What your handwriting says about yourself.....

* If letters slant to the left: Indicates introspection and a lot of emotional control.


* If letter slant to the right: Reveals a person who's outgoing, friendly, impulsive, and emotionally open.


* If letters are straight up and down: The sign of someone who's ruled by the head, not the heart.


* Letters that slant in more than one direction: Indicates versatility and adaptability.


* An erratic slant: Usually means a lack of flexibility.


* Heavy pressure writing (like you can feel the rib made on the back of the paper): The writer is agitated.


* Moderate pressure (the writing is dark, but you can't feel the rib on the other side of the paper): Shows ability to deal with stress.


* Light pressure: Indicates someone who seems to take life in stride.


* Tiny letters: Indicate the writer is has somewhat low self esteem but is intelligent.


* Small letters: The hallmark of quiet, introspective types - they're generally detail-oriented and have good concentration.


* Large letters: Sign of a confident, easygoing individual.


* Huge letters: Indicate someone who's theatrical, usually loud, and needs to be the center of attention at all times.


* Wide letters (their width and height are about the same): The mark of someone who's open and friendly.


* Narrow letters: Show someone who's somewhat shy and inhibited but very self-disciplined.


* Letters that don't touch: Indicate an impulsive, artistic, sometimes impractical free thinker.


* Some letters connecting: Means the writer's personality blends logic and intuition.


* All letters making contact: The sign of someone who's highly cautious.


* A curved first mark: Shows a person who's traditional and plays by the rules.


* A straight beginning stroke: Reveals someone who's rigid and doesn't like being told what to do.


* A final stroke straight across: The writer is cautious.


* An end mark that curves up: Reveals generosity.


* Perfect penmanship: The hallmark of a communicative person.


* An indecipherable scrawl: Indicates a person who's secretive, closed-up and likes to keep his thoughts to himself.

Kids traded sex for food from aid workers: report

Updated Tue. May. 27 2008 1:30 PM ET

CTV.ca News Staff

Some of the world's most vulnerable children are being victimized by the very people sent to help them, according to a new report from a major humanitarian aid organization.

"No One To Turn To," a report from the U.K.-based aid organization Save The Children, says sexual exploitation against children as young as six by aid workers and peace keepers, is becoming a major crisis.

Almost as shocking as the abuse itself, says a news release from the group, is the general silence surrounding the violations of trust.

"Children and their families are not speaking out because of fear and powerlessness. And international organizations are failing to respond effectively to allegations of abuse levelled against them," the release says.

Save The Children convened 38 discussion groups that consisted of 341 people living in chronic emergencies in Cote d'Ivoire, Haiti and southern Sudan.

More than 30 per cent of the participants reported incidents of forced sex

* 55 per cent reported coerced sex
* 40 per cent said they were aware of incidents of kissing
* 55 per cent reported incidents of touching
* 65 per cent had witnessed incidents of verbal abuse from aid workers or peacekeepers.


"Participants identified coerced sex as more common than forced sex," the report states.

"Children as young as six are trading sex with aid workers and peacekeepers in exchange for food, money, soap and, in a very few cases, luxury items such as mobile phones."

Troops with the United Nations Department of Peacekeeping Operations were identified as a particular source of abuse, particularly in Haiti and Côte d'Ivoire, the report states.

Of the four UN agencies that reported allegations of sex with minors in 2005, DPKO staff were implicated in the vast majority of cases.

* UN Department of Peacekeeping Operations: 60
* UN High Commission for Refugees: 2
* UN World Food Program: 1
* United Nations Volunteers: 4


"While this may be a true indication of conduct associated with military actors, it may also reflect the particular efforts invested by DPKO to monitor and report on abuses associated with its own staff. Indeed, Save the Children welcomes the managerial courage and transparency DPKO has shown in making these allegations publicly available," the report states.

The data was reinforced with a number of anecdotal reports of abuse from people living in crisis zones -- including verbatim accounts of sexual abuse from the victims themselves.

"A broad spectrum of different types of aid workers and peacekeepers were implicated in the abuse," the report states.

"For example, staff at every level, from guards and drivers to senior managers, were identified as having been involved.

Participants also implicated a mix of local, national and international personnel, including staff described as 'black,' 'white,' 'foreign' and 'local' people."

In addition to meeting with aid recipients, Save The Children met with 30 humanitarian, peace and security professionals working at national, regional and international levels and conducted a broad spectrum of research.

