Ozzy Osbourne discusses the controversy over his 1980’s song Suicide Solution

Ozzy Osbourne has discussed the controversy over his 1980’s song Suicide Solution and what the lyrics actually meant in a candid new interview. 

In a chat with Rock Classics Radio on Apple Music Hits on Thursday, Ozzy spoke about the media storm that surrounded the hit and his wife Sharon’s reaction.

The music star, 71, said: ‘Suicide Solution wasn’t written about, ”Oh that’s the solution, suicide.’ 

‘I was a heavy drinker and I was drinking myself to an early grave. It was suicide solution. Wine is fine but whiskey’s quicker. Suicide is slow with liquor. That’s what I was doing for a long while. I just sort of stopped.’

Five years after the song’s release, the parents of teenager John McCollum filed a lawsuit, alleging that their son took his own life after listening to the hit which featured on his Blizzard of Ozz album. 

Recalling the case brought by McCollum’s family and the media frenzy, Ozzy said he received an urgent phone call when he was in England from his wife Sharon. 

He said: ‘I got a phone call and Sharon said, ”Pack your bag. Get on a plane to Los Angeles. You’ve got to get out here right now.’ 

‘I said, ”Wait a minute. What’s happened?’ She goes, ‘Just do it. Just get on the god damn plane.’

‘I want to know what they hell is going on. What’s happened? So I get on the plane and I’m flying for 11 and a half hours, get to LA, go through the customs and I come out the customs, not knowing any of what’s going on and there are 200 cameramen there. 

‘So as I’m coming through the gate, I’m thinking I’m walking in front of some film star or something else. I’m looking over my shoulder like, ‘What’s going on?’ And so somebody pokes a mic in my face and goes, ‘What have you got to say about the suicide?’ 

‘I’m thinking, ‘What are you talking about?’ So I’m getting the car, it’s right there, and Sharon tells me.’ 

After landing in the US, Ozzy was at a ‘very heavy, very intensive’ press conference in LA with his lawyer Harold Weissman.

He recalled: ‘The difference in them, the public, reporters and the serious press are nothing like music press. They give you some really difficult questions to answer. And the lawyer’s just, ‘Don’t you say a word. Let me do all the talking.’ 

‘It’s very difficult to sit there quiet when they’re throwing questions at you all the time. But it was a very unnerving situation.’ 

Ozzy went public this January with his Parkinson’s battle, after being diagnosed with the disease in February 2019.  

He announced in February that he was canceling the North American leg of his No More Tours II concert gigs, owing to an excruciating neck injury. 

What’s more, he suffered a fall last year and required spinal surgery, ultimately scrapping his tour dates for 2019. 

Ozzy was meant to hit the road again this year, but scrapped the North American leg of his tour so that he could seek treatment in Switzerland – only for the coronavirus lockdowns to leave him confined to his home and unable to travel to Europe. 

Although Ozzy has not been seen out in public in months, he did appear with his family on Celebrity Watch Party with a finale that aired on 23 July. 

The reality show is a take-off of the UK show Gogglebox and offers a glimpse at celebrities in their homes watching and reacting to TV.  

Prior to that, he was seen in January, looking a little more like his old self, when he attended the Grammys with a walking cane alongside his daughter Kelly.

Despite his recent health crises and reduced mobility, the father-of-six and former reality star has repeatedly declared that he will never abandon showbusiness or rock and roll.