Ozzy Knows Best: The Amazing Story of Ozzy Osbourne, from Heavy Metal Madness to Father of the Year on MTV's "The Osbournes" [Paperback]

Chris Nickson (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: August 3, 2002

Always outrageous but equally compelling, its THE book to have on Ozzy, MTV's The Osbournes, and everything in between.

Meet the Osbournes: children Kelly and Jack, mother Sharon, and the father, none other than Godfather of Metal Ozzy Osbourne. Starring in MTV's most popular show ever, the Osbournes have proven that the family of a heavy metal superstar can teach America what parenting is all about with their new twist on family values.

So what's made Ozzy into such a great father? Experience. You name it, he's done it. He's bitten the heads off doves and bats, urinated on the Alamo (while wearing a woman's dress!), and been addicted to drink and drugs. With his first band, Black Sabbath, he practically invented heavy metal. As a solo performer, he's sold millions of albums, and helped turn the annual Ozzfest tour into one of the biggest events in music.

Learn how Ozzy went from being banned at the Alamo to a guest at the White House, from bats to Beverly Hills. It's all in here, with plenty of trivia-like why oldest daughter, Aimee, didn't want to be a part of series- and all the parenting tips any father needs to be as good a dad as Ozzy.

Editorial Reviews

About the Author

Raised in England, Chris Nickson is a music journalist who’s also the author of many biographies. He lives with his family in Seattle.

Product Details

• Paperback: 272 pages
• Publisher: St. Martin's Griffin; First Edition edition (August 3, 2002)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0312311419
• ISBN-13: 978-0312311414
• Product Dimensions: 8.2 x 5.4 x 0.8 inches
• Shipping Weight: 8.8 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 1.7 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (6 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #2,561,788 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

I'm the author of the Richard Nottingham books, historical mysteries set in Leeds in the 1730s and featuring Richard Nottingham, the Constable of the city, and his deputy, John Sedgwick. The books are about more than murder. They're about the people of Leeds and the way life was - which mean full of grinding poverty for all but the wealthy. They're also about families, Nottingham and his and Sedgwick, and the way relationships grow and change, as well as the politics, when there was one law for the rich, and another, much more brutal, for everyone else.

Why Leeds? It's where I was born and raised, and that puts a place in your bones. You know it the way you can never quite know anywhere else...

In addition to this I'm also a music journalist, reviewing for magazines and online outlets, something I've been doing since the mid 1990s, specializing these days in world and roots music.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

1.0 out of 5 stars Not worth the paper it is written on, January 27, 2004

By 

Patrick Stott (Rolleston, Canterbury, New Zealand) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Ozzy Knows Best: The Amazing Story of Ozzy Osbourne, from Heavy Metal Madness to Father of the Year on MTV's "The Osbournes" (Paperback)

Poor Ozzy (well, actually he's fabulously rich, but you know what I mean). The beast he and Sharon created with the TV show "The Osbournes" means everyone is out to cash on his new level of fame and popularity. This book is a worthless cash in on Ozzy, and it's not even very good.

Sure, there are parts of Ozzy's early years I've read about in here which I hadn't found elsewhere, but the author hasn't looked very far. This book is a rehashing of other biographies, quotes from magazine articles, and observations of "The Osbournes" TV show. It smacks of being thrown together as quickly as possible. The author repeats some points ad nauseum, and there are even factual errors in it (the book says Metallica opened for Ozzy in 1983, when in fact this did not happen until 1986).

If you're interested in Ozzy, buy something else.

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Same old, same old., September 17, 2002

By 

Krista-Lea (New York, United States) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Ozzy Knows Best: The Amazing Story of Ozzy Osbourne, from Heavy Metal Madness to Father of the Year on MTV's "The Osbournes" (Paperback)

This book is like all the other unauthorized Ozzy books, with slight variation. If you are interested in reading about Ozzy, try "Ozzy in his own words", at least it is more accurate and truthful, not hearsay and taken from context in interviews. Dont get me wrong, this wasn't particularly a bad read, just a been there, done that type thing. It is VERY similiar to Sue Crawfords book, except this was a bit more "fun", meaning it has fact pages of each family member, it has quotes, it has quizzes, make for a little more interesting of a read if you are going to read the same stuff you have read before. This book happens to have more information on "The Osbornes" the MTV smash hit than Sue Crawfords book too.

3.0 out of 5 stars Chris Nickson don't know Ozzy's music, October 27, 2005

By 

Dasa Lupardus "Dasa Lupardus" (Burlington Wa) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Ozzy Knows Best: The Amazing Story of Ozzy Osbourne, from Heavy Metal Madness to Father of the Year on MTV's "The Osbournes" (Paperback)

I think that the book "Ozzy Knows Best" was poorly written. It did not focus on Ozzy's music as much as I would have liked. Instead it focused more on Ozzy's record deals, him attending the meetings, and talked a lot about boring parts of the meeting that were not interesting. I felt that the author should of left certain parts out, that he discussed. When he talked about the other bands that Ozzy was in, he focused less on Ozzy. The book seemed to go back and forth too much, which made it confusing, hard to follow and to keep up with everything that was happening. The author also threw in things that were useless to the book and put them in just to take up space. I found it really hard to follow the story because of all the useless trivia.
Instead of Ozzy swearing in the book, the publisher censored them, which, made the reading less effective to me. However, I did enjoy learning new information about Ozzy and his family that I did not know about. Some of this information, most people are not aware of. Ozzy once bit a head off of a dove which, was referred back to, too many times through out the book. I liked the part which, talked about Ozzy's solo career. The best thing I liked, was that it was really easy reading.
I would not recommend this book if you are really interested in Ozzy's music career. I would only recommend it to you if you wanted to learn about Ozzy's family life. I feel that you can do that by just watching the show.