First published 2011
John Osbourne grows up in working class Aston, Birmingham, where his father predicts he will either accomplish something extraordinary or end up in prison. Both predictions prove correct. Before his eighteenth birthday, Osbourne finds himself behind bars. He leaves his factory job to pursue a better life and becomes Ozzy Osbourne, the legendary heavy metal performer who sells over one hundred million albums with Black Sabbath and as a solo artist. For thirty years he consumes dangerous amounts of alcohol and drugs. He survives plane crashes, overdoses that should have killed him, sexually transmitted diseases, and a murder charge. After all these close calls, he nearly dies in an all terrain vehicle traveling at three kilometers per hour. Now married to Sharon with five children and four grandchildren, living between homes in Buckinghamshire and California, Osbourne tells his story in his own words for the first time. He admits to doing terrible things and being drawn to darkness, but insists he is not the devil, just John Osbourne from a working family in Aston.
Genres: addiction, 20th-century, autobiography, biography-memoir, 21st-century
Vibes: emotional-atmospheric, intimate, suspenseful
Tropes: rags-to-riches, redemption
Setting: Aston, Birmingham, Buckinghamshire, California
Period: 20th-century, 21st-century
496 pages · Pegasus Yayıncılık
Content warnings: addiction, substance-abuse