Ozzy's won the same award as Prince Charles. So, naturally, it's time to talk about meeting The Queen and smashing pianos…
Despite being ill and having to move his No More Tours II dates again, this year hasn’t been all bad for Ozzy. He’s released his brilliant Ordinary Man album, for one thing, made with Guns N’ Roses’ Duff McKagan, Chad Smith from Red Hot Chili Peppers, Slash, Tom Morello, Elton John, Post Malone and PM producer Andrew Watt.
Now, he’s been awarded the Lifetime Achievement gong by gents’ mag GQ as part of their Men Of The Year Awards. Accepting his trophy on video, he said, “Thank you for this award. I’m blessed. Thank you.”
Read this: Ozzy speaks: Inside my year from hell
As a recipient of the award, Ozzy joins previous winners Iggy Pop and, um, Prince Charles. Talking about the time he met his fellow winner’s mother, The Queen, at Party At The Palace in 2002, The Prince Of Darkness recalled, “She looked at me and said, ‘Hello. So this is what they call variety, is it?’ I just stared at her. You see her on stamps, you see her in the paper every day, see her on the telly… but it’s such a weird feeling when you’re actually in front of her for the first time. But I wouldn’t have her job for anything. They’re not from planet earth, are they?”
He also looked back at his hellraising days, including the time he racked up a fabulously expensive bill for his escapades in the bar at New York’s Le Parker Meridien hotel. Drinks? No, piano murder…
“They used to have a piano player right by the bar,” he remembers. “I was sitting there when a machine started fucking playing songs on the piano. Every 10 songs it would do the theme from The Sting. I’d been drinking in there all day and so when it came on for the 50th time I got up and put my foot through the machine. I ended up writing a letter of complaint to the Musicians’ Union: ‘How dare you do this, giving them a machine instead of a musician to play.’ It would be cheaper to get a musician. I know because I had to pay for a new machine.”
Speaking about his time in lockdown rather than being on the road as planned, he said, “I’ve been going fucking nuts in my house all this time.”
“I’m like a caged animal!" he continued. "But I’ve done a lot of reflecting during this lockdown. I’ve been thinking of my childhood, thinking about what a fantastic life I’ve had.”
Catch Ozzy and Judas Priest at the following:
January 2022
26 Germany – Berlin Mercedes-Benz Arena
28 Czech Republic – Prague O2 Arena
31 Switzerland – Zurich Hallenstadion
February 2022
2 Hungary – Budapest Budapest Arena*
5 Spain – Madrid WiZink Center
8 Italy – Bologna Unipol Arena
11 Germany – Mannheim SAP Arena
14 Germany – Hamburg Barclaycard Arena
17 Finland – Helsinki Hartwall Arena
19 Sweden – Stockholm Friends Arena
21 Germany – Dortmund Westfalenhalle
24 Germany – Munich Olympiahalle
27 UK – Nottingham Motorpoint Arena
March 2022
1 Ireland – Dublin 3Arena
4 UK – Birmingham Resorts World Arena
7 UK – London The O2
9 UK – Manchester AO Arena
12 UK – Newcastle Utilita Arena
14 UK – Glasgow The SSE Hydro
(* = New date without Judas Priest)
Read this: The 10 best Ozzy Osbourne solo songs
