A longtime associate said: “If Ozzy stumbled or slurred, people assumed it was the drugs. But a lot of the time he was just playing the fool.
“It gave him space to keep his real self private. Beneath it all he was very aware of what was happening around him.”
Paice recalled the last time he saw Osbourne, more than two decades ago in the Swiss resort town of Zermatt. With drinks flowing, Osbourne suggested a mega-tour featuring Black Sabbath, Deep Purple and Led Zeppelin, each playing 20-minute sets for astronomical pay.
The idea never came to fruition, but Paice said the conversation showed Osbourne’s blend of wit and vision.
The singer’s image was later cemented by reality television, when The Osbournes aired in the early 2000s and presented him as a bumbling father struggling through domestic chaos.
Yet even then, close friends insist, he was far more deliberate than the cameras suggested.
As tributes poured in after his death, the emphasis has shifted from the cartoonish figure of public imagination to the man behind the mask.
One family friend summed it up by saying: “Ozzy wasn’t just the wild man of rock. He was intelligent, complex and hurting. “The act kept people from seeing the depth of his struggles – and also the depth of his brilliance.”