The report acknowledges that Save The Children itself is not immune to the problem.

In 2007, 15 allegations of misconduct towards children were made against Save The Children staff and its partners organizations.

Seven of the allegations were made against partners, while eight were made against staff.

Three of the allegations against staff were proven and led to dismissals. The three men were all fired for having had sex with girls aged 17, which is not illegal but contravenes the organization's policy.

In 2006, four allegations were made against partners and seven were made against staff.

"Save the Children does not claim to have all the answers, or to be immune to this problem. Indeed, awareness of the difficulty of stamping this out in our own organization is a driving force behind this report," the document states.

"We do believe, however, that eliminating this abuse is a key responsibility of every international actor."

The report identifies three areas where key problems exist:

Community members, especially children and young people, are not receiving the support they need to speak out about abuse against them.
Strong leadership is lacking to ensure good practices and procedures are adopted up and implemented.

A lack of investment in tackling the root causes of sexual exploitation and abuse.

It sets out the following recommendations to deal with the shortfalls:

* The establishment of effective local complaints mechanisms to allow people to report abuses.

* The establishment of a global watchdog to monitor and evaluate international agencies and their track record on sexual abuse.

* Governments and donors should put more emphasis on tackling the root causes of sexual abuse.


Courtesy: CTV.CA

Manipuri women(meetei nupi) traditional dress

My sister,Regina, her fren Anandi and my cute nephew.

Ras leela of Manipur

Two young dancers portray Lord Krishna and Radha in Ras Leela.Both dancers are members of artistic families. Thounaojam Lalitkanta, portraying Krishna, is grandson of Sarangthem Guru Meitei Tomba, and son of Ojha Thambaltombi Devi, Principal of Manipur State Dance College. Moirangthem Noopur, as Radha, is daughter of Moirangthem Guru Nabaghana Shyam Singha and Christel Stevens of Nritya Rangam/Temple of Dance in Maryland, U.S.A.

"Vaishnavism expressed itself in the new very important ritual dance-drama, the 'Ras', a creation of the Meiteis conceived by King Bhagyachandra of Manipur who was himself a saintly devotee of Shri Krishna. This king, inspired by a religious dream, caused a statue of Krishna, cut from a jackfruit tree, to be placed in a new palace temple called Manipur Govindaji. In the Mandop (arena) attached to this temple, centering around the statue, with his own daughter playing the part of Krishna's beloved Radha, the first 'Ras' dance-drama was performed; and it has now become the heritage of Meiteis who perform it yearly." Louise Lightfoot, Dance Rituals of Manipur, India.

Perfection at Roadside

Linkin Park Biography

Biography

Linkin Park is often considered the most famous and most commercially successful exponents of the nu metal genre, mainly due to their debut album Hybrid Theory (2000), which has sold 20 million copies worldwide to date.

In 1996, MC Mike Shinoda and guitarist Brad Delson graduated from Agoura High School in the Los Angeles suburb of Agoura Hills, California. Upon graduation, the two men formed a band with their friend, drummer Rob Bourdon, under the moniker "SuperXero". Previously, Delson and Bourdon were in a band together for about a year called Relative Degree.

The three members of SuperXero played archaic forms of their music together while at college. Delson attended the University of California, Los Angeles. Shinoda went to the Art Center College of Design in Pasadena, California. While at UCLA, Delson met bassist Dave Farrell. Delson and Farrell were roommates and often practiced and played together. Previously, Farrell used to play in a band called Tasty Snax with Mark Fiore, who later changed their name to "The Snax". Fiore later became Linkin Park's cinematographer. While at the Art Center College of Design, Shinoda met Joe Hahn.


Farrell and Hahn later joined SuperXero, and the name was shortened to "Xero". The five men were later joined by lead vocalist Mark Wakefield and, together, they recorded their first, self-titled demo tape. The tape was sent out to various record labels but it was never considered and Linkin Park was never signed. Shortly thereafter, Wakefield left Linkin Park.

After Wakefield left, Shinoda began auditioning for a new vocalist and at the same time Delson began interning for a Warner Brothers Records A&R representative named Jeff Blue as part of his communications degree. Blue alerted Delson and Shinoda to Chester Bennington, a young vocalist from Phoenix (Arizona) who was looking to join another band, after being the vocalist for Grey Daze from 1994 to 1997.

Shinoda and Delson sent Bennington a tape containing an instrumental song and he recorded vocals for it. He then called