And Finally Artist News

Ozzy Osbourne a fan of the royals, but not ex-PM Blair

By Chris Cooke | Published on Thursday 27 June 2013

So for those of you keeping track of Ozzy Osbourne’s thoughts on the British establishment, take note – former PM Tony Blair is a “prick”, but Prince William is a “lovely bloke”. And this isn’t just based on the Black Sabbath leader reading the papers, oh no, this is based on his very own, very brief conversations with the political and regal men.

Obsourne, presumably while plugging new Black Sabbath album ’13’, told ShortList of the time he met Blair: “I was at a charity do a while back, and Tony Blair’s looking over at me. This was when the Middle East thing was going on – we’re sending boys over and they’re coming back in fucking boxes. He comes up, and I thought he was going to say, ‘Would you mind going out to play to the troops?’ but he said, ‘I was in a rock band once, but I could never quite get the chords to ‘Iron Man”. Are you fucking kidding me? Is that all you’ve got to say, you dickhead? He was a prick”.

But that doesn’t mean that Osbourne would always rather talk politics than his own oeuvre. On his brief encounter with king-to-be William, he continued: “When I did that fucking Jubilee thing for the Queen, Prince William came up. We’d played ‘Paranoid’, and he said, ‘Why didn’t you play ‘Black Sabbath?’ I’m like, ‘What?’ Lovely bloke. Can you imagine him headbanging at the Royal Jubilee?”

And Prince Harry also has Ozzy’s seal of approval, though that opinion is based on tabloid events. Referencing last year’s ‘naked in Vegas’ expose, Osbourne concluded: “Prince Harry in Vegas was fucking great. That’s what you should be doing if you’re royalty. You get anything you want, so why not? Government approved!”