Mary Jane Blige (surname pronounced: /blaɪʒ/) (born January 11, 1971) is an Americansinger-songwriter, rapper, record producer, and actress who has sold more than forty million albums worldwide. Blige is a Golden Globe nominated singer and grammy award winning R&B superstar. She has received over twenty-six Grammy Award nominations for her work, winning eight, and has been awarded the World Music Legends Award for combining hip hop and soul together like no one else during the early 1990s.
Music career
In 1988, Blige recorded an impromptu cover of [[Anita Baker’s “Caught Up In the Rapture” at a recording booth in a local mall. Her mother’s boyfriend at the time later played the cassette for Jeff Redd, a recording artist and A&R runner for Uptown Records. Redd then sent it to the president and CEO of the label, Andre Harrell. Harrell met with Blige and, in 1989, she was signed to the label; becoming the company’s youngest and first female artist.
Upon signing to Uptown, Blige’s early years there were dormant, as the label continued to focus most of its attention on its more established acts. During this time, Blige occasionally did session work as a background singer for her label mates. In 1990, she was introduced as a background singer for Redd, during a performance at the Apollo Theatre. The same year she also sang the hook on “I’ll Do 4 U” by rapper and label mate Father MC, appearing in the concert-themed music video of the same name; In 1991, she was spotted on the syndicatedshow, Showtime at the Apollo, singing back up for Jeff Redd. In early Fall of 1992, Blige guest spotted with Grand Puba with his single, Check It Out. Blige’s first national debut appearance was in the summer of 1992 when she appeared on MTV‘s Yo! MTV Raps performing “What’s the 411?” (the title track) with Grand Puba. Mary has a 4 octave vocal range and can hit notes in the baritone range.
Siedah Garrett is letting the world know what industry insiders have known for too long. She’s the best known unknown! Just ask Michael Jackson. When he was looking for songs for his smash LP, Bad, his producer, Quincy Jones, played him a song that Garrett had co-written with songwriter/producer, Glen Ballard. That song was “Man In The Mirror”. Jackson loved the song, and was also so impressed with the voice of the girl singing the demo, he decided that he had to meet her. When Jackson and Garrett met, they quickly hit it off. “Man In The Mirror” went on to become the third 1 single from the multi-platinum BAD album, and one of Jackson’s all-time favorite songs. But aside from singing background vocals on “Man In The Mirror,” Jackson decided Garrett was the natural choice for the duet, “I Just Can’t Stop Loving You,” which was to be the album’s first single. Not surprisingly, the result was a 1 smash, which sold over a million copies worldwide. Garrett toured with Jackson for almost two years, singing their duet as well as background vocals for his Dangerous World Tour. Garrett has also had the privilege co-written a song with Michael, entitled “Keep The Faith”, which is featured on the Dangerous CD.
Born and raised in Los Angeles, in the 70’s, it was apparent early on that Garrett was blessed with many talents. Her early influences were Chaka Kahn, Stevie Wonder and of course, The Jackson Five. Since Garrett blew on to the scene via an open audition for Quincy Jones, she has done a multitude of background vocal session work with everyone from Johnny Mathis to Donna Summer, Wayne Newton to Quincy Jones, The Pointer Sisters to The Starship, Kenny Loggins to RuPaul, Al Jarreau to Al B. Sure!. Garrett was responsible for contracting background vocal sessions for such prestigious pop, dance and urban contemporary artists such as Madonna, on the multi-platinum True Blue album, The Commodores, on the smash LP, Nightshift, and many others. Songs co-penned by Garrett have turned up on such hit album projects such as Paula Abdul’s Forever Your Girl, and Quincy Jones’ Back On The Block.
Garrett has enjoyed tremendous success as a songwriter, co-penning songs for everyone from the King of Pop, to the Queen of Soul, and many, many artists in between, but she’s also had some amazing successes as a recording artist in her own right. Garrett first 1 solo single, “Do You Want It Right Now”, a 1 dance hit and club anthem exploded onto the national scene. Garrett also sang the demo for a song that was meant to be a duet featuring Chaka Kahn and Dennis Edwards, but producer, Dennis Lambert thought that the vocal blend between Garrett and Edwards was magical. The result was the 1 smash R&B classic, “Don’t Look Any Further.”
Garrett was commissioned to write songs with and for, “The Brand New Heavies”, a popular British neo-soul band. After having co-written more than half of their latest CD, entitled Shelter, Garrett was invited to become a full member of the band, living and working in London, replacing departed lead singer, N’Dea Davenport. The Shelter album went gold in the United Kingdom, and has sold over half a million CDs worldwide.
Garrett was featured on Quincy Jones’ latest release entitled “From Q, With Love. The first single from this CD, is a duet featuring Garrett and El Debarge, entitled “I’m Yours”. Garrett is also the featured vocalist on the newest release from saxophonist, Richard Elliott, entitled “This Could Be Real”, also co-penned by Garrett. Garrett has also co-written and co-produced songs for Vanessa L. Williams and Tatianna Ali on the Grammy Award Winning soundtrack from the full feature film, “The Adventures of Elmo In Grouchland”.
