Ozzy Osbourne and family - Jack, Sharon and Kelly - at the height of The Osbournes fame. (Courtesy Everett Collection)Ozzy Osbourne will forever be remembered as the "Prince of F***ing Darkness" - the bat-biting, Alamo-excreting wild child who fronted Black Sabbath before launching a solo career and his own music festival, Ozzfest.
Not only was the British rocker, who died on July 22 at age 76, an inventor of heavy metal, winning five Grammys and a spot in the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame, but he also carved out a second career as an unlikely pioneer of reality television after The Osbournes debuted on MTV in 2002."Nobody in their right mind who had any sort of public persona would [have said yes to doing the show]," The Osbournes executive producer Greg Johnston tells Yahoo. "There was no social media at that time. Everybody who was a celebrity or in the public eye was very guarded."AdvertisementAdvertisementAdvertisementAdvertisementOzzy - along with his manager wife Sharon and two of their kids, Jack and Kelly - pulled back the curtain on the crazy train that was their life for the cameras. The foulmouthed family had just moved into a swanky Beverly Hills, Calif., mansion, made over with crucifixes everywhere, and chaos reigned supreme inside. Just not the typical rock star kind.
There were dogs and cats running amok (often urinating on the furniture), Sharon launching a ham over the neighbor's wall, the kids fighting (sometimes over Christina Aguilera) and Ozzy - patriarch of the madness - perpetually looking confused and calling: "Sharon!"Ozzy being unable to work the remote was TV gold. (MTV/Courtesy Everett Collection)The show, which became an instant hit, followed in the footsteps of MTV's Cribs, which peeked inside celebrity homes, and The Real World, where strangers lived together under constant surveillance. But The Osbournes was something else entirely. Raw and unpredictable, it offered a never-before-seen glimpse into the life of a celebrity family before reality TV became the norm.
What emerged onscreen was a surprisingly loving household. They were relatable - navigating health issues, parenting challenges, substance abuse, animal love, neighbor disputes and dad struggling to use the remote control.
AdvertisementAdvertisementAdvertisementAdvertisement"Even though they were in Beverly Hills and he was this crazy rock star, he was a loving father trying to deal with things things that any other person watching might be dealing with," says Johnston, who went on to direct the 2020 documentary Biography: The Nine Lives of Ozzy Osbourne and produce the reality show Ozzy and Jack's World Detour, which ran from 2016 to 2018. "'F***, I can't work the remote either' or 'My cat got out and I couldn't get him back inside.' Just mundane and relatable situations they dealt with - and with a lot of love."After Ozzy's death, we caught up with Johnston to talk about his time with the metal legend and reality TV icon.
How The Osbournes came to be"There was no expectation of a show," Johnston says of the 2001 meet-and-greet at the Ivy in Santa Monica with MTV. The Osbournes had done an early episode of Cribs, which debuted in 2000, and there was discussion about what else was possible - like Kelly and Jack doing guest VJ spots or Ozzfest coverage."As you do, you talk about your lives when you're having lunch," Johnston says. "Sharon talked about hers - and everything that was going on - telling us about all the dogs they had and Ozzy waking up in the middle of the night and slipping on dog shit. She was just relaying [a story]. There was no pitch. Just sort of: 'Oh my god, I can't believe this happened last night. I'm so tired,' and it made us laugh. Every story that she told ... we were dying."They weren't your typical Beverly Hills family - with animals running wild and hams flying over walls - but their chaos came with a surprising dose of heart. (Courtesy Everett Collection)They left the meeting thinking: "Oh, my God, the real show is them. There should be cameras in their house," Johnston says. "But they thought, They won't let us do that. Why would anybody in their right mind allow TV cameras in their house? [Someone said], 'Just ask them.' We did - reluctantly - and Sharon said yes, not even sure what that meant."AdvertisementAdvertisementAdvertisementAdvertisementIt was an unexpected move for a celebrity family of that caliber."I don't even know why they wanted to do it," Johnston says. "It wasn't like today [how celebrities] want a show or use social media to promote whatever their brand is. Ozzy was already a celebrated rock star," he says. "There was no reason for them to do it. They just thought it was interesting and that their lives were interesting."Starting with the kernel of an idea, Johnston met with friends who produced the Real World to find out more about the magic formula. Then he started meeting with Sharon and the family, just "myself and a camera, interviewing them, getting to know them - and allo