During an appearance on the latest episode of Billy Corgan’s podcast, The Magnificent Others with Billy Corgan, Sharon Osbourne revealed that there was a jealousy issue between Ozzy Osbourne and the remaining Black Sabbath members.
“I’ve never really understood why they turned on him the way they did,” Corgan initially told Sharon. “Generally, it seems to be couched in he was getting too crazy or something but was it? The most striking thing to me is because I’ve seen this footage, it’s like suddenly and I know they did it different times but Ozzy singing on the side in front of the speakers and Tony’s in the middle.”
She replied, “Tony had him move to the side so Tony could be in the middle. I think the long and short of it really. We all know Ozzy was never a good drinker. He was always the first to be on the floor. I mean the worst drinker in the world and drug taker.”
“The others could maintain some semblance of we’re okay but Ozzy was always on the floor. I honestly think, because Ozzy didn’t play instrument, that his value in their eyes was this big [showing a small gap with her fingers]. You just sing, you just sing. All you do is sing,” Sharon further explained.
She also shared, “So I honestly think and it’s something I’ve tried to sort out but my thing is that they were envious because Ozzy got attention which every lead singer does. It comes with the gig. And they weren’t getting the notoriety that he was and they thought, ‘You don’t do anything. You’re drunk all the time and why do you get all this notoriety?’ I think that had an awful lot to do with it and they were kids.”
Osbourne was fired from Black Sabbath in 1979 because of alcohol and drug problems. He then launched a solo career with ‘Blizzard of Ozz’ in 1980. “I can say Ozzy was the first one to have to go, but it was hard,” Iommi previously said. “We had to do something. … Everything was coming to a head, and we had to say, ‘Well, what are we gonna do? We’re either gonna call it a day or break up, or we’ve gotta try and find another singer.'”
“We’d already had this problem slightly before. … And Ozzy left for a short while and came back. But in L.A., it just came to a crunch and it all came to an end,” the guitarist added.
Osbourne also admitted in the Corgan interview that the biggest mistake she made with Ozzy was turning down an offer for him to audition for ‘Pirates of the Caribbean.’ She didn’t say which role Ozzy was considered for.
