Ozzy Osbourne’s childhood home, Aston

On the way home from Stratford-Upon-Avon I just had to find the Ozzy's childhood home (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 sing 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.

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. The Osbourne's have mansions in Buckinghamshire and Beverley Hills. He’s come a long way from a street that smelled of curry and made 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.”

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 legendary record producer Don Arden. The is here :

http://www.johnhalley.uk/Grave%20-%20Don%20Arden.htm

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…