Quotes from Ozzy Osbourne

Taking five or ten or fifteen years to make an album, like Guns N' Roses did, is just f**king ridiculous, end of story. By that time, your career's died, been resurrected, and then died again.

I was twenty now, and had given up all hope of being a singer or ever getting out of Aston. PA system or no PA system, it wasn't going to happen. I'd convinced myself that there was no point in even trying, because I was just going to fail, like I had at school, at work, and at everything else I'd ever tried. 'You ain't no good as a singer,' I told myself. 'You can't even play an instrument, so what hope d'you have?'

When I slept outside in winter, it wasn't unusual for me to wake up blue in the face with icicles on my nose. In those days, there was no such thing as hypothermia.

It's gotta be any parent's worst nightmare when they lose their child.

The fact that I ever raised my hand against a woman disgusts me. It was a f**king atrocious, unforgivable way to behave, and there's no excuse for it, ever. And like I said before, it's something I'll take to the grave with me.

Aimee saw more of the world before her first birthday than most people do in a lifetime. I just wish I'd been sober for more of it. I was there physically, but not mentally. So I missed things you can never do over again: the first crawl, the first step, the first word. If I think about it for too long, it breaks my heart.

I've said to my kids, 'I don't want you to think I jumped away from you and clicked my heels and said bon voyage. It wasn't like that at all. It just about destroyed me.'

As for the kids, once the damage is done with a divorce, you can't ever make it right.

When I was growing up, no one ever recovered from cancer. I mean, the doc would always tell you it was survivable, but everyone knew that was just bullshit to calm you down.

I'm telling you, the ingenuity of alcoholics is something else. If only it could be put to some kind of good use. I mean, if you said to an alcoholic, 'Look, the only way for you to get another drink is to cure cancer,' the disease would be history in five seconds.

I loved being a dad. It's just so much fun watching these little people you've brought into the world as they develop and grow up.

Going on stage was like being at a butchers' convention. And, of course, the animal rights people were going nuts. The American Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals sent people to 'monitor' our gigs. The crew would f**k with them all the time. They'd say, 'Oh, Ozzy's going to throw eighteen puppies into the audience tonight, and he won't sing a note until they've all been slaughtered.' The ASPCA believed every word of it.

A lot of people came up to me that night and asked, 'How come you and Sharon have stayed together all this time?' My answer was the same then as it is now: I've never stopped telling my wife that I love her; I've never stopped taking her out for dinner; I've never stopped surprising her with little gifts.

The way I was boozing was a kind of suicide. It was only gonna be a matter of time.

My last good memory of the eighties, before everything went dark, was being sent to Wormwood Scrubs. Not because I'd broken the law again – amazingly – but because I was asked to play a gig there.

I hardly ever went to the AA [alcoholics anonymous] meetings. I've just never felt comfortable in those places. It's my worst zone. I'll get up and sing my heart out in front of two hundred thousand people at a rock festival, but when I've got to talk about the way I feel to people I've never met before, I can't do it. There's nothing to hide behind.

I've come to believe that everything in life is worked out in advance. So whenever bad shit happens, there ain't nothing you can do about it. You've just gotta ride it out. And eventually death will come, like it comes to everyone.

The worse I got, the more I worried that Sharon would leave me. And the more I worried, the worse I got.

That was the end of it. Lights out. For ever.

I'd been on the road for twenty-five years, pretty much. I was like a mouse on a wheel: album, tour, album, tour, album, tour, album, tour.

Reviews? Didn't read 'em.

Someone's gonna die before this is over,' I said to Doc McGhee. [...] 'I don't think someone's gonna die, Ozzy. I think we're all gonna die.'

After a real snake ended up on stage one night, it was well and truly pissed off about being on stage with Ozzy Osbourne, that snake was.

Five kids in one lifetime ain't bad – and I love them all so much. They're the best things that ever happened to me, no question about it.