After nearly a decade with Black Sabbath, Ozzy Osbourne is back in action with the new, improved Blizzard of Ozz. Joining Ozzy on the whirlwind first leg of his U.S. tour are Randy Rhoads (guitar), Tommy Aldridge (drums) and bassist Rudy from Cuba. The Blizzard Blitz is taking the band from the Northeast to Texas in less than a month at press time the group had just hit the Midwest, playing highlights from Blizzard of Ozz (Jet) as they cut a swath across the land.

Before the tour began, Ozzy stopped at the offices of Circus Magazine to chat with publisher Gerald Rothberg about his colorful past, his approach to performing, and what he calls his “split personality.”

CIRCUS: What is the most outrageous incident that’s happened to you while on tour? 

OZZY: It was in Nashville, some years ago. There were these real weird people comin’ to hear Sabbath. These guys were lined up in the corridor dressed in black robes, holding candles. This was well before bands like Kiss and things like that were happening. They were just freaky people, really outrageous. I said to the roadie, ‘Get rid of these people!’ We didn’t know what they were up to. So when they came over to us, we sang them happy birthday, blew the candles out, and told them to go! 

CIRCUS: (Laughter) That's pretty good. How do you react to the American people in light of what happened recently to Ronald Reagan? 

OZZY: I don't understand it. I think there are too many guns in this country. Access to guns is so easy. You can get a gun anywhere. The tragedy of John Lennon struck me very hard. That was unbelievable. 

CIRCUS: Yes, absolutely. 

OZZY: These people have a psychological problem. The guy who shot Reagan wanted to be recognized by society for doing such crazy acts to other people. I can't understand why this guy shot him. It was never political. 

CIRCUS: Who's your favorite rock & roll star? 

OZZY: Robert Plant. He's got a great voice. 

CIRCUS: Who were your earliest influences in rock & roll? 

OZZY: Beatles, Jimi Hendrix, Eric Clapton, Cream. 

CIRCUS: Your tastes go back to the sixties? 

OZZY: That's when I was sort of a fan more than an actual performer. 

CIRCUS: Some bands have formed corporations, and posture themselves in a business way. Are you doing anything like that? 

OZZY: I did have a partnership with Black Sabbath. I'm not with them anymore. However, I've just got my own company. I'm taking care of my own thing. I own a small business in England, though, which is a wine bar that my wife runs. Anyway, I'm not a businessman as much as a performer. 

CIRCUS: Who would you say is your favorite touring group? 

OZZY: I really like Van Halen. They are a great band to tour with. 

CIRCUS: Many of the early seventies groups, for example, Styx and REO Speedwagon, who really put in their dues and worked hard, are beginning to make it this year. REO Speedwagon reached the top of the charts, and Styx is up there, too. 

OZZY: I think there's a lot of talent involved in being a rock band and there's a hell of a lot of luck as well. I know bands that work and that are really good players that haven't had the break. Eventually, I think if you're determined, you'll get some form of recognition. 

CIRCUS: What do you think of AC/DC? 

OZZY: I think they're the greatest band I've seen in years. Phenomenal. I love them. I love them. I think Angus is fantastic. I just don't know where he gets his energy from. He doesn't drink alcohol. He doesn't smoke cigarettes. He only drinks herbal leaf tea. 

CIRCUS: (Laughter) I see. So you're becoming a tea drinker this year. Why did you start out in your rock & roll? 

OZZY: The only way I could get out of the city where I was living, getting to travel, was getting involved in a band. 

CIRCUS: What city was that? 

OZZY: Birmingham, England. I just did it to get a chance to go to Europe and play in clubs and what not. Eventually we signed a record contract. It just took off from then on. 

CIRCUS: What is a typical off-hour activity for you, day or night, when you're on tour? 

OZZY: I like to walk around the cities and see things. I've been around this country so many times, yet I've hardly seen things. Sometimes I literally don't know what town I am in. We just get on the plane and fly. But what I'm doing this tour - I'm not flying at all. I'm on a bus; everybody's going to ride on the bus. We're all going like a family on the bus. Like Tom Waits used to have to go on the road to get the strength for the studio again, to get another album done. I've already done another album since the first one, by the way. 

CIRCUS: That's great. Do you find that you have much time when you're on tour to do some free things? 

OZZY: Not really. I'm exhausted by the time I get a day off. I like to spend the time relaxing and sleeping. Drinking in bars and just sitting around is where I'm at. 