And how many people do you know that have sung for The Pope? Well Garrett, along with a small group of American singers, combined with singers from Florence and Rome, calling themselves “The Millennium Choir”, converged on the ancient city to perform for Pope John Paul in Vatican City on Christmas Day 1999. It was a performance of a lifetime.
On July 4th, 2000, Garrett was in Paris to participate in a history making performance with mentor, Quincy Jones along with the entire French National Orchestra. The performance was in honor of would have been Duke Ellington’s 100th birthday. The entire event was filmed by “Bravo”, as part of a biography piece on Jones. Performing along with Garrett was singer/songwriter Phil Collins, Duke Ellington’s blues crooner Milt Grayson, harmonica aficionado Toots Tillman, songwriter Michele LeGrand, and French national treasure, Henry Salvadore.
In the fall of 2007, Garrett, along with Quincy Jones, was invited by the Chinese government to co-write the theme song for the opening ceremony of the Special Olympics, held in Shanghai, China.
Most recently, Garrett was nominated for an Oscar, as well as a Grammy for having co-penned, “Love You, I Do,” sung by Oscar winning actress, Jennifer Hudson, in the hit film, “Dreamgirls”.
The stage is set and, after her groundbreaking collaborations and contributions on history making albums, Garrett has proven herself a force to be reckoned with. The most rare of all offerings, she’s an enormous talent that encompasses her gift as an incredible vocalist and her true craft as a successful songwriter. Siedah Garrett, the quintessential recording artist/singer/songwriter, is a true Renaissance woman.
In many cultures, the drum is the preferred means of making an announcement. So it’s appropriate that the opening salvo of this year’s BeanTown Jazz Festival – the fall event that, in eight years of existence, has grown into an important gathering of local and national acts – will take the form of a drum summit.
Featuring two of today’s most compelling jazz drummers, Terri Lyne Carrington and Cindy Blackman, the Sept. 26 showcase at the Berklee Performance Center will offer a rare opportunity to hear, in one evening, two contrasting drum styles as well as two bands in which the player behind the skins is also the leader.Carrington and Blackman are both former Berklee students who went on to respected careers, albeit on somewhat different tracks. A local product (she grew up in Medford), Carrington was a child prodigy who attended the school in her early teens and went on to play with the likes of Herbie Hancock and Wayne Shorter before moving to Los Angeles where, for a time, she was the drummer in the Arsenio Hall Show band. She’s now based back in Boston, teaching at her alma mater.
www.nonahendryx.com/
Blackman didn’t finish school, bolting instead for New York, where she started as a street musician in the ’80s. She’s now best known for her many years playing with rocker Lenny Kravitz. But both she and Carrington have maintained jazz identities and careers – mainly as first-call sidewomen, with sporadic outings as leaders. (“Music for the New Millennium,” Blackman’s new double album with a groovy electro-acoustic group, just came out but was recorded in 2005; Carrington has a record due out next year.)Programming the two on the same bill highlights, of course, how rare it is to hear a woman behind the drum kit. And Carrington in particular is underscoring the gender theme through the special lineup she’s assembled for this show. It includes the singer Patrice Rushen and the pianist Geri Allen, along with a rising young saxophonist from the Netherlands, Tineke Postma.
“You reach out to like-minded people,” Carrington says on the phone from her home. She volunteers that it was her intention to gather top women players, while in the same breath starting to change the subject. “It’s a celebration of women in jazz,” she says, “but I don’t want to dwell on that.”Blackman is more adamant on the topic. “The gender question is not even worth bringing up because the drums have got nothing to do with gender,” she says on the phone from a gig in France. “I’m there because I love to play music. And I’m in support of anyone who wants to play the instrument.
“I wouldn’t care if Art Blakey was pink with polka dots and wearing a tutu,” she adds, citing the great drummer-bandleader. “I wouldn’t care if Tony Williams was green.” Williams, who played with Miles Davis, is the drummer she cites as her greatest influence among a pantheon of others, including Papa Jo Jones and Max Roach.And it’s true: Even if women are a minority in jazz, and perhaps especially on drums, there’s nothing inherent in Carrington’s or Blackman’s style that one can attribute to gender. Rather, there is the influence of these great elders; and there is each woman’s personal aesthetic and approach to an instrument that – made up as it is of a large and malleable assortment of drums and cymbals – offers almost endless possibilities.
It will be a special treat if, following each group’s set, Carrington and Blackman take the stage together to make this summit truly one to remember. At the time of these conversations the two hadn’t yet planned it out, but Carrington says there’s a good chance it will happen.”It’s a difficult instrument to do that with,” she says. “People like to see the competitive aspect of it. But if we do play together it definitely won’t be in any kind of drum battle. I do mine and she does hers, and both should be celebrated.”
