Written by Susie Salva
God Bless Ozzy Osbourne DVD on Eagle Rock Entertainment is an amazing and comprehensive view as a documentary looking into the life of the 62 year-old Prince of Darkness behind the scenes as shown by the directors Mike Fleiss and Mike Piscitelli along side of Ozzy’s youngest son Jack Osbourne as producer. Jack Osbourne puts a human face on the notorious bad boy of rock displaying his more humble side with an intimate view into his life as seen through a four-year period. Piscitelli spent two of those years on the road with Ozzy to gather footage. The DVD starts off backstage one of his concerts in a stadium in Buenos Aires and his routine of exercise complete with recumbent bike, vocal exercises, and a prayer before he hits the stage.
The DVD explores his time with Black Sabbath, the English heavy metal band, and shows Ozzy in his formidable years as a young bloke in Aston, Birmingham England where his choices of occupation was either, factory worker, prison, or in the army. Born John Michael Osbourne, Ozzy expresses his lack of interest in any of those occupations in 1969 he sets out to be a musician along side of Bill Ward, Gezzer Butler, and Tony Iommi. Sabbath the pioneers of heavy metal produced the quadruple-platinum 1970 hit Paranoid and position themselves stars in the rock world.
This documentary interviews all of his band mates and Henry Rollins, Motley Crue’s Tommy Lee, and his childhood hero Sir Paul McCartney putting their personal spin on everything Ozzy. Ozzy was a huge fan of the Beatles and was determined to become a rockstar himself. The DVD also shows his spiral down into drugs and alcoholism that plagued most of his forty years in rock’n roll. Due to his lack of self-esteem Ozzy became the band class clown. Cocaine was ever present with the band doing blow all day and all night long. Because they were completely drugged out they became ripped off by many people in the business because they were unable to manage their own affairs.
This documentary shows Ozzy’s three sisters Jean, Iris and Gillian sending Ozzy back in time to his home as he travels back to Aston and his childhood home and offers a porthole into his dysfunctional first marriage and his first two children Luis and Jessica. His kids have many memories of him not being present in their lives and being a no good drunk. Bill Ward tells the account of Ozzy losing his father Jack and how devastating that experience was for him. The band got tired of Ozzy’s antics and fired him from the band.
That’s about the time Sharon stepped in, knowing that Ozzy had no confidence and feeling that it was the end of his dream. She knew he was a great talent but lacked self-esteem again and finally got his mojo back with the hiring of great guitarist Randy Rhodes. 1980 Blizzard of Oz’s with Rhodes blew up on the charts and then the follow up Diary of a Madman established Ozzy as a star again. Rhodes helped Ozzy reinvent himself until his untimely Rhodes death in a freak helicopter crash. Sharon and Ozzy married in 1982 and started a family with Jack, Kelly, and Aimee and he still was not a great father. He was constantly drunk and loaded and notoriously bit off the head of a bird at a meeting with executives at CBS records which began to make him a larger than life character. His affair with drugs persisted and it wasn’t until his son Jack got sober that he began to want to get sober himself. The kids saw him and the effect of the drugs made his speech terrible, his walk was bad and it was destroying his family. After many failed attempts to get clean, Jack was Ozzy’s inspiration and turning point and as of resultant he has been sober for 5 years.
This DVD also includes a Q&A segment with both Jack and Ozzy as Jack expresses his desire to show the world a kinder and gentile person in Ozzy Osbourne. Ozzy says that he wants to be remembered just to be remembered. He also shows his new affinity for art for his own pleasure. Jack’s says that there is a difference between Ozzy and John and he wanted to show this perspective to his adoring fans. Throughout God Bless Ozzy Osbourne audiences are given an inside look into the life of this rockstar from the good times to the bad.
For more on Ozzy God Bless DVD.
