Archive: Sharon and Ozzy Osbourne on life after Sabbath and how their family paid the price

This article was originally published in May 2018

Music manager, promoter and media personality Sharon Osbourne has told students at the Liverpool Institute for Performing Arts (LIPA) about the struggle of balancing career and family, admitting, “something had to suffer and unfortunately I spent too much time away from my children. They took the hit.” 

Sharon and her husband, heavy metal singer-songwriter, Ozzy Osbourne - who have three children - took part in a Q&A that was chaired by ex-Slade frontman and LIPA Companion Noddy Holder. Sharon discussed relaunching Ozzy’s career after he left Black Sabbath in 1979. “It was very stressful at first, I’d left working for my Dad (promoter and impresario Don Arden) and Ozzy had just got divorced. We had nothing, so I had to work hard. 

"You try to put a priority on what’s most important. I wanted my kids to go to a private school, I wanted to keep the house we had and I wanted my husband to do well. For me, it was the business that won out. It’s kind of hard to live with it.” 

For Ozzy, leaving Black Sabbath was almost the end of his music career. “When Sabbath split I thought this’ll be alright, I’ll have a piss up and then go back to working on a building site. 

“Then Sharon turned up and took me under her wing. If it hadn’t been for Sharon, I wouldn’t be where I am now.” 

Ozzy believes the demise of Black Sabbath can be traced back to a number of bad business deals they signed at the start of their career. “We’d joined a band just to have fun, we didn’t know about the business side of it – we were just having a blast. 

“Then we realised we were being taken to the cleaners and we were forever fighting legal battles. We were so used to fighting with everyone; we ended up fighting with each other and imploded.” 

With Sharon as his manager, Ozzy achieved commercial success as a solo artist with five US top 10 albums and three UK top ten albums and a number one single – and again with Black Sabbath. In 1996, Sharon launched the touring rock festival Ozzfest, which is now in its 18th year and has played to an estimated five million people. 

During that time, Sharon was operating in a male-dominated industry and while things have improved, she believes there are still plenty of challenges for women. “Ultimately, and I don’t care what anyone says, men prefer dealing with men.” 

“When you go into a meeting, it’s straight business, never behave like the kitten. It’s balls to the wall, look them in the eye and make sure you know what you’re talking about. That way they know you’re not to be messed with. That way you get respect.” 

Image: Noddy Holder, Ozzy Osbourne and Sharon Osbourne in the Paul McCartney Auditorium. Photographer Tracey Gibbs