Drum Summit is at Berklee Performance Center Sept. 26. 617-747-2261
John Michael “Ozzy” Osbourne (born December 3, 1948) is a British singer. Osbourne’s career has now spanned four decades. He rose to prominence as lead vocalist of pioneering English heavy metal band Black Sabbath, and eventually achieved a multi-platinum, award-winning solo career. In the early 2000s, his career as a celebrity revived when he became a star in his own reality show, The Osbournes (alongside wife/manager Sharon and children Kelly and Jack). In August 2008, Osbourne stated in USA Today that he intends to retire from his music career after two more albums.
Early life
Osbourne was born in Aston, Birmingham, UK and spent most of his early life there. His father Jack worked shifts as a toolmaker at GEC and his mother Lillian for the car components firm Lucas, to support him and his five siblings. Osbourne reportedly suffered from learning difficulties (claiming to be dyslexic ), making life at Prince Albert Road Junior School and Birchfield Road Secondary Modern School in Perry Barr difficult for him. However he did like music and took part in school plays. He also became a great fan of The Beatles from the age of 14 when he heard their first hit single. He left school at 15 and was then employed as a construction site labourer, trainee plumber, apprentice toolmaker, car factory worker and slaughterhouse worker. He also spent a few weeks in Winson Green Prison, when he was unable to pay a fine after being found guilty of burglary of a clothes shop .
Osbourne would later form a band with former Birchfield Road School classmate Tony Iommiafter he auditioned for a lead singer. During this time psychedelic rock was enormously popular. To distinguish themselves from the norm, Iommi and his partners decided to play a heavy blues-inspired style of music laced with gloomy lyrics.[8] Names for the band included Polka Tulk and Earth. One day during rehearsals, the band noticed people queuing up outside a cinema where a horror film was being shown, and bassist Geezer Butler observed how curious it is that people like to be frightened. The film these fellows were waiting to see was the Mario Bava-directed Black Sabbath. After reading an occult book that Osbourne had let Butler borrow, Butler had a dream of a dark figure at the end of his bed. Afterwards, Butler wrote the lyrics to “Black Sabbath“, one of their first songs, in a darker vein. It was the prototype of the songs that became their main style later in their career.
Black Sabbath: Ozzy (right) with Tony Iommi in 1973
Despite only a modest investment from US record label Warner Bros. Records, Black Sabbath met with swift and enduring success. Built around Tony Iommi’s guitar riffs, Geezer Butler’s lyrics, and topped by Osbourne’s eerie vocals, early records such as their eponymous debut album and Paranoid sold huge numbers, as well as getting airplay.
Early solo career
In 1979, Osbourne was fired from Black Sabbath largely for unreliability due to drug abuse. All the members in the band did drugs; but Osbourne did them to a much greater extent than other members of the band. He was replaced by former Rainbow singer Ronnie James Dio.
In the late 1970s, the band Necromandus rehearsed with Ozzy Osbourne and briefly became the first incarnation of his Blizzard of Ozz solo project. The Ozzy Osbourne Band began as The Blizzard of Ozz, formed by Osbourne’s new manager and future wife, Sharon Osbourne. The first line-up of the band featured drummer Lee Kerslake (of Uriah Heep), bassist/lyricist Bob Daisley (of Rainbow), and guitarist Randy Rhoads (of Quiet Riot). The record company would eventually title the record Blizzard of Ozz credited simply under Osbourne’s name. Largely written by Daisley and Rhoads, Ozzy met with considerable success on his first solo effort, the debut collection selling well with heavy metal fans.A second album, Diary of a Madman featured more of Bob Daisley’s song writing and guitar work by Randy Rhoads,[8] who was ranked the 85th greatest guitarist of all time by Rolling Stone magazine in 2003.[10]
In March 1982, while in Florida for the follow-up album Diary of a Madman tour, and a week away from playing Madison Square Garden in New York City, a light aircraft taken without its owner’s consent carrying guitarist Randy Rhoads crashed while performing low passes over the band’s tour bus. In a prank turned deadly, the right wing of the aircraft clipped the bus, causing the plane to crash into a tree and finally a nearby house, killing Rhoads as well as the pilot, Andrew Aycock, and the band’s hairdresser, Rachel Youngblood. On autopsy, cocaine was found to be present in Aycock’s urine. Learning of the death of his close friend and band mate, Osbourne once again fell into deep depression. The record company gave Osbourne a break from performing to mourn for his late band member, but Ozzy stopped work for only one week.
Ex-Gillan guitarist Bernie Torme was the first guitarist to replace Randy once the tour resumed. Torme however, found the pressure of learning the band’s songs so quickly and the idea of appearing before fans still mourning the loss of Rhoads unsettling. His tenure with the band would last less than one month.
During an audition for guitarists in a hotel room, Ozzy discovered Brad Gillis, who became his next guitarist. The tour continued, culminating in the release of the 1982 live album, Speak of the Devil recorded at the Ritz in New York City. A live tribute album was later released. This album would also feature a studio song by Randy, taken from studio outtakes, called “Dee” in honour of his mother.
