Ozzy Osbourne published a comprehensive memoir in 2010, but given the twists and turns in the metal icon’s life over the subsequent 15 years, it’s fitting that he wrote a sequel focused on that period. Completed and approved by the singer before his death in July at age 76, the new book, “Last Rites,” delves into his final reunions with Black Sabbath, his career-capping 2020s solo albums and the momentous farewell concert Back to the Beginning, as well as the agonizing health struggles that plagued his later years.
The book also features the singer’s reflections on some of his darkest chapters and greatest musical triumphs, as well as his humble beginnings in Birmingham, England. A new documentary, “No Escape From Now” — covering the period from a 2019 fall that resulted in neck and spinal injuries through Back to the Beginning — acts as an intimate companion piece.
Here are eight things we learned from the new projects.
Osbourne’s childhood left him with a powerful sense of inadequacy.
In the book, Osbourne delves into the root causes of his addiction, reasoning that drugs “help you bury some dark [expletive] in your past.” Part of that darkness stemmed from dyslexia, which often left him feeling intense shame. Osbourne writes that “having to get up and read in class when I couldn’t make sense of the words felt like a fate worse than death,” imparting a “sense of impending doom that followed me wherever I went.” Growing up in a working-class family in Aston, Birmingham, Osbourne also felt the sting of poverty, which haunted him even after he attained fame and fortune. “I was the kid on the street who when the ice cream van came ’round, my parents couldn’t afford it every time,” he says in the film. “If you’re left the kid without the ice cream, it hurts, you know?”
The music that inspired Osbourne the most leaned more pop than metal.
Osbourne’s chief musical loves bore little resemblance to the music that made him famous. In the book, he cites the Beatles as his chief early inspiration, writing, “When I discovered their music, it was like I’d gone to bed in black and white and woken up in color.” He also notes that Elton John, a future collaborator, enthralled him in the ’70s (“I’d come home from singing about Satan and witches, and get all teary-eyed to ‘Your Song’”), while Peter Gabriel, Phil Collins, Kraftwerk and Prince all got heavy play later on.
Osbourne’s studio collaborations were a rare bright spot during his recovery.
Osbourne’s daughter Kelly connected him with Andrew Watt, the prolific producer more than 40 years Ozzy’s junior, who would become a key collaborator during the singer’s later years. After accepting an invitation from Watt to appear on “Take What You Want,” a 2019 Post Malone track he produced, Osbourne went on to work with Watt on his final two studio albums, “Ordinary Man” (2020) and “Patient Number 9” (2022). In both the film — which features lively studio footage from the Osbourne/Watt sessions — and the book, Osbourne speaks glowingly of this chapter of his career. “I’d honestly never felt so excited about making a record since ‘Blizzard of Ozz,’” he writes of “Ordinary Man,” name-checking his classic 1980 solo debut. In the film, he says making “Patient Number 9” saved him.
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