Ozzy Osbourne

December 11, 1981. I first met Ozzy at an in-store appearance at Rolling Stone Records in Chicago. He was into anything I wanted him to do, so I decided to shoot a fake beer ad for a fictional beer called Boy Howdy Beer that Creem Magazine had invented. This entailed finding an empty soda can and wrapping a decal around it. Ozzy had no idea what we were doing, but gladly held the can up for a photo, which turned into a full page in Creem.

May 29th, 1982. I was hired to shoot an ad for Washburn Guitars, who had signed Rudy Szarzo (Ozzy’s bass player) to an endorsement contract. When I had enough pictures of Rudy, I concentrated on Ozzy.

May 29th, 1982. I was hired to shoot an ad for Washburn Guitars, who had signed Rudy Szarzo (Ozzy’s bass player) to an endorsement contract. When I had enough pictures of Rudy, I concentrated on Ozzy.

January 24th, 1982. I went out to the venue in Rosemont Illinois to photograph Don Airey, Ozzy’s keyboard player, who played off stage during the show and would be impossible to photograph. The shoot was for Keyboard Magazine. I was persuaded to stay for the show (I really wanted to go home to watch the Super Bowl) but I was promised that I could watch it backstage before the show. So I stayed, and got the most “famous” photograph I have ever taken! This photograph has been used on everything from a magazine cover (many of them) to a snowboard to an album cover. It is the gift that keeps on giving. Bonus: every guitar player that finds out that I shot this picture will do anything for me upon finding out!

January 24th, 1982. I went out to the venue in Rosemont Illinois to photograph Don Airey, Ozzy’s keyboard player, who played off stage during the show and would be impossible to photograph. The shoot was for Keyboard Magazine. I was persuaded to stay for the show (I really wanted to go home to watch the Super Bowl) but I was promised that I could watch it backstage before the show.

Another take of Ozzy and Randy from the same show.

January 24th, 1982. I went out to the venue in Rosemont Illinois to photograph Don Airey, Ozzy’s keyboard player, who played off stage during the show and would be impossible to photograph. The shoot was for Keyboard Magazine. I was persuaded to stay for the show (I really wanted to go home to watch the Super Bowl) but I was promised that I could watch it backstage before the show.

Ozzy being Ozzy.

May 29th, 1983. Ozzy was one of the highlights of Metal Day at the US Festival in the desert in California. He seems to enjoy hanging out with dwarfs in costume!

May 29th, 1983. Ozzy was one of the highlights of Metal Day at the US Festival in the desert in California.

March 4th, 1984 in Rosemont, Illinois. At this point I was photographing Ozzy every time he came to the midwest. Because of my picture of Ozzy and Randy from the year before, I was trusted with total access.

March 5th, 1984 in Rosemont, Illinois. The morning after the show, Ozzy came out to the lobby of the hotel to model his new fur coat.

April 5th, 1986 in Rosemont, Illinois. Ozzy in concert.

April 7th, 1986 in Rosemont, Illinois. Ozzy makes a small one day career shift, and arrives at Wrestlemania 2 as the manager of the British Bulldogs!

July 13th, 1986 in Hoffman Estates, Illinois. This was the moment of my first real photo shoot with Ozzy. He has the ability to walk in a room very quietly, then walk onto the set and immediately turn on the Ozzy Madman persona! Also, the photo on the right is Ozzy joking about what he thinks of photographers.

July 12th, 1989 in Hoffman Estates, Illinois. Another great shoot with the “Prince of Darkness.”  Also this night he interacted a lot with Zach Wylde so I got a lot of great photos of the two of them together.

August 20th, 2000 in Tinley Park, Illinois. Ozzy carries on into the 21st century- still rocking and shooting water at the audience!

August 17th, 2010 in Tinley Park, Illinois. Ten years later and he is still going strong! Still a blast to shoot.