Also, in a recent interview with Total Guitar Magazine Ozzy was asked if he wanted to say something about Randy Rhoads, the rock star said: “I have no regrets except I wasn’t able to keep Randy from getting onto that plane.”[citation needed]
Mid period
In the 1980s and 1990s, Osbourne’s career was an effort on two fronts: continuing to make music without Rhoads, and becoming sober. The 1981 concerts were recorded with a live album in mind. Entitled Speak of the Devil, known in the United Kingdom as Talk of the Devil, was originally planned to consist of live recordings from 1981, primarily from Osbourne’s solo work. With news of Black Sabbath also about to release a live album titled “Live Evil” however, Osbourne and Sharon decided to pre-empt his former band’s efforts, and the album ended up consisting entirely of Black Sabbath cover material, recorded with Gillis, bassist Rudy Sarzo, and drummer Tommy Aldridge. In the same Guitar Player interview where Brad Gillis discussed how he came to play for Ozzy, he discussed the live album, and admitted that everyone in the band wanted to rework some parts, but were not given the opportunity. Speak of the Devil was musically left alone. Ozzy later commented (inside the cover of “Tribute”) “I don’t give a fuck about that album. It was just a bunch of bullshit Sabbath covers.” He also stated that it was the recording company that wanted a new album, and that he was unwilling to release the tapes of performances live with Rhoads, believing this would dishonour his memory.
In 1982, Osbourne was the guest vocalist on the Was (Not Was) pop dance track “Shake Your Head (Let’s Go to Bed)” with Madonna performing backing vocals. Osbourne’s cut was remixed and re-released in the early 1990s for a Was (Not Was) greatest hits album in Europe, and it cracked the UK pop chart. Madonna asked that her vocal not be restored for the hits package, so new vocals by Kim Basinger were added to complement Osbourne’s lead.
Jake E. Lee, formerly of Ratt and Rough Cutt, was a more successful recruit than Torme or Gillis, recording 1983’s Bark at the Moon (co-writing the album with Bob Daisley, and also featuring Tommy Aldridge, and former Rainbow keyboard player Don Airey). 1986’s The Ultimate Sin followed (with bassist Phil Soussan and drummer Randy Castillo), and touring behind both albums.
In late 1986, he was the target in the first of a series of US lawsuits brought against him, alleging that one of his songs, “Suicide Solution”, drove two more American teenagers to commit suicide because of its “subliminal lyrics“. The cases were decided in Osbourne’s favour, essentially on the premise that Osbourne cannot be held accountable for a listener’s actions. Also helping was the fact the song was clearly about alcohol abuse and suicide solution was a play on words. Soon after, Osbourne publicly acknowledged that he wrote “Suicide Solution” about his friend, AC/DC lead singer Bon Scott, who died from alcohol abuse, and that solution referred to both alcohol as a solution to problems and as a chemical solution. Bob Daisley, however, asserts that he wrote this song and that it was about his concerns over Osbourne’s own ongoing battle with substance abuse.
Lee and Osbourne parted ways in 1987, however, reportedly due to musical differences. Osbourne continued to struggle with his chemical dependencies, and commemorated the fifth anniversary of Rhoads’ death with Tribute, the live recordings from 1981 that had gone unreleased for years. In 1988, Ozzy appeared in The Decline of Western Civilization II: The Metal Years and told the director, Penelope Spheeris, that “sobriety fucking sucks.” Meanwhile, Osbourne found his most enduring replacement for Rhoads to date — a guitarist named Zakk Wylde, plucked from a New Jersey gas station. Wylde joined Osbourne for his 1988 effort, No Rest for the Wicked, in which Castillo remained on drums and Daisley once more returned to co-writing/bass duties. The subsequent tour saw Osbourne reunited with erstwhile Black Sabbath bandmate Geezer Butler on bass, and a live EP (entitled Just Say Ozzy) featuring this lineup was released two years later. Geezer continued to tour with Ozzy for the subsequent four tours, and was a major stage presence throughout. In 1989, Ozzy Osbourne performed as part of the Moscow Music Peace Festival.
Later solo career and Black Sabbath reunion
While very successful as a heavy metal act through the 1980s, Osbourne sustained commercial success into the 1990s, starting with 1991’s No More Tears, which enjoyed much radio and MTV exposure. It also initiated a practice of bringing in outside composers to help pen Osbourne’s solo material, instead of relying solely upon his recording ensemble to write and arrange the music. The album was mixed by veteran rock producer Michael Wagener, who also mixed the Live and Loud album which followed in 1993. It went platinum several times over, and ranked at number 10 on that year’s Billboard rock charts. At this point Osbourne expressed his fatigue with the process of touring, and proclaimed his “retirement tour”, Comically called “No More Tours”, A pun on his No More Tears album. Which was to be short-lived. Osbourne’s entire CD catalogue was remastered and reissued in 1995. Also that year, he released Ozzmosis and went on stage again, dubbing his concert performances “The Retirement Sucks Tour”. A greatest hits package, The Ozzman Cometh was issued in 1997.
Osbourne’s biggest financial success of the 1990s was a venture named Ozzfest, created and managed by his wife/manager Sharon and assisted loosely by his son Jack. Ozzfest was a quick hit with metal fans, spurring up-and-coming groups like Incubus and Slipknot to broad exposure and commercial success. Some acts even had the pleasure to share the bill with a reformed Black Sabbath during the 1997 Ozzfest tour beginning in West Palm Beach, Florida. Osbourne reunited with the original members of Sabbath in 1997 and has performed periodically with the band ever since.
