Excitement, trepidation and Sharon Osbourne...

On writing about a controversial figures as if they were actually human

My forthcoming book, The Beautiful Death of Ozzy Osbourne, went to print last week, ready for its 2 June publication date. I don’t think I will ever get used to the distinctive mixture of anticipation and trepidation as the date looms when my book is released into the wild. Actually I don’t want to get used to it; this is an addictive feeling.

Addictive, yes, but sometimes the trepidation can outweigh the anticipation. And that’s what I have been feeling the last few days, when something happened that has made me anxious about how this book will be received and what it might do to me reputationally...

A few days ago, I saw on Reddit that Sharon Osbourne had responded to an Instagram post by Tommy Robinson publicising his upcoming ‘Unite the Kingdoms’ rally, saying ‘See you at the march’. Tommy Robinson is a well-known and influential figure in UK far right circles. As the political landscape has shifted over the last few years, so he has become closer to the political mainstream. The endorsement of a celebrity like Sharon Osbourne may or may not help him or his cause, but it’s still another step towards normalisation.

Sharon’s apparent support for a far right cause was greeted with a degree of uproar on social media but at the time of writing we know nothing more of what she intended. She has not made a statement about her comment and no one knows if she really will attend the rally or not. While always outspoken, she has only started to dabble in political discourse relatively recently. She is Jewish and the October 7th attacks in Israel, together with the growth of Palestinian solidarity politics and the BDS movement, seems to have awakened something in her. As is often the case with those who suddenly discover the political (and the Jewish), she has had few guardrails to support her against self-radicalisation. Grief at the loss of her husband may have also weakened her defences against exploitation. The embrace of pro-Israel politics by sections of the far right, including Tommy Robinson, makes her and others like her prime candidates for the bait-and-switch.

Even before she posted, Sharon Osbourne was well on the way to becoming a hate figure on parts of the left. In the online wars that began on October 7th 2023, her supposed Zionism (although I don’t recall seeing her define herself using this term) is enough to damn her forever in some quarters. On left-leaning and/or pro-Palestinian parts of the metal world, her pariahdom was sometimes further justified by pointing to her supposed exploitation of Ozzy. Criticising Sharon for her politics is fair enough, even necessary, but the danger of misogyny and antisemitism in turning a Jewish music business mogul into a hate figure is very real. There is a long history of this sort of thing; none of which should imply that all female Jewish music business managers are saintly figures who are beyond criticism.

My book is not a hagiography of Ozzy Osbourne, nor of his wife. Rather, it’s an attempt to understand the man ‘in the round’ and to place him in the context of metal culture and the wiser context of his times. I don’t sugarcoat anything, including Ozzy’s history of domestic violence; nor do I offer him or Sharon blanket indemnity for anything they have ever said or done. What I do try to do is to show that people can surprise you. Ozzy’s final concert was certainly surprising - who would have thought that him of all people could produce a performance of such moving intensity? And who would have thought that this dissolute chaotic figure could die so loved?

Sharon Osbourne has never been loved as her husband was. But she does have an extraordinary story, which I go into in the book, and her marriage to Ozzy defied easy understanding. She probably did save his life. She probably did ensure a longer career than he could have managed without her. She also became one of the most important figures in the metal business through her management of him; all this and a celebrity career to boot. Their love for each other - and I have no doubt it was love - didn’t preclude Ozzy’s violence towards here and repeated infidelity.

But my experience and my gut tells me that I have chosen a perilous path. Not only is the case for treating people as complicated and contradictory not easy to make in an era of online culture wars, even making that case can render you infected and contaminated. To write a book called The Beautiful Death of Ozzy Osbourne opens me up to being tainted by imagined proximity to the evil of Sharon. This is where we are now.

While I am worried about how my book will be received following the latest twist in the Osbourne story, part of me also sees this as an opportune moment to make a statement against a reductive view of public figures. One thing I am proud of in my book is that it forces readers to engage with Ozzy as a whole person, with no one part of him reducible to another part. I also suggest that metal culture at its best can teach us to accept the damaged and contradictory nature of human being.

Even before I wrote this book I had been grappling with the question of who should or should not deserve to be treated as a pariah. What I have come to understand is that there are indeed monsters in this world, people who are beyond any redemption, incapable of love, goodness and make the world a worse place just by existing within it. These are the ones to be shunned. But I don’t think there are that many of them and even if there were, only a fraction are in a position to do much damage to anyone outside their immediate vicinity.

I don’t think Sharon Osbourne is beyond redemption and deserving of extirpation from the world. I don’t think that acknowledging that there are shades of grey in her character is to excuse all she does, nor does the harm she is doing by embracing Tommy Robinson mean that she never could have loved or cared for Ozzy and her children.

I do think though that, if she continues down her current course, it will be time to stop giving her the oxygen of publicity. It seems perfectly reasonable that Centrepoint, the homeless charity that Sharon had helped publicise, sought to distance themselves from her after she liked the Tommy Robinson post. That doesn’t mean that we should turn her into a symbol of evil or someone who can only be spoken of if it is to denounce her.

I hope that I am merely stating the obvious here. I hope that I am worrying about nothing. I am worrying though. In the meantime, the clock ticks down to publication date…