Ozzy Osbourne has had his fair share of stylistic looks through the decades. Does anybody remember when he cut off all his hair? Frankly, who could forget? Still, through it all, there have been a number of iconic poses that Ozzy has struck through the years, but one crazy moment in photography history came on the photoshoot for Ozzy's Bark at the Moon LP (1983).
"It was hilarious, and like shooting [the film] Ben-Hur," recalled photographer Fin Costello in a recent interview Classic Rock. "The original idea was to have Ozzy looking like something from a Roman epic, wearing a wolf skin on his head like a cloak."
Costello continued saying that "Ozzy had met the guy who did the make-up for the movie A Nightmare on Elm Street…. [He] was impressed with his work, so we decided to do a spoof of all the werewolf movies instead."
"In one of the shots, Ozzy was playing a wolf, on his hands and knees with these Rottweilers behind him," Costello remembers. "What I didn't realize was that Ozzy was terrified of dogs. Now, when he could see the dogs, he could deal with it. But when they were behind him, it was completely different!"
Wow, who knew the Prince of Darkness had a fear of the pups? Maybe he's a cat dude, like Rob Halford. Either way, while they were far from Elm Street, it certainly sounds like the shoot was a nightmare.
"It was five in the morning," Costello said, "and eventually [Ozzy] got up and said he couldn't do it anymore. We ended up having this bizarre, early-hours conversation with him dressed like a werewolf, his wife, Sharon, who'd just given birth about two days before, a nanny holding the baby in a Moses basket and with a tea lady wandering around the set."
Yep, that sounds like our Ozzy, God bless him!
In other recent Ozzy Osbourne news, in an interview with SiriusXM's Ozzy Speaks co-host Billy Morrison, Osbourne stated he'd absolutely tour again if he could.
"So, if I can ever get back to where I can tour again, fine. But right now, if you said to me, 'can you go on the road in a month?' I couldn't say yes. I mean, if I could tour I'd tour. But right now I can't book tours because right now, I don't think I could pull them off."
Osbourne later added that the press may have blown things out of proportion, saying "This fucking press drive you nuts. I mean, I looked in the magazine, 'Ozzy's on his last legs.' I'm fucking not dying."
Still, Osbourne reiterated that if he got the all-clear from his doctor and felt up to the task, he'd be back on the road tomorrow. "Come on, guys," he said. "Haven't I've had it bad enough already? If I get okay today. If the doctor said to me today, 'oh, you can tour.' It would take another six months to get it together, you know?" He later added "The only thing I've got that keeps me going is making records. But I can't do that forever. I gotta get out there."