Osbourne’s first album of new studio material in seven years, 2001’s Down to Earth, met with only moderate success, as did its live follow up, Live at Budokan.
In 2003, Osbourne recruited former Metallica bassist Jason Newsted after he left the band in 2000. Both Newsted and Osbourne were enthusiastic about recording an album together, despite the fact that Newsted left shortly after touring with Osbourne towards the end of 2003.
On December 8, 2003, Osbourne was rushed into emergency surgery at Wexham Park Hospital in Slough, England when he was involved in an accident involving the use of his all-terrain vehicle on his estate in Chalfont St Peter in Buckinghamshire. Osbourne broke his collar bone, eight ribs, and a neck vertebra. An operation was performed to lift the collarbone, which was believed to be resting on a major artery and interrupting blood flow to the arm. Sharon later revealed that Osbourne had stopped breathing following the crash and was resuscitated by Osbourne’s then personal bodyguard, Sam Ruston.
While in the hospital, Osbourne achieved his first ever UK number one single, a duet of the Black Sabbath ballad, “Changes” with daughter Kelly. In doing so, he broke the record of the longest period between an artist’s first UK chart appearance (with Black Sabbath’s “Paranoid“, number four in August 1970) and their first number one hit; a gap of 33 years.
Since the accident, he has fully recovered and headlined the 2004 Ozzfest, where he again reunited with Black Sabbath. He has also turned his hand to writing a Broadway musical. The reputed topic is that of the Russian monk Grigory Rasputin, who held sway with Russia’s last royal Romanov family. In 2005, he released a box set called Prince of Darkness. The first and second discs are collections of live performances, B-sides, demos and singles. The third disc contained duets and other odd tracks with other artists, including “Born to Be Wild” with Miss Piggy. The fourth disc is entirely new material where Ozzy covers his favourite songs by his biggest influences and favourite bands, including The Beatles, John Lennon, David Bowie and others.
He and wife Sharon starred in yet another MTV show, this time a competition reality show entitled “Battle for Ozzfest“. A number of yet unsigned bands send one member to compete in a challenge to win a spot on the 2005 Ozzfest and a possible recording contract.
In 2004, Osbourne received an NME award for “godlike genius”.
Shortly after Ozzfest 2005, Osbourne announced that he will no longer headline Ozzfest. Although he announced his retirement from Ozzfest, Ozzy came back for one more year, 2006, albeit only closing for just over half the concerts, leaving the others to be closed by System of a Down (he also played the closing act for the second stage at the Shoreline in Mountain View, CA on July 1st as well as Randall’s Island, NY on July 29). After the concert in Bristow, Virginia, Ozzy announced he would return for another year of Ozzfest in 2007. Tickets for the 2007 tour were offered to fans free of charge, which led to some controversy (see Ozzfest article). In 2008, Ozzfest was reduced to a one-day event in Dallas, Texas, where Ozzy played along with Metallica.
In 2005, he was inducted into the UK Music Hall of Fame along with Black Sabbath where he decided to moon the crowd because of their poor reception while they were playing.
In March 2006, he said that he hopes to release a new studio album soon with long time on-off guitarist, Zakk Wylde of Black Label Society. In October 2006, it was announced that Tony Iommi, Ronnie James Dio, Vinny Appice, and Geezer Butler would be touring together again though not as Black Sabbath but rather under the moniker ‘Heaven and Hell (the title of Dio’s first Black Sabbath album). The response to the news on Ozzy’s website was that Ozzy wished Tony and Ronnie well and that there was only one Sabbath.
The new Ozzy album, titled Black Rain, was released on May 22, 2007. Osbourne’s first new studio album in almost six years, it featured a more serious tone than previous albums. “I thought I’d never write again without any stimulation…But you know what? Instead of picking up the bottle I just got honest and said, ‘I don’t want life to go (to pieces)'”, Osbourne stated in a Billboard interview.
On May 24, 2007, Osbourne was honoured at the second annual VH1 Rock Honors, along with Genesis, Heart, and ZZ Top. It was announced on May 18, 2007 that Ozzy would be the first inductee into The Birmingham Walk of Stars. In a ceremony conducted on July 6, 2007, a bronze star honouring Ozzy was placed on Broad Street in his home city of Birmingham in England, in his presence. Rock star Ozzy Osbourne has become the first artist to be honoured on Birmingham’s own Hollywood-style Walk of Fame. He was presented with the honour by the Lord Mayor of Birmingham. “I am really honoured,” he said, “All my family is here and I thank everyone for this reception – I’m absolutely knocked out”.
The singer, from Aston, told more than 1,000 fans on Broad Street that the brass paving star meant more to him than any Hollywood accolade.
