Ozzy Osbourne - we shouldn't speak ill of the dead but has his domestic abuse and serial infidelity been glossed over in all the eulogies?

[mids2019]

Maybe because he was a rocker firm the 70s but it seems Ozzy's real character flaws have been warped into a 'charismatic hell raiser ' image to be admired.

In reality should we also be critical about his actions and views?

You shouldn’t speak ill of the dead, but you’ve started this thread!
It’s very raw for his family and they’ve been through a lot.They loved him and supported him, whether you agree or not, is irrelevant.
Agree with the first comment, starting a thread like this is too soon.

Never said that I thought he was a wonderful person for doing that - you are being ridiculous.

I am mindful this was 40 YEARS AGO when he was in the middle of a drug addiction (quite common at the time). He realised it was wrong and did something about it.

Its called developing over time as a person and maturing. Make bad decisions, learn from them and move on. Easy to be a keyboard warrior over one thing without the context.

Fine not to talk to his close family about what he did at this time but I don’t think it is right to gloss over the awful things he did.

@lemonraspberry there are articles about him shooting birds and cats on his property during lockdown to keep him sane. Not such an animal lover then. Still had his animal killing ways

He tried to murder her didn't he? Admittedly whilst psychotic or something.

Oh and during some kind of episode on drugs he killed 17 of their pet cats. She found him covered in blood with a knife and I think a gun.

Also the biting heads off bats and pigeons. One occasion he claimed he thought it was a fake one.

That’s as may be, but he’d have been fucked if she had been the one to die first.

In the 80s in drug fuelled rampages, he did admit to killing animals. He said that was a big turning point in his life and from that point on he became an advocate for animal welfare.

Now OP let his family grieve their loved one in peace.

Will be the the 12th August soon. Grouse shooting season starts. Hope some the posters here are going to be out protesting about the birds being shot for sport.

How would we be stopping them from grieving in peace?
Genuine question, I’m honestly not being snarky.

@Pedallleur I don’t like killing animals for sport. Also he was shooting at cats. Even people who do agree with hunting don’t usually go around shooting at the neighbourhood cats

Maybe don’t believe everything you read in the daily mail- you’ll be happier for it.

😂 Yep, that’s for sure.

True

@lemonraspberry are you saying you know that isn't true. Quite a few articles on it and it states he said it in a radio interview

Is it quite common for drug addictions to lead to behaviour that isn't just self destructive?

Horrible 'sport' and personally I wouldn't be friends with someone who did this.

@crumblingschools Struggling to understand how he shot cats during Covid. I read articles that he could barely walk, struggled with mobility after spinal neck surgeries & onset of Parkinson’s. That is widely known If he was shooting stuff that is just speculation. Not as if he would hardly have an accurate aim & be running around after them.

You're claiming that The Osbournes TV show aired footage of Jack breaking a dog's neck before the camera "abruptly panned elsewhere" and they tried to play it off as a joke.

I'm telling you that never happened. If it had, the footage would simply never have made the edit. They wouldn't have been allowed to air it on MTV or Channel 4 even if it had happened, which to be clear, it didn't.

You're probably confusing it with the episode where Jack 'killed' the dog Minnie, which was quite clearly a hoax (one of the majority of segments of that show which were scripted/staged) and was acknowledged as such part way through the episode. Given that you haven't even remembered the name of the show probably, I'm going with this.

All will be well when the will is read. Millions I reckon, that's the important thing 😉

It wasn't during COVID. The cat thing was in the 80s, at the height of his booze/drug addiction.

He was in the middle of a particularly bad psychotic episode and killed them with a shotgun. Probably a miracle that he didn't shoot an actual person. He's talked about this being a bit of a turning point for him to get well.

It's an absolutely horrendous, indefensible thing to have done. But psychosis, drug fuelled or otherwise, has been responsible for far worse.

Still, I think there has to be room for forgiveness, as long as people change for the better and stick with it, which by all accounts he did.

I know but @crumblingschools is adamant he had a cat killing spree during Covid (when a cripple) & it must be true as it was in the daily fail & seems determined to make things up to defend their pov.

There are newspaper articles where he says he took pot shots at birds and cats (not his) during lockdown

@Velmy
I’m not confusing it with anything.

it was the early noughties late at night on channel 4 ( I think it was a Friday night) The reason this is relevant is that then, before SM and the cancel culture when drinking and drugs were still very ‘out there’ this sort of thing could be got away with. And they did get away with it especially when most people watching it were probably stoned and pissed after a Friday night at the pub.

The later episode was the joke that they used to try to cover up what Jack did.

Imagine the outrage if this had happened these days.

With all due respect - it didn't happen. The show was first broadcast in 2002. You are misremembering it.

Just use some common sense - Why would they need to 'cover up' something on a pre-recorded show? They just wouldn't have shown it in the first place.

People being 'stoned or pissed' while watching it is irrelevant. There are very strict regulations around broadcasting cruelty to animals. Channel 4 would not have been allowed to broadcast such footage.

There are a lot of armchair experts here who don't know anything about Black Sabbath but are also intimate experts in someone they never met's private life and every move.
See also The Beatles/John Lennon.