Ozzy's royal antics
2005-12-12 08:44
London - Notorious rock hellraiser Ozzy Osbourne admitted on Sunday he was a few beers away from mooning Britain's Queen Elizabeth 2 and cannot fathom why Her Majesty would want to meet the "tattooed lunatic".
He said former Guns N' Roses guitarist Slash offered him cash to flash his backside at Royal Variety Show last month and had he not quit his wildman boozing days, he would have had the bare-faced cheek.
The former Black Sabbath frontman, 57, revealed how he beat alcoholism and said it could have been him when he watched the funeral of George Best last week, the football legend whose life was blighted by the addiction.
Singer Osbourne said Slash offered him £5 000 pounds to flash his buttocks at the sovereign during a recent show in Cardiff.
"A few beers inside me and I would have double-mooned the Royal Box," he told The People weekly newspaper.
Osbourne baffled
The self-styled "Prince of Darkness", from Aston in Britain's second city Birmingham, chatted with the Queen of England afterwards and said she was "really warm and friendly".
"It was a surreal night. I was standing next to that muppet thingy, Kermit the Frog, with Rod Stewart punching it in the head. Crazy."
The mumbling and often confused rocker, whose popularity soared thanks to the fly-on-the-wall television show The Osbournes, said the knock-on effects were baffling.
"It is odd. I was public enemy number one in the 1980s. Half of America wanted to burn me at the stake and now I'm meeting presidents, prime ministers, the Queen.
"I don't understand why any of them would want to meet some tattooed lunatic from the back streets of Aston."
Osbourne revealed how he was sick of the side effects of years out of his mind on drugs and booze.
No more flings
The singer, who formed Black Sabbath in 1970 and has sold 90 million albums - 50 million as a solo artist - said stopping drinking had meant the end of his flings with groupies.
"When the thought of sex finally filtered through the haze of booze, all the good-looking groupies had gone home.
"You'd wake up, turn over and there'd be this thing lying there looking like something Picasso painted on a bad day.
"I still get offers now but I'm not interested.
"I got drunk for the first time at 14 and in the next 22 years I was hardly sober. But gradually it stopped being a buzz until every time I drank I became a miserable arsehole.
"I was wetting the bed every night and then I'd get angry and pissed off. I just got fed up with it.
"I used to drink in the house on me own and the next thing you knew it would be on fire."