In July 2008, it was announced that Ozzy Osbourne would be the recipient of the prestigious ‘Living Legend’ award in the Classic Rock Roll of Honour this year. Ozzy follows the likes of Jimmy Page and Alice Cooper. The induction ceremony is to take place at a gala ceremony on 3 November at London’s Park Lane Hotel.
On August 20th 2008, Affliction Clothing announced that Ozzy would be the musical guest at their October 11th Affliction: Day of Reckoning mixed martial arts event to be held at the Thomas and Mack Center in Las Vegas.
Personal life
Osbourne has been married twice and is the father of seven children (five biologically, and two adopted). He was first married to Thelma Riley (now a teacher in Leicestershire) and adopted her son Elliot Kingsley (1966); together they had Jessica Starshine Osbourne Hobbs (20 January1972) and Louis John Osbourne (1975).
Ozzy and Sharon Osbourne
He later married Sharon Arden and had three children with her. They are Aimee Osbourne (2 September1983), Kelly Osbourne (27 October1984) and Jack Osbourne (8 November1985). They also took in family friend Robert Marcato after his mother died, but never legally adopted him. Osbourne also has three grandchildren, Isabelle and Harry from his daughter Jessica and granddaughter Maia from son Louis. He wrote a song for his daughter, Aimee, which appeared as a b-side on the album Ozzmosis.He divides his time between Los Angeles and Buckinghamshire,England.
Osbourne achieved greater celebrity status by the unlikely success of his own brand of reality television. The Osbournes, a series featuring the domestic life of Osbourne and his family (wife Sharon, children Jack and Kelly, but not their eldest daughter Aimee, who declined to participate). The program became one of MTV’s greatest hits. It premiered on March 5, 2002, and the final episode aired March 21, 2005.
Ozzy Osbourne, Frank Bruno and Billy Connolly provided lead vocals on The War Song of the Urpneys single and album track, although the version heard in the series was largely sung by composer Mike Batt.
In 2002, Osbourne and wife Sharon were invited to the White House Correspondents’ Association dinner by Fox News Channel correspondent Greta Van Susteren for that year’s event. President Bush noted Ozzy’s presence by joking: “The thing about Ozzy is he’s made a lot of big hit recordings: Party With the Animals; Sabbath, Bloody Sabbath; Facing Hell; Black Skies and Bloodbath in Paradise. Ozzy, Mom loves your stuff.”
He has over 15 tattoos, the letters OZZY across the knuckles of his left hand was the first he had done as a teenager by means of a sewing needle and pencil lead .
Osbourne experienced tremors for some years and linked them to his continuous drug abuse. In May 2005 he found out it was actually Parkin Syndrome, a genetic condition, the symptoms of which are very similar to Parkinson’s disease. Osbourne will have to take daily medication for the rest of his life to combat the involuntary shudders associated with the condition. Osbourne has shown symptoms of a mild hearing loss, as evidenced in the television show, The Osbournes, as he often asks his family members to repeat what they say.
Controversy
Ozzy Osbourne found himself under fire in his controversial concert and stage acts that some parent-teacher associations, media content watchdog activist groups, including many Christian groups accused Osbourne of being a negative influence for teenagers. They claimed messages on his songs, actions (the infamous “horned hand“) and stage decorations are portrayals of devil worship and glorified Satanism, but Osbourne denies these accusations and he claims it was done in good fun, symbolised teenage rebellion and for shock value. Ozzy actually flashed a peace sign with each hand; Ronnie James Dio was better known for flashing the “horns”, which is actually an Italian tradition. At least one scholar has compared the controversy surrounding Ozzy and accusations of Satanism to those leveled against the renowned occultist, Aleister Crowley, and how both were demonized by the media and the Christian Right for their antics. Ozzy tempts the comparison with his song “Mr. Crowley“. Both Ozzy and Crowley enjoyed the infamy of being labeled Satanists, though both denied the charge. Still, that they accepted labels such as Prince of Darkness (Ozzy) and The Great Beast (Crowley), terms cited by critics to condemn both men as anti-Christian.
Ozzy was thought to have made songs that are held to promote or condone suicide. In 1985, California teenager John McCollum committed suicide while listening to Ozzy Osbourne’s “Suicide Solution“, a song about the dangers of alcohol abuse. Although McCollum suffered clinical depression, his parents sued Ozzy Osbourne (McCollum v. CBS) for their son’s death, claiming the lyrics in the song, “Where to hide, suicide is the only way out. Don’t you know what it’s really about?”, convinced McCollum to commit suicide. Although the family lawyer suggested that Osbourne should be criminally charged for encouraging a young person to commit suicide, the courts overturned the case because there was no connection between the song and McCollum’s suicide. Osbourne was sued yet again for the same reason in 1991 (Waller v. Osbourne) by the parents of Michael Waller for $9 million, but the courts overturned that case as well.
