Ozzy Osbourne has addressed the infamous controversy surrounding his song ‘Suicide Solution’ following the 1986 suicide of a teen whose parents believed had been influenced by the track and attempted to sue the rocker for his death.
Speaking to Billy Morrison on SiriusXM for a track-by-track rundown of Blizzard Of Ozz, Ozzy said that the entire situation “was all taken out of perspective.”
“So we wrote this song about… We were all doing some serious pounding of the booze back then. I’d been drinking heavily for a long, long time. And it’s, like, ‘Suicide Solution’ means solution being liquid — not a way out. People get the fucking thing wrong.”
The ‘Crazy Train’ singer added that he was “more than shocked” upon hearing that the parents of 19-year-old John McCollum believed that Ozzy was responsible for their son’s death because there were lyrics in the song that “incited the teenager to kill himself.”
Describing how he found out about the news, he added: “Sharon phoned me up in England. She said, ‘Get on a plane. You’ve gotta come out.’ I said, ‘Tell me what I’ve got to come out for.’ She said, ‘I’ll tell you when you get here.’ I said, ‘Is it problems?’ She said, ‘Just get on a fucking plane.'”
Ozzy continued, “I get to LAX, come to the terminal, and there must’ve been 200 cameras. I’m looking over my shoulder [while] I’m standing, and [there are] about 15 microphones in front of me: ‘What do you think of this lawsuit?’ And I’m going, ‘What lawsuit? I’m gonna go back to the hotel. I’ll find out what it’s all about.”
One such line they pointed to was: “Where to hide, suicide is the way out. Don’t you know what it’s really about?”
Love Metal?
Get the latest Metal news, features, updates and giveaways straight to your inbox Learn more
The teen was reportedly listening to Osbourne’s music when he shot himself with his father’s .22-caliber pistol on October 27, 1984.
A California court would later dismiss that lawsuit in 1988, ruling that John’s suicide was not a foreseeable result of the Black Sabbath frontman’s track.
SiriusXM’s Ozzy’s Boneyard is set to celebrate the anniversary of the Prince of Darkness’ classic debut solo album Blizzard Of Ozz with a special called 40 Years Of Ozzy Osbourne’s ‘Blizzard Of Ozz,’ where they will detail the rest of the record’s tracks and will premiere on Friday, September 18th.
Check out 40 Years of Ozzy Osbourne’s Blizzard of Ozz with Ozzy Osbourne:
