OZZY OSBOURNE: 'I've Done Some Of The Craziest Things You Could Ever Imagine'

George Varga of SignOnSanDiego.com recently conducted an interview with legendary heavy metal singer Ozzy Osbourne. A couple of excerpts from the chat follow below.

SignOnSanDiego.com: What were your best and worst jobs when you were young?

Ozzy: "None of them were really the best. I'd get a job for a few days and then walk out. It was a way of surviving. Where I come from, you had to get a job and pay your way. By the time I was 20 (and in BLACK SABBATH),I could buy my own house and car, and cigarettes and alcohol. That was real success. I'm not saying I'm ashamed of where I came from. At the same time, I don't particularly want to go back to it, because I like the life I have today."

SignOnSanDiego.com: You're 61 and will headline another Ozzfest tour this summer. What would make you retire?

Ozzy: "Well, you know, if my audience dwindled to nothing. I don't want to scale down and end up doing bars and (expletive) clubs again, you know. I'm a lucky guy. I'm 61 and can still do what I do. I'm one of the few guys of my age to actually still have a recording deal."

SignOnSanDiego.com: You've been doing a national book singing tour to promote "I Am Ozzy". What's the typical age of the fans turning up to see you and get your autograph?

Ozzy: "It goes from kids of 10 to people my age and a few even older than I am. (Chuckle) If my father said: 'Look, there's this guy, Al Jolson, who's great and I want you to listen to him, I wouldn't have done it, just because my father wanted me to. I'm doing these book signings — it used to be records — because I like to have close contact with my fans. When I see somebody of my age, I think: 'Wow'.""

SignOnSanDiego.com: What's the status of your Broadway-bound musical, "Rasputin"? Have you completed it?

Ozzy: "I finished it. But when I finished it, the recession had kicked in."

SignOnSanDiego.com: So, it's on the back-burner?

Ozzy: "Yeah. I've also got a (new) album ready to finish mixing and the 2010 Ozzfest tour to prepare for."

SignOnSanDiego.com: Is your wife and manager, Sharon, booking all the bands again for Ozzfest?

Ozzy: Absolutely. When I get my head around a new band, I start sounding like them when I'm writing (songs). I prefer to listen to bands that got me interested in music, like THE BEATLES and STONES."

SignOnSanDiego.com: Would you hire a young musician for your band who has some of the same unhealthy habits you had when you were young?

Ozzy: "It depends. Zakk (Wylde, Osbourne's last guitarist) was doing that kind of crazy drinking. Whoever I have in my band, they have to play good. I've got a new guy named Gus G (real name: Kostas Karamitroudis) from Greece and he plays great. We'll see what happens with him and how it works out."

SignOnSanDiego.com: How would you like to be remembered, and how do you think you will be remembered?

Ozzy: "I'd like to be remembered as a guy who gave people a lot of smiles. I'll be remembered as the guy who bit the heads off several creatures, but I suppose that's what I have to expect."

SignOnSanDiego.com: You have come close to death so many times. Do you ever wonder how, and why, you've managed to survive?

Ozzy: "I don't know. Luck, I suppose that I didn't die and that my number didn't get called up. I was a friend of (LED ZEPPELIN drummer) John Bonham. I used to go drinking with him and I wasn't any worse than him and he wasn't any worse than me. It happens a lot, where people die every night in this country, in any country. It's not just rock 'n' rollers and swashbuckling rock stars, and it happens every single day. It's just one of those things, where every action has a reaction. At the end of the day, I just didn't want to be that person anymore."

SignOnSanDiego.com: Given your past lifestyle, it's ironic that the closest you have come to dying was in 2003, after you had become clean and sober, when you crashed while riding your ATV quad bike on your country estate in England.

Ozzy: "That is kind of interesting, because I've done some of the craziest things you could ever imagine. Then I get on a bike for (a scene in the MTV reality series) 'The Osbournes' and, next thing you know, I'd broken my lung and pierced my heart, which stopped twice on the way to the hospital. For me, (surviving that) was a bit more than luck, although I'm not saying what. I'm very lucky. But the way I'll probably die is, I'll go and fall off of a door step."

Read the entire interview from SignOnSanDiego.com.