He has also come under fire from former musicians such as Bob Daisley, Lee Kerslake, and Phil Soussan for not paying them royalties and giving them credit on the albums they played on. Bob Daisley and Lee Kerslake sued the Osbournes in 1986 for outstanding royalties from songs written for the Blizzard of Ozz releases, and for reinstatement of performance credits. Litigation continued in 2002 when Daisley and Kerslake (and bassist Phil Soussan) once again sued for unpaid royalties. The Osbournes responded by erasing their contributions on the original masters and re-issuing new versions with the bass and drum tracks re-recorded by Robert Trujillo and Mike Bordin. Phil Soussan also brought a lawsuit against Ozzy and even got into a physical confrontation with Sharon at Randy Castillo‘s funeral.
Drugs, alcohol, and animal abuse
According to the press, Osbourne’s antics progressively reached a more dangerous point during the 1980s; his alcoholism and drug abuse continued. He later underwent a number of treatments for alcoholism and drug abuse.
After signing his first solo career record deal he came in to meet some of the people who worked at the record company. His plan was to release doves into the air to get people to notice him, but when no one noticed, he changed his plans. He grabbed a dove, bit its head off, then spat the head out. Then, with blood still dripping from his lips, a security guard came to remove him. Despite its controversy, this act has been parodied and alluded to several times throughout his career and is part of what made Ozzy Osbourne famous.
He gained further notoriety on Jan. 20, 1982, when he bit the head off a bat he thought was rubber while performing at the Veterans Memorial Auditorium (Des Moines) in Des Moines, Iowa. Rolling Stone magazine in 2004 ranked this incident number two on its list of “Rock’s Wildest Myths.” While the Rolling Stone article stated the bat was alive, the person who threw it onto the stage said it was brought to the show dead.
Osbourne admitted that, at the height of his drug addiction, he shot his family’s pets: “I was taking drugs so much I was a wreck. The final straw came when I shot all our cats. We had about 17, and I went crazy and shot them all. My wife found me under the piano in a white suit, a shotgun in one hand and a knife in the other”
While on tour in Texas in 1982, drunk already at 11am, he urinated on a portion of the Alamo, while wearing future wife Sharon’s dress, while there for a photo shoot. A police officer arrested him, and Osbourne was subsequently banned from the city of San Antonio, Texas for a decade. (This citation only refers to his peeing on the Alamo, but doesn’t contain any information on his banishment)
Osbourne’s alcohol problem also came to a very serious peak in 1989 after he became violently drunk and attempted to strangle his wife/manager Sharon.
Osbourne’s solo material (up to 1993) was remastered for CD release in August 1995.
In the wake of a lawsuit by former band members Daisley and Kerslake over unpaid royalties for songwriting credit, Osbourne’s catalogue was remastered and reissued again in spring 2002. This time, the original bass guitar and drum tracks on Osbourne’s Blizzard of Ozz and Diary of a Madman were removed and re-recorded entirely by bassist Robert Trujillo (Suicidal Tendencies, Infectious Grooves, currently of Metallica) and drummer Mike Bordin (Faith No More).[30] The pair also played on Osbourne’s studio album, Down to Earth from 2001. Other releases, such as Speak of the Devil, The Ultimate Sin, Just Say Ozzy and Live and Loud were deleted from Osbourne’s catalogue entirely, though they are still on iTunes.
Guitarists
Ozzy is known for close collaboration with the guitarists of his band, and often they are/become well known musicians. Note Iommi and Osbourne both appeared at one of Black Sabbath’s reunions in 1985 (Live Aid) and 1992 (Ozzy’s first retirement concert). Technically Osbourne was in Black Sabbath with Iommi from 1999-2001, but the band were temporarily on hiatus at the time as part of a proposed breakup.
With Black Sabbath
Tony Iommi In Sabbath with Ozzy (1968-1978, 1996-1999, 2001-present)
One of the heavier bands to come out of the early-’80s L.A. metal scene, W.A.S.P. quickly rose to national infamy thanks to their shock rock image, lyrics, and live concerts.
Unfortunately, once the novelty and scandal began to wear off, the band found it difficult to expand, or even maintain, their audience by relying only on their music.
Leader Blackie Lawless (bass/vocals) was already a rock & roll veteran when he relocated to the West Coast and founded W.A.S.P. with guitarists Chris Holmes and Randy Piper and drummer Tony Richards. The band soon established a reputation as a ferocious live act, thanks in large part to Lawless‘ habits of tying a semi-naked model to a torture rack and throwing raw meat into the audience. And with the release of their self-explanatory independent EP, Animal (F**k Like a Beast), W.A.S.P. became impossible to ignore.
They signed to Capitol Records, and with songs like “I Wanna Be Somebody” (an absolute anthem to blind ambition) and “L.O.V.E. Machine” leading the way, their self-titled 1984 debut was an instant success. W.A.S.P. took their horror show on the road, and their momentum continued to build with the following year’s The Last Command, which featured new drummer Steven Riley and the band’s biggest hit, “Blind in Texas.” Later that year, the band gained even more prominence as one of the biggest targets of Tipper Gore and the P.M.R.C. (Parents’ Music Resource Center), a group of Washington housewives leading a crusade against violent, sexist song lyrics. Though the incident (which included Senate hearings on the issue with guest speakers as disparate as Frank Zappa, John Denver, and Dee Snider from Twisted Sister) would cause more publicity than actual results, it served to make W.A.S.P. a household name — for good and for worse.
