On the way home from Stratford-Upon-Avon I just had to find
the childhood home of the Prince Of Darkness and rock god Ozzy
Osbourne (real name John Osbourne.) After selling millions of albums and
performing thousands of concerts he’s a wealthy man. Life started on a slightly
depressing narrow street where the view from the lounge window was of houses
opposite – no sky, not a blade of grass in sight. Here I am outside the family
home in Aston near Birmingham.
Ozzy was born here to a working class family,
the fourth of six children. His mum Lillian worked in a factory and his dad
Jack worked night shifts as a toolmaker at the General Electric Company. It
must have been a frenetically busy house - Ozzy had
three older sisters and two younger brothers. They lived here through the
austere 1950s. The "Ozzy" nickname came
about at primary school where he struggled as he had dyslexia (not known about
then.) Aged 14 he heard the Beatles "She Loves You" on the wireless
(radio) and this song alone inspired him to become a musician.
Aged 15 Ozzy left home to labour on a building site. This was the
first of many jobs as plumber, apprentice toolmaker, car factory horn-tuner and
abattoir worker. His attempts to become a burglar were laughable: when he tried
to steal a television it fell on top of him as he tried to get away and when he
stole a heap of clothes from a shop in the dark he didn’t realise they were for
babies only. He was fined but as his dad refused to pay the fine Ozzy suffered six weeks in Winson
Green Prison.
I’m not sure
when Ozzy left home but it was probably about aged
20. He became a singer in several bands before putting an advert in the paper
to form a group called Earth. Now he’s so rich he can afford to live anywhere
in the world. Currently he has mansions in Buckinghamshire and Beverley Hills.
He’s come a
long way from a street that smelled of curry and make me feel hungry. I was
glad to leave though – the built-up street’s only relief was if you looked up
at the sky. I didn’t see one bit of soil, bush, tree or window box.
Ozzy’s lucky to be alive having snorted
mountains of drugs and quaffed lakes of booze. In an interview he once said, “We
started off as a music band dabbling with drugs and then we became a drugs band
dabbling with music.” Let’s hope there won’t be a blue plaque on this house for
a long time.
On the drive
home I pressed buttons on my mp3 player to find my favourite Ozzy songs – “Spiders” and “A Shot In The Dark”, the latter
sparking some air guitar on the steering wheel.
Footnote : I’ve
visited the grave of his father-in-law and the link is here…
http://www.johnhalley.uk/Grave%20-%20Don%20Arden.htm
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Ozzy’s
childhood home is down here, come let’s go and have a look…
Down here…
Ozzy
having a trip down Memory Lane…
Hey kids, don’t you know a rock god
lived there!...
Pointing to Ozzy’s
childhood home and his mansion in Buckinghamshire…
A couple of Ozzy’s
other homes in America…
Previous homes on the left and Ozzy’s current home in Beverley Hills on the right…