Sharon Osbourne

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Sharon Osbourne

Sharon and Ozzy Osbourne
Born: 9 October 1952
Brixton, London, England
Occupation: TV presenter/music promoter
Spouse: Ozzy Osbourne
Children: Aimee, Kelly and Jack

Sharon Rachel Osbourne (née Levy, then Arden; born 9 October 1952) is an English music promoter and TV personality.

Sharon was born in Brixton, London, the daughter of Ashkenazi Jewish music promoter and rock and roll entrepreneur Don Arden (born Harry Levy), and his wife Hope, an Irish Catholic. She is the wife and manager of Black Sabbath vocalist Ozzy Osbourne, and the mother of Aimee, Kelly and Jack Osbourne.

In the Sunday Times Rich List 2006, Sharon Osbourne is listed as the 44th richest women in Britain. Also, in the overall British list, Sharon and Ozzy Osbourne appear together at number 554 with a combined wealth of £100 million. [2]

On the 20 November 2006, Sharon donated £10,000 to the help a hospice trust in association with "This Morning" (later on the show Simon Cowell (X Factor rival) donated £25,000).

Contents

[edit] Sharon and Ozzy

Sharon met Ozzy Osbourne at the age of 17 while working in Ipswich as a receptionist for her father, who had been looking to manage Ozzy's band Black Sabbath. When Ozzy was fired from Black Sabbath in 1979, Sharon took over his management from the Arden organization. Proving to be as hardworking and ruthless as her father, Sharon coordinated the recruitment of a technically gifted backing band for the recording of The Blizzard of Ozz and, by engaging proven songwriters, helped Ozzy launch what became a highly successful solo career. A series of high selling albums and world tours followed through the 1980s, eventually making Ozzy one of the world's most popular metal acts. In 1996 she created the Ozzfest summer touring festival.

Sharon and Ozzy were married in Maui, Hawaii on July 4, 1982.

[edit] Other music management roles

Sharon has also managed the bands Coal Chamber and The Smashing Pumpkins. Never one to mince words, in 2000 she made news by severing her relationship with The Smashing Pumpkins and then announcing in a statement: "...I must resign due to medical reasons... Billy Corgan was making me sick!" She also claimed to have briefly worked with Queen before being fired by Freddie Mercury.

[edit] TV career

[edit] The Osbournes

Sharon gained celebrity status as one of the stars of MTV's reality show, The Osbournes, which followed her family's daily life. As the person who negotiated with MTV to screen the show, she is often credited with bringing about her husband's emergence from heavy metal icon into mainstream celebrity. The show began airing in early 2002, and when, in July 2002, Sharon was diagnosed with cancer, she insisted that filming should continue. The final episode of the show aired in the US on March 21, 2005. MTV's British affiliate has been airing the show since 2003. Sharon Osbourne has got 12 dogs.

[edit] The Sharon Osbourne Show (US version)

In 2003 Sharon became the host of her own television talk show, The Sharon Osbourne Show, which was syndicated to various US channels and also shown in the UK on Sky One. The show was meant to be a reflection of her personality and home life – similar to her reality show but with the inclusion of guest interviews and performances. However, it was never very successful in the ratings and critics panned her inability to perform the basic tasks required of a talk show host, such as reading cue cards and conducting interviews.

Eventually the show's format became extremely standardised – not at all what Osbourne had wanted. A sequence on her reality show found her struggling to book any noteworthy celebrity guests because their agents did not feel an appearance would be beneficial. The show was cancelled in early 2004.

[edit] The X Factor

Sharon has been a judge and mentor on the UK reality TV talent show The X Factor in 2004, 2005, and now 2006, alongside Simon Cowell and Louis Walsh.

In the first series she mentored the 16–24's and chose Roberta Howett, Cassie Compton and Tabby Callaghan to represent her in the live rounds of the show. The best placed of these was Tabby, who finished third overall. The final was contested between Simon's act Steve Brookstein and Louis' act G4, with Steve winning. Sharon's outburst against Steve on the night of the final is widely credited with helping him to win, although according to her autobiography he was well ahead at all stages of the voting.

In the second series she mentored the 25-and-overs, and selected Andy Abraham, Brenda Edwards, Chico Slimani and Maria Lawson to contest the final rounds. Andy Abraham finished in second place to Louis Walsh's act Shayne Ward.

Sharon also appeared in the spin-off show The X Factor: Battle of the Stars. She did not choose her singers but was selected to manage the 16–24's Nikki Sanderson, Matt Stevens and Michelle Marsh.

In series three of The X Factor she is mentoring the 25-and-overs, and selected Ben Mills, Dionne Mitchell, Robert Allen and Kerry McGregor. Ben is her only act still in the competition, after Kerry and Dionne were voted out in a double elimination on 28 October and Robert was voted out on 18 November. Ben Mills was voted out on 9 December, sending Sharon out of the competition.

Sharon currently lives at the Dorchester Hotel in central London. This is not just due to the fire at her house in Buckinghamshire, but also because the hotel is closer to both The London Studios (where The Sharon Osbourne Show is filmed) and The X Factor studio in Wembley.

[edit] The Sharon Osbourne Show (ITV1)

In 2006, UK TV channel ITV1 commissioned a new Sharon Osbourne chat show, initially to be called Mrs Osbourne Presents, but eventually just named The Sharon Osbourne Show. The show began on Tuesday 29 August 2006, and was scheduled to run for six weeks in the 5 pm weekday timeslot. The premiere episode proved a close competition as the show received 1.9 million viewers with 17% share – only 400,000 viewers (and 3% share) ahead of Richard and Judy on Channel 4. Her second show attracted 2.1 million viewers. [1]. However, ratings appeared to slump after Channel 4 moved its popular game show Deal Or No Deal, hosted by Noel Edmonds, into the timeslot, with Sharon managing just 1.2m viewers compared to DoND's 2.9m. [2] Channel 4's The New Paul O'Grady Show returned on Monday 25 September 2006 with 2.3 million viewers compared to Sharon's 1.6 million.

[edit] Other TV work

At a charity auction, Sharon bid for and won the opportunity to guest star in an episode of the NBC comedy Will & Grace. She played a bartender in a spring 2004 episode.

In October 2004, Sharon announced that she and husband Ozzy would be teaming up for yet another MTV show entitled Battle for Ozzfest, in which a group of unsigned bands battle it out for a spot on the 2005 Ozzfest tour.

In January 2005 she was selected to feature in an advertising campaign for the UK supermarket chain ASDA.

[edit] Health

In 1999 Sharon lost 100 pounds (45 kg) after Lab-Band surgery (Adjustable Gastric Band). On October 26, 2006, Sharon went on the Howard Stern Show and revealed that she gained 15 pounds in the last year, and that she'll be having her plastic band removed. She claims that she'll consult a psychologist to help her deal with her eating problems.

In July 2002 Sharon was diagnosed with colon cancer. Later, she announced her cancer had spread to her lymph nodes and was more serious than originally thought. She survived the disease against a 33% survival prognosis, and in August 2004 founded the Sharon Osbourne Colon Cancer Program at Cedars Sinai Hospital. In addition, she was the honored guest at the Multiple Myeloma Research Foundation's 2003 Fall Gala[3], where she spoke of her struggle against cancer.

In December 2004,Sharon made the public announcement that she is still battling bulimia.[citation needed]

Sharon Osbourne has lent her support to design limited edition T-shirts or vests for the 'Little Tee Campaign' for Breast Cancer Care which donates money for breast cancer research. [4]

[edit] Extreme: The Autobiography

Sharon Osbourne's autobiography, Extreme, (co-authored by Penelope Dening) was published in October 2005 and tells of her difficult childhood growing up with her father, Don Arden, and also documents the highs and lows of her marriage to husband Ozzy Osbourne, shedding light on areas of her life previously not commented on. Published by Time WarnerBooks, it went straight to No. 1 on the Sunday Times Bestseller List (UK) where it remained for 15 weeks, selling over 600,000 copies in hardback, becoming the biggest selling autobiography since records began. "Both the heroic vulgarity and the love are vividly captured in this pungent and distinctive autobiography," said Sunday Times; "Truly unputdownable" said Irish Times. In March 2006 it won Biography of the Year at the British Book Awards.

[edit] Feud with Insane Clown Posse

  • Quotes taken from a recording of the original "Howard Stern Show" in 1999, which can be found Here

In 1999 the band Coal Chamber, managed by Sharon at the time, were touring with the Insane Clown Posse on their "Amazing Jeckel Brothers Tour". As the tour progressed ICP decided to drop Coal Chamber because they were not pulling in enough money and Coal Chamber's sound was not Juggalo material. On August 19, 1999, the clowns appeared on The Howard Stern Show to confront Coal Chamber and according to Violent J a total of 15 tickets were refunded after Coal Chamber was dropped from the tour. In his own words he claims "If they (Coal Chamber) toured alone or were with another band they'd have a million people there, but people hate ICP so much that I think Coal Chamber's fans were like, I ain't even going". As the show continued the clowns said "that bitch (Sharon) means nothin' to me". Upset, she asked to come on the show the next day and ICP returned as well to confront her. After several minutes of arguing, she bet the clowns $50,000 that their next album would not sell more than 200,000 units and that they would be dropped from their label. ICP upped the ante to 400,000 records [5]. A year later they released 2 albums on the same day, Bizzar and Bizaar, and sold over 250,000 copies each[5]. Sharon has so far failed to pay them the money allegedly owed, which the Clowns had planned to donate to charity.

On September 25, 2006, ICP returned to the Howard Stern show, which by then was moved from mainstream airwaves to Sirius Satellite radio. Howard asked the clowns if Sharon ever paid them and the response was no. Howard then claimed he heard a rumor that ICP sent Sharon roses when she was diagnosed with cancer, to which the clowns replied "we never sent her flowers, we just stopped calling her a bitch after she got sick."

