Biography: The Nine Lives of Ozzy Osbourne

A brilliant, shocking but truthful bio of my childhood hero, any Ozzy fan must watch any Ozzy sceptic must watch, it will change you.

Rock star Ozzy Osbourne has certainly lived an interesting life. Born in Birmingham, he's the man who bit the head off a live bat on stage, and latterly the star of a massively popular reality TV show. You could say he's the closest thing to 'Spinal Tap' in the real world. A documentary about him could hardly be dull, and this one isn't, but it's not that insightful either. Why did Ozzy become an addict? How did his music relate to that of his peers? What actually induced him to make a reality TV programme? You don't really get a feeling for any of the answers, instead he comes across almost like the old man in the pub, claiming extraordinary stories ("yeah, I did that!") that no-one quite believes. The overall effect is of a highlights (and lowlights) package of his life; but a more critical evaluation might have been more interesting.

It's very cursory look at the early years.. then a LOT of focus on current storylines.

For a "biography" it's EXCEPTIONALLY lacking.

Where are his first 2 children from the first wife?? Why the divorce? How'd Sabbath get a deal? So may missing bits just to tell the story the publicist wants told in 2020. It's CLEARLY spin and just skips some things to keep the overall impression as good.

Sure the entire cause of any abuse or mistrust was alcohol and drugs... couldn't have anything to do with Ozzy be just an unkind person at heart.. and truth being exposed through substances.

Meh... it's marketing spin.. nothing more.

Look, let me first say I love Sabbath and I have everything Ozzy has ever done as well. I grew up to the soundtrack of their music and it is part of my life.

However this documentary lost its credibility to me instantly when I realised that it purposely left people out.

Note, hardly a word from Tony Iommi, who lets face it, was the leader of Black Sabbath. You cannot tell this story without Iommi. There would be no Sabbath without Iommi. This was done I suspect because Sharon Osborne still does not like him. Either way leaving him out was a gross error, or indeed on prupose.

BUT the worse thing that ruined it to me was the removing from history two of the people who actually WROTE Blizzard of Oz and Diary of a Madman with Ozzy and Randy. Namely; Bob Daisley and Lee Kerslake. And then were the excellent rhythm section that contributed so much to it.

At one point they show a picture of the rehearsals for the first album. A well known picture that has Daisley in it. In this documentary he was EDITED OUT. Live footage too was cropped to remove them and only show Osborne and Rhodes. What a pathetic and petty sham, especially as the great Kerslake has now died.

I detect the hand of Sharon on this who had a problem when they asked for royalties and disgracefully rerecorded the album without them to remove their claims.

So this is an OK documentary, ruined by purposefully erasing people from it for various reasons who were part of it.

OZZY, the best ever. No more needs to be said...except it says review is to short