Sharon Osbourne is the wife and manager of Ozzy Osbourne. She got her start in
the music business in the mid 1970s by working for her father, Don Arden, who
was the manager of Black Sabbath & the Electric Light Orchestra. Don Arden was
also the president of Jet Records. Sharon started off as a receptionist and
eventually became an important part of her father's management team and a
high-level executive at Jet Records.
In 1974, Don became the manager of heavy metal band Black Sabbath, which was
led by the outrageous lead singer Ozzy Osbourne. When Sharon met Ozzy she was
18 years old and he was about 26. The story goes that the first time they met,
Ozzy walked in to Don's management office wearing a faucet around his neck and
sat down on the floor, refusing to sit in a chair. Sharon was so frightened of
Ozzy that she tried to get a coworker to bring him a cup of tea because she was
too scared to do it herself. Sharon eventually got over her fear of Ozzy and
the two struck up a friendship. They eventually fell in love, even though Ozzy
was married at the time to his first wife, Thelma.
By 1979, Ozzy had been fired from Black Sabbath and he was at a low point in
his career because he had no record deal. Don and Sharon didn't give up on
Ozzy: Don decided to become Ozzy's manager and he signed Ozzy to a solo deal
with Jet Records. Sharon is credited with introducing Ozzy to Randy Rhoads, the
acclaimed guitar player who joined Ozzy's band, Blizzard Of Ozz. (Randy was
killed in a plane crash in 1982.)
In 1980, when Ozzy was scheduled to meet with executives at his record company,
Sharon suggested that they bring along some live doves, with the idea to make
an unforgettable entrance. But instead, Ozzy (who admitted to being under the
influence at the time) bit off the head of one of the doves. It became one of
the most infamous incidents of his career and added to Ozzy's 'madman of rock &
roll' reputation. Although Ozzy and Sharon claim that the decapitation part of
that incident was unplanned, some of the people who were at the meeting later
said that the entire incident was planned by Sharon as a publicity stunt.
Planned or unplanned, Ozzy's animal-biting antic generated a huge amount of
publicity.
Convinced that Ozzy had a future as a solo superstar, Sharon asked her father
if she could become Ozzy's manager. Don refused, so Sharon had to buy out
Ozzy's management contract for approximately $1.5 million. This business deal
caused a bitter rift between father and daughter and they have since remained
estranged.
By 1981, Ozzy was divorced from Thelma, and a year later, Ozzy and Sharon were
married. Their marriage has survived Ozzy's battles with alcoholism and drug
addiction. In one well-known 1989 incident, Ozzy tried to kill Sharon and she
had him arrested. This incident nearly destroyed their marriage and it led to
Ozzy checking himself into rehab. The case against Ozzy was dropped after he
and Sharon decided to reconcile. Sharon and Ozzy have also weathered lawsuits
against Ozzy that blamed his music for people's suicides. None of the lawsuits
ever found Ozzy guilty of causing the suicides, and it was common for these
cases to be thrown out of court.
Sharon has established a reputation as being one of the few people who can
handle and keep up with Ozzy's antics. And at times, she's been known to be as
hard-partying and mischievous as Ozzy.
Throughout the 80s and 90s, Ozzy (also known as 'The Godfather Of Metal')
continued to sell millions of records around the world, despite some of the
controversy surrounding him. Ozzy and Sharon settled in Los Angeles and started
a family together, which now includes two daughters and a son. Throughout
Ozzy's solo career, substance abuse still plagued him and he spent time in and
out of rehab. In 1996, Ozzy and Sharon started their own record label, but the
company went out of business within a year.
Despite their problems, Ozzy and Sharon's marriage and business partnership
have endured. In addition to managing Ozzy, Sharon has also been the manager of
other acts like Gary Moore, Lita Ford, Coal Chamber, and the Quireboys. One of
Ozzy and Sharon's most successful collaborations has been the annual Ozzfest
tour, the heavy metal festival that has consistently been a top concert
attraction every year it has existed. Sharon and Ozzy have also started a
record company called Divine Recordings in conjunction with Priority Records.
In addition to being Ozzy's manager, Sharon was briefly the manager of Smashing
Pumpkins, but in January 2000, she resigned from the position after only three
months on the job. At the time, Sharon made a well-publicized statement saying
that she quit as the Smashing Pumpkins' manager for 'medical reasons : Billy
Corgan was making me sick!" In 2002, Sharon, Ozzy, and their children Jack &
Kelly starred in the MTV reality show 'The Osbournes', which became the
highest-rated show on MTV.
