Lets not forget that Ozzy suffers from Multiple Sclerosis, which is a genetic disorder, IIRC.
I thought Ozzy was clean now. Am I wrong?
(I don’t watch his show.)
Ozzy’s slurred speech, etc, are a product of his current medications, I’d reckon. Did he “do a lot of drugs” in his time? Sure, but from the evidence, his consumption doesn’t seem to be particularly noteworthy amongst the rock set. Ozzy’s got (and has had his whole life) some debilitating mental illnesses, and he takes some fairly potent medications to combat them. His slurred behavior is probably due to him being on an “antipsychotic”-type drug, which often has that sort of side-effect. Ditto Brian Wilson, he’s been pretty strongly bipolar his whole life, and I suspect his behavior has to do with either the effects of this, or of the medications he’s taking. FWIW, I don’t believe Wilson was ever particularly associated with drugs; my guess is that people who come off as “constantly inebriated” are retrofitted with “oh man, he did a lot of drugs back when”.
They could start tomorrow, it’s not like she’s using it.
I happened to flip through channels a while back and caught Ozzy on Larry King (probably was the same interview previously referenced). Ozzy mentioned going on a week or two long drinking binge and only coming out of it when Sharon threatened to kick him out for good. I got the impression he tries to stay clean but falls off the wagon quite a bit.
Biran Wilson is deaf in one ear. I don’t remember which one. His Dad hit him in the side of the head and the force messed up his ear pretty bad. He talks out of the side of his mouth now, having learned to favour the side he can hear from. That accounts for some of his slurred speech.
No, I think the current theory is that it’s an auto-immune disorder
As others have suggested, Brian Wilson’s drug use was minimal compared to other “drug casualties” like Ozzy or Syd Barrett. Always hypersensitive and withdrawn, he had the misfortune of a) growing up in an abusive household (all the Wilson boys had shit to deal with, psychologically) and b) finding success in a business that demanded an incredible amount of productivity and competitiveness from him (Capitol had the Beach Boys on a three-album-a-year grind until 1967). Most of his mental difficulties stemmed from one or both of those sources; drugs certainly didn’t do him much good, but he probably did more damage to himself by smoking and overeating than he did by abusing chemicals.
I would guess that a big part of Ozzy’s problem is alcohol.
IIRC, Ozzy had pretty well cleaned up by the late 1980’s, was clean for over a decade, then a couple of years ago Sharon developed colon cancer and he was so freaked by the thought of losing her that he started drinking again.
I do have to say that it didn’t seem to have a negative effect on his songwriting ability. Of course, I haven’t checked in a few years, but after he pulled out of the slump he fell into when Randy Rhoades died (Bark at the Moon & The Ultimate Sin are two of the worst albums I’ve ever heard, and they were the first two studio albums he put out after what may be the stupidest accident a famous musician has ever died in) he seemed to be at the top of his game, lyrically speaking.
So, I don’t know, maybe there’s some kind of disconnect between the part of the brain that formulates concepts and his speech center. It wouldn’t be an uncommon problem, and not necessarily drug or alcohol related, although in Ozzy’s case it most likely is.
I hear that he got the hearing problem fixed in the last ten years. I think it was a bone or something that was messed up.
I agree that some of his mannerisms are similar to the way retarded people act. He does overall seem to do better over time though. I saw him in concert last september and he was a little weird.