CIRCUS: What do you think of kids doing drugs? 

OZZY: Well, I have myself tampered with drugs from time to time. I don't really like it. I have children of my own. I think a lot of it's down to parents trying to understand their children and trying not to condemn them, realizing what they're doing and that they have a life of their own. In England they sniff glue, which is terrible. It blows their brains out. I can't say that I knock drugs. I think it's wrong eventually. I mean, when you're having fun it's great, but when someone has to pay for, it is bad. Besides, you don't know what you're buying these days. If you knew what you were buying, it wouldn't be so bad, but people tamper with it and put all kinds of rubbish in there. It goes in your body and it burns you up. I remember one time at a gig in Detroit at the motorcycle race track years ago. It was sick. It was because the kids were out doing stuff at this big arena, passing it over the fence, pushing it. And afterward, there were fifteen kids, just absolutely laid out there. I said, I bet there's really heavy experiences that make people take drugs. 

CIRCUS: It wastes a lot of people. 

OZZY: The kids don't know what they're doing. It's like giving a four-year-old kid a loaded shotgun to walk around the house with. Everybody knocks the older generation for saying you shouldn't do it, but now it's been going on a long time. Let's all get together and try to solve the problem. 

CIRCUS: Very well said. In America some states have an eighteen-year-old drinking limit, while some have a twenty-one-year-old drinking limit, and other states are advocating a nineteen-year-old drinking limit. What age do you think is proper? 

OZZY: I think there should be one law all over the place. America is a very strange country. It's got fifty-two states. 

CIRCUS: Fifty. 

OZZY: Fifty, rather. And every state has got its own law. If you get busted for jaywalking one place you can get busted for standing on the curb in another place. So you walk around the States with a book of rules, you know. 

CIRCUS: Do you think there should be a nineteen-year-old minimum drinking age or an eighteen-year-old? 

OZZY: In England, it's pretty all right. It's eighteen. 

CIRCUS: What are your favorite albums? 

OZZY: Zepplin One and Two. Sergeant Pepper's, early Beatles. A lot of the early Beatles, like The White Album, McCartney's Band on the Run. 

CIRCUS: How do you handle an audience that doesn't respond to you? What do you do? 

OZZY: They will respond. I guarantee that they will respond, even if I have to strip off. They'll respond. Don't worry. 

CIRCUS: (Laughter) I see. So if they don't respond, just strip or streak or do something like that. Did you ever experience an audience that didn't respond to you? 

OZZY: I remember one time at the old Fillmore East. We did two shows a night at the Fillmore East. The first show was great: the second show they were like crashed out, stoned or something. I don't know. So I just went nuts and I started screaming at them and swearing and all! They reacted in the end. They wanted to punch my eyes out. 

CIRCUS: What would you tell a young rock & roller who wants to get involved in a band? 

OZZY: Don't get involved in the business trip thing that goes with it. It changes your personality instantly. If you don't watch it, you can be sucked down the tubes so easily in the first two year. Just keep yourself steady, believe in what you do. Be sincere. 

CIRCUS: What would you say is one of your most interesting experiences in your life so far? 

OZZY: Getting success in the rock & roll business. 

CIRCUS: How does your family react to you as a rock & roll star? 

OZZY: It's really funny, because I'm a split personality. When I'm home, I'm ordinary John Osbourne. When I'm on the road, I'm a madman. I just go crazy. I haven't got the typical rock & roll sort of brat kids. They have a code of loyalties to sick by. Everyday-sort-of-living children. They go to school. They're very well-educated. 

CIRCUS: Do you ever have fears about getting too close to the general public? 

OZZY: Oh, when I'm home I go drinking in bars. I mean I don't go drinking with rock & rollers. I don't go to the in places, to these rock types of clubs. I just go to the pubs. I enjoy speaking to old guys who have been in the countryside and who are farmers. I'm just one of the local blokes, you know. That's the way I'm accepted around where I live. I've been living there now for ten years. I'm just one of the lads. 

CIRCUS: Do you remember the first gig you ever played? 

OZZY: It was a fire station in Birmingham, England. A fireman's ball or something. We played a few blues numbers, jazz rock things. That was the very first time we ever played. 

CIRCUS: Do you remember any incidents about what it was like to be on stage for the first time? 

OZZY: I'll tell you one: I didn't need any laxatives, for example!