[edit] The conflict with Iron Maiden at Ozzfest 2005

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On August 20, 2005, the band Iron Maiden played their last Ozzfest show of 2005 in San Bernardino, California. A series of premeditated negative events occurred during that performance, beginning with attendees in the V.I.P. area being handed eggs by festival security, with which they then pelted the band, as well as with garbage and other debris. Festival Crew and people who attended the event also described that someone deliberately sabotaged the sound system and played a tape of somebody chanting 'Ozzy!' as people at the event chanted 'Maiden!' to counter the attack. It was also reported that the sound system was intentionally turned off about 5 times in the middle of the band's performance. Sharon Osbourne admits to planning these attacks on Iron Maiden in retaliation against Bruce Dickinson's statements about the Osbourne family's reality show on MTV.

As Iron Maiden began to play the song "The Trooper", a man believed to be 'Big Dave', a famous Black Label Society road crew assistant and guest on Sharon's reality T.V. show "Battle for Ozzfest" came upon the stage and waved a disproportionate American flag, mocking Bruce Dickinson's usual activity of waving the Union Jack during this song. Despite all of the happenings, Iron Maiden played out the entire show with an additional encore. Despite Bruce's leading the band to finish the performance with the band, Sharon did command the stage to make a few statements. She complimented the band, although she reportedly[3] dubbed Dickinson a prick and claimed that he ruined the entire Ozzfest tour, to a huge chorus of boos.

As ever with such incidents, when it comes to assigning blame, fans are deeply divided. The majority of Iron Maiden fans unequivocally support the band, while many Black Sabbath and Ozzy Osbourne fans naturally support Sharon Osbourne. The reasons behind Sharon Osbourne's bizarre behaviour are murky; however, this much at least is known:

1) Sharon's allegations that Bruce insulted Ozzy Osbourne, Black Sabbath, and America in general are only partly true. This allegation stems from an interview posted on 'Brave Words & Bloody Knuckles' in 2005 (among other sites) in which Bruce Dickinson refers to American audiences as "fat, smug and complacent". However, whenever he is asked about Ozzy Osbourne, Bruce Dickinson has never failed to praise the aging Black Sabbath rocker.

2) Sharon's complaints about Bruce Dickinson's insulting remarks about Ozzy appear to have been based on Bruce's well-known distaste for reality TV. In the same interview as listed above, Bruce Dickinson firmly reiterated his dislike for reality TV, calling it "voyeuristic" and declaring "you'll never see Maiden on a reality TV show". Sharon interpreted these remarks as a direct insult to the hit MTV show, "The Osbournes". It is likely that this was an overreaction on Sharon's part.

3) Bruce's tradition of waving the Union Jack during the song, "The Trooper" caused more offence to the Osbourne camp. It is ironic that Sharon took umbrage to the waving of the British flag, given that both she and her husband are British. It is likely that Sharon claimed waving a UK flag rather than a USA flag was offensive in an attempt to gain support from the primarily American Ozzfest audience. Although she ascertained that it was disrespectful to leave out flag of the USA, as they are also occupying Iraq, the song "The Trooper" is actually about the tragedy of the Crimean War and nothing to do with America, and nor is not intended to insult soldiers fighting in battle.

4) In the magazine and newspaper interviews that Bruce gave before the San Bernardino show, not once had he made any insulting remarks towards Ozzy Osbourne himself. Because of this and other events, theories abound that Sharon Osbourne ordered the band to be pelted with eggs because of the rapturous reception that Maiden received every night, compared with the relatively muted reception for Black Sabbath, whose set followed immediately afterwards. In other words, they claim that Sharon's attack on the band was premeditated and motivated by commercial interests. However, this is highly unlikely, and even this were true, it could easily be said to have backfired, as following the sabotage of Maiden's set, around 2/3 of the Ozzfest crowd left in disgust, leaving a far smaller crowd to watch headline act Black Sabbath, and revenue from the event suffered as a result of Sharon's actions. Sharon has recently made an autobiography.

Iron Maiden manager Rod Smallwood issued a statement shortly after the debacle condemning the attack on the band, and the band simply moved on.[4] Sharon Osbourne's most recent mention of this event came on Howard Stern's satellite radio show in 2006.[5]

[edit] Actions against some critics

Sharon was quoted in the Guardian newspaper on 9th December 2006 [6] as having sent her own excrement on more than one occasion to people she felt had unreasonably criticised her or her family.

[edit] Trivia

  • The popular British television program Dead Ringers, features Sharon Osbourne (played by Jan Ravens) quite prominently alongside her husband (played by Jon Culshaw).

[edit] References

  1. ^ Jason Deans (August 30, 2006). 'Mrs O' sees off Richard and Judy. Guardian. Retrieved on 2006-09-09.
  2. ^ [1]
  3. ^ MMRF "Friends for Life" Fall Gala. Multiple Myeloma Research Foundation (October 25, 2003). Retrieved on 2006-09-09.
  4. ^ Kidman joins the Breast Cancer Care crusade. Kerala News (July 2, 2006). Retrieved on 2006-09-09.
  5. ^ a b ICP vs. Sharon Osbourne/Coal Chamber. Faygoluvers.net. Retrieved on 2006-09-09.
  6. ^ http://www.guardian.co.uk/uk_news/story/0,,1968047,00.html

[edit] External links

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