Jack Osbourne: My father had been working on Last Rites for a very long time -chipping away at it over the last three or four years. He always felt he needed to do a follow-up to I Am Ozzy, because so much had happened in the 20 years since that book was released. From life after the TV show, to the Sabbath reunion, to releasing his last two albums, and finally his health issues. It was important to him to capture all of that.<\/p>\n
Do you or other family members have favourite passages\/anecdotes from the book?<\/p>\n
Osbourne: If I\u2019m being honest, not many of the family members have read the book yet \u2013 it\u2019s been difficult time for everyone. For me, the last chapter is what I\u2019ve reflected on the most. He finished it just a few days before he passed.<\/p>\n
Last Rites by Ozzy Osbourne.<\/p>\n
Throughout Last Rites, Ozzy reflects on his early life with the insight gained as we grow older. Were there things that changed about him and the way he experienced the world towards the end of his life?<\/p>\n
Osbourne: There\u2019s a lot to reflect on with that question. My father was always considered the \u201cwild man of rock\u201d, the \u201cPrince of Darkness\u201d and so on, but the last seven years were the complete opposite. Because of his injuries and declining health, he slowed down. And sometimes with a curse comes a blessing. Slowing down gave him the space to really reflect on his journey \u2013 his successes, his failures, his joys, his sadness and, ultimately, what mattered most to him. This book captures some of that.<\/p>\n
Do you recall any moments or conversations with Ozzy as he was working on the book \u2013 funny, touching, surprising \u2013 about the material he wanted to include or stories about working with a writer on the project?<\/p>\n
Osbourne: He was very private about the process and didn\u2019t share much about what he was including. I\u2019d try to ask, but he\u2019d often brush it off. I\u2019ve often said this about my father, he was the most humble egomaniac you could ever meet.<\/p>\n
He honestly didn\u2019t think anyone would care about what he was writing in Last Rites. So when I asked him, he always downplayed it.<\/p>\n
Sharon, Ozzy and Jack Osbourne side stage during the 2024 Rock & Roll Hall Of Fame Induction Ceremony.<\/p>\n
It\u2019s so clear from reading the book that Ozzy loved his fans. Is there anything that didn\u2019t make it into the book that you\u2019d like for them to know?<\/p>\n
Osbourne: Here\u2019s the truth \u2013 my father fought a very hard fight to get on that stage in Birmingham on July 5. He was determined to say goodbye to his fans, and that\u2019s exactly what he did. He loved them deeply because they gave him the life he had. He always said he would have been nothing without their love and support. That last show was his way of giving back one final time.<\/p>\n
What do you think Ozzy would like readers to take away from the book?<\/p>\n
Osbourne: My father would want people to smile, laugh and feel love when they read it. He absolutely hated when people felt sorry for him. I know some fans will get emotional \u2013 it\u2019s hard not to \u2013 but he couldn\u2019t stand when people cried in front of him or got sad around him. So enjoy his words. Feel his energy. Remember who he will always be. And never stop loving him.<\/p>\n
Last Rites by Ozzy Osbourne, published by Hachette, is available now.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Jack Osbourne: My father had been working on Last Rites for a very long time -chipping away at…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":117148,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[28],"tags":[3225,95,2108,4731,181,156,5904,21526,134,22259,685,157,111,139,69,1118,22653,22656,22655,479,83074,22639,12633,3258,223,61,56524,5977,64460],"class_list":["post-117147","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-music","tag-according","tag-and","tag-book","tag-days","tag-details","tag-entertainment","tag-final","tag-finishing","tag-health","tag-jack","tag-last","tag-music","tag-new-zealand","tag-newzealand","tag-nz","tag-of","tag-osbourne","tag-osbournes","tag-ozzy","tag-relationships","tag-rites","tag-son","tag-spent","tag-struggles","tag-the","tag-to","tag-tumultuous","tag-which","tag-writing"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/117147","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=117147"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/117147\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/117148"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=117147"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=117147"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=117147"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}