Ozzy explained why he had to “bow out” of TV show ‘The Osbournes’

Ozzy Osbourne previously revealed to NME why he had to “bow out” of his reality TV show, The Osbournes.

The death of the heavy metal pioneer and iconic Black Sabbath frontman was announced yesterday (July 22). His family said in a statement that the 76-year-old music icon was “surrounded by love” at the time of his passing.

It came shortly after he took to the stage for the huge ‘Back To The Beginning’ gig in Birmingham on July 5. That not only marked his final show both as a solo artist and with Black Sabbath, it also saw him raise just under £200million for charity.

As well as having a hugely influential career in the music industry, Osbourne also won over countless fans with his reality TV show, The Osbournes. It ran between 2002 and 2005, and followed the lives of him and his family – including wife Sharon and their children Jack and Kelly.

It became a global hit at the time and helped to launch the careers of Kelly and Jack, who went on to appear in various shows in the years afterwards.

Speaking to NME for a Cover interview in 2020, Ozzy explained why they called it a day in 2005, and shared his bittersweet memories of being on the show.

“The level of success that TV show got us was too much,” he said. “I had to bow out. I said to Sharon: ‘I don’t like the way it makes me feel, and I can’t stand fucking cameramen in my house.’”

“I’m not upset that I did it, but I wouldn’t do it again,” he added. “People were going: ‘Aren’t you worried about losing your fans?’ I said: ‘I’m not worried about losing my fans – I’m worried about losing my fucking mind.’”

He also recalled one incident where things got out of hand to NME, saying: “God’s honest truth: one day I’m lying on the couch and about six or seven Japanese people come in… I thought they were friends of Kelly’s. I said: ‘Upstairs, second door on the right.’ I didn’t even want to fucking get off the couch.

“Turned out they’d just walked in. Got off a tour bus and walked in the fucking house. It was nuts!”

While the family did not return officially for another season of The Osbournes, they did launch a podcast a few years ago where they would discuss Ozzy’s time in the industry, the memories they made over the years, newsworthy events and more.

In November 2023, they spoke on the podcast about the impact of the MTV reality series, and Kelly said it had “a massive negative effect” on them.

“Imagine having to relive every conversation you’ve ever had throughout a 24-hour period or six-month period, and then all of a sudden people are judging everything you’ve said,” she said. “You’re just like, ‘Wait, I just thought I was having a normal conversation, now this person hates me.’ It’s crazy. It just made me so insecure.”

Ozzy added that while he came to see it as the “best diary” they could have, he did find it “intrusive” to have a camera crew in his home. “At the time, I said I wanted a safe room where I could go and pick my nose and squeeze a zit if I want to without being on camera, and they had a fucking camera in there. When you’ve got hidden cameras, you start to freak out.”

Last March, Sharon shed light on what it was like being on the show as well – saying that Ozzy was “stoned on every episode”. “He’s never seen it. Doesn’t wanna see it. And he never watched one episode,” she explained.

In May, she also explained that she “felt terrible” over their other daughter, Aimee, not being a part of the show. “It was very, very hard on me because we were traveling all over the world, we were doing a million things and Aimee wasn’t a part of it. It made me feel terrible because I didn’t have my whole family,” she said.

“She just didn’t want the attention. She was 18, that’s a tough age for a girl, and she just didn’t want it.”

Clips from The Osbournes have been resurging on social media in recent hours following news of Ozzy’s passing, and gamers have shared a famous PlayStation ad featuring the legendary singer.

The likes of Ghost, Alice Cooper, Elton John, Yungblud, Billie Joe Armstrong of Green Day, Jack White, and Gojira are among the huge names paying tribute to Osbourne, as well as his former bandmates Tony Iommi, Bill Ward and Geezer Butler.

Fans have also been posting footage and memories from the legendary artist’s final performances, and isolated vocals of him singing ‘Mama, I’m Coming Home’ at the farewell show has been shared.

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