110-a-week pocket money, which enabled him to be “a very independent teenager”.
But that freedom also allowed for dangerous excess. Jack was just 13 when he got drunk for the first time, after stealing shots of whiskey on his birthday.
A year later, he was drinking regularly and smoking cannabis. Jack’s excesses were revelled in by Ozzy, who often joined in.
Once at a joint Halloween party for Kelly and Jack, one of their “constantly changing army of nannies” got “absolutely obliterated” and the singer followed suit.
“He got helplessly drunk, stripped to his underwear and stood in the hallway singing cheesy pop songs while the nanny puked violently in the background,” Jack recalled.
The behaviour warped the reality of their kids, but would serve as a major motivation in the battle against addiction for both Jack and Kelly, who had seven rehab stints.
“I never realised that his addictions weren’t normal, I just thought that it was what dads did,” Jack once said.
Murder attempt
The darkest chapter of Ozzy’s problems was one of Jack’s earliest memories. When he was four years old, the rocker tried to murder Sharon.
Jack recalled: “He had been downing bottles of vodka for a few days and then started acting all weird with mum. ‘We’ve decided that you have to die,’ he told her.”
Sharon hit the home’s panic button, alerting police, and fought Ozzy off as he “grappled her to the ground with his hands around her throat and tried to strangle her”.
Jack only became aware of murder attempt when police arrived, handcuffed his dad – who was “wearing nothing but underpants” – and led him away.
Jack, Aimee and Kelly had watched the commotion through the bannisters on the upstairs landing. He recalls his sisters and mum hysterically crying.
That 1989 outburst, which Sharon refused to press charges for, resulted in Ozzy being ordered to go back to rehab – one of many times he tried to get clean.
When the filming ended, I’d go in my little bunker and smoke a pipe and drink about a case of beer every day
Ozzy Osbourne
While the rocker would have stints of sobriety, including a sustained period around 2006, it would take a huge row with Jack before he finally overcame his demons.
The argument was spurred on by a relapse, which spanned a year-and-a-half, and led Ozzy to commit to leaving addiction behind in 2013 with his son’s help.
Ozzy recalled: “I had a row with Jack. I had to talk business and I said, ‘What have you ever f***ing 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… My kids needed me.”
Kelly credits Jack with having “a lot to do with” their dad’s sobriety, as he showed him it was possible and he could change his life for good.
She said: “Jack changed a lot of things when he changed himself, and it’s hard for a father to look at his son and say, ‘If he can do it, how come I can’t?’”
‘I’ll die a happy man’
Those years with a clear mind allowed Ozzy to be more present. Sharon described the atmosphere as “very calm” and “very pleasant in the house”, which was “great for our whole family”.
While Ozzy would dabble with occasional cannabis joints in his final few years, he never touched a drink again.
Discussing his recovery, he said: “The first year is the worst, isn’t it Jack? After the first year it’s like you can start breathing again.”
When Ozzy was diagnosed with Parkinson’s Disease in February 2019, it served as another uniting moment for him and Jack. His son was already battling his own health issues after discovering he had multiple sclerosis seven years earlier.
“I understand when you have something you don’t want to have but if he wants to talk about it, I’m there,” Jack said. “And if not, I try to slip in information.”
These battles reshaped Ozzy’s priorities, allowing him to become “the most important person” to his kids and grandchildren, which he said “means everything to me now”.
Ill health reiterated the importance of family all the more and likely spurred on the decision for the family to make more memories together on The Osbournes Podcast two years ago.
Featuring Ozzy, Sharon, Jack and Kelly, the gaggle were often in hysterical laughter during recordings, especially the boys, whose special bond and shared sense of humour was clearly apparent.
The family were also supportive of Ozzy’s swansong ambition “to be well enough to do one show” where he could tell fans “thanks so much for my life”.
Almost prophetically, the singer added: “That’s what I’m working towards, and if I drop down dead at the end of it, I’ll die a happy man.”
He passed away just 17 days after his record breaking concert Back to the Beginning, which is the highest-grossing charity concert of all time, raising over £144million.
In a touching tribute, Jack admitted he was “so lucky and blessed” to be able to call Ozzy ‘dad’ and felt “full of love and gratitude”.
Just days before Ozzy’s death, he described him as “funny, unique and powerful”, before adding: “He is an incredible man. He really is. His contribution to music is bigger than his faults.”
Jack believes his father would have been “so supportive” of his decision to enter the I’m A Celebrity jungle and proud of his refusal to be consumed by grief.
For Ozzy, much like his son, was forever a fighter and someone determined to live life to its very fullest. No doubt Jack’s time on the show will show that legacy continues to live on.