Ironically, the band toned down their act for 1986’s Inside the Electric Circus, a lackluster, repetitive album which saw Lawless switch to guitar (replacing the departed Piper) and the hiring of bassist Johnny Rod. The blood and guts were largely gone (as were the good songs), and despite releasing a strong live album entitled Live…In the Raw the following year, the band’s popularity began to plummet. The all-time low arrived with the release of Penelope Spheeris’ heavy metal “rockumentary” The Decline of Western Civilization 2: The Metal Years. An expose about the L.A. metal scene, the film’s most dramatic and depressing sequence showed an inebriated Chris Holmes drinking himself into a stupor in full stage gear while lying on a float in his mom’s swimming pool. In a movie filled with debauchery and decadence, this scene was by far the scariest.
1989’s Headless Children (featuring ex-Quiet Riot sticksman Frankie Banali) was a return to form, but it couldn’t revert the band’s slump and W.A.S.P. disbanded soon after. Lawless eventually returned as a one-man show for 1993’s The Crimson Idol, an ambitious rock opera/concept album billed as Blackie Lawless & W.A.S.P. Resurrecting the band’s old shock rock antics, but alas, not fame and fortune, the album flopped, and the following year’s greatest-hits set, First Blood…Last Cuts, seemed like their last chapter.
But the resilient Lawless returned once again, luring guitarist Chris Holmes back into the fold and recruiting bassist Mike Duda and drummer Stet Howland for 1996’s Still Not Black Enough. This lineup has continued to tour and record for a number of independent labels, with their albums including 1997’s K.F.D., 1999’s Helldorado, and 2001’s Unholy Terror. The band released Dying for the World in 2002, an exceptional collection of unusually serious material inspired by the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001. It was followed in 2004 by the conceptual Neon God, Pt. 1 and Pt. 2, with Dominator arriving in 2006. ~ Ed Rivadavia, All Music Guide
Anima Candida. O Anima Amore Amantes Amentes. Mea Anima Amore Experientia. Ad Deliberandum Cantare Extrema Linea Amare. Amore Cantare My heart yearns For love in all its glory A never ending ecstasy True love burns So deep into my soul and you See all that I am Now and forever we will Always be as one Anima Candida Virgo Virginum Praeclara Vivamos Te Deum Laudamus O Ama Ama Mi Lepus O Vita Mea Vita. Meum Mel. Mea Salus Mea Columba Si Vis Amari, Ama O Quam Tristis Et Attlicta Anima Per Nativitatem Tuam Paradisi Gloria Quis Legem Det Amantibus Amore Cantare Caritas Amore Experientia. Ad Deliberandum Cantare Extrema Linea Amare. Amore Cantare How I long To see you here before me Your smile will light the sun To feel the sweet sensation Washing over me To melt in your arms (chorus) What is love? Love is true What is love? Love is you
The song “Ameno” was used in Australia within “The Power of Yes” advertisements for Optus Communications. The band has sold more than 10 million albums. Era is also famous among mixed martial arts fans due to their song “Enae Volare Mezzo” being the theme song of Fedor Emelianenko.
Era’s live shows often feature vocalists dressed in medieval clothes and armour.
Amethystium is a music project aiming to create and explore emotive imaginary worlds in sound. Primarily electronic-based, the compositions traverse a span of moods that includes both light and darkness, bliss and melancholy. They range from the purely relaxing to the subtly intense, creating dreamlike and evocative musical journeys.
Formed by Norwegian composer/producer Oystein Ramfjord, Amethystium started out independently with a demo release in late 1999. After quickly becoming something of an underground phenomenon through word of mouth, the project was signed to then EMI/Capitol subsidiary Neurodisc Records and released a string of three Top 10 Billboard charting albums in the US.
In 2006 a retrospective compilation titled “Emblem (Selected Pieces)” was released, and a fourth full-length album is scheduled to be released in June ’08.
Lesiëm is a German musical project created in 1999 by the producers Sven Meisel and Alex Wende. The project’s music combines elements of rock, pop, electronica, new age, enigmatic and ambient music, as well as Gregorian chant and other choral music. It is frequently compared to French project Era and the Norwegian artist Amethystium.[citation needed] Lesiëm’s web site makes extensive reference to the group’s mystical/spiritual influences.
Lesiëm released its debut album, Mystic, Spirit, Voices, in 2000. When the album was released in the United States in 2002, it climbed to no. 7 on the U.S. Billboard charts. Lesiëm’s second album, Chapter 2, was released in 2001 in Europe, and in the U.S.A. in 2003 under the title Illumination.
The first two albums were some sort of prelude for the pop-opera Times, which was Lesiëm’s 3rd album (released as Auracle in U.S.A. in 2004). The musicians started their work in March of 2002 and finished it in the end of July. The single Caritas (feat. Maggie Reilly and Chor der Deutschen Oper Berlin) was presented in December 2002 on the philanthropic TV-show of Jose Carreras “Carreras Gala”.
ADRIANA SASSOON 