Customer Reviews

Diary of a Madman: Ozzy Osbourne: The Stories Behind the Songs

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As a writer whose major influence has always been the writings of Ozzy Osbourne, I decided to buy this book, to learn about the stories behind the classics. I was elated to see the many photos the book contains-many of which that are rarities-but as for the book itself, I was disappointed greatly.

First, I should mention that the stories for Ozzy's earlier work are inaccurate. Back in 2002, Bob Daisley started a feud with Ozzy over lost royalties. Daisley made many remarks about the music, including that he was the sole writer of nearly every Ozzy song from his first three albums, including the classic song "Suicide Solution" (Daisley claimed he wrote the song specifically about Ozzy's alcoholism, while Ozzy contends that it was written about Bon Scott, of AC/DC fame). The writer of this book used faulty information for most of Ozzy's solo career; the above was only one example of the book's errors. The book, itself, was written in 2002.

Sadly, the book is also very incomplete. There are no stories whatsoever for the "Ultimate Sin" album-the book claims that there aren't many stories on it. That's still no excuse for not including any known facts about it. Most of the book is full of stories that everyone already knows (Ozzy fans-why was "Goodbye to Romance" written? How did Randy Rhoads die?) while it lacks depth in the so-called "unknown stories," filling up many passages with stories of the dove & bat decapitations and miscellaneous other well-worn tales. What's worse, many of the classics aren't even discussed in detail. I was hoping to read about the writing of "Waiting for Darkness" but I came up disappointed, as this book only mentions it in a sentence or two.

Overall, this book is dreadful and a huge waste of money. If you want to see the many pictures it contains, go for it. But if you want to know about the real stories, save your money and make guesses. In comparison, they just might be accurate.

One thing that needs to mentioned is the rarity of the Black Sabbath pictures included. I've been a Sabbath collector for years, and have not seen most of the pictures included--live, backstage, and photo-shoot settings. Many of them are of Tony Iommi (Ozzy's arch-enemy of old), as it happens.
As far as the actual commentary on the songs, in this subject matter it is hard to tell what is truly legitimate. Manipulated statements and entirely invented statements abound in the music journalism industry, so you have to take that at face value. Some comments attributed to Ozzy are rather articulate (not his style), and therefore one would have to wonder if they are really his own.
There is one GLARING mistake in the pictures which tends to sap the already-low credibility from a publication of this sort: a photo of Brad Gillis (brief Ozzy guitarist) is next to a photo of Dave Spitz (brief Sabbath bassist), and the caption below them reads something to the effect of "Brad Gillis was replaced by Jake E. Lee", implying that the photo of Dave Spitz is really Jake E. Lee (which is strange since Dave is clearly holding a bass guitar!).
This book is great for the rare old pictures, but it is still nothing more than one of a million books of questionable accuracy put together by bandwagon-jumping "authors" who most likely have little idea of who or what they're talking about and are trying to cash in on a current fad.

Diary of a Madman is a must have book for any Sabbath/Ozzy fan. Carol Clark takes you through "Black Sabbath" all the way to "Down to Earth" highlighting all the important band events along the way while providing interesting information on all the important Ozzy/Sabbath songs. This book is a easy and fascinating read. Even if your a die hard Ozzy/Sabbath fan you will still find many interesting tidbits in this coffe table book. It also contains a GREAT selection of pictures!

This is a good book. Its strength lies in the great pics it has as it is weak in actual details of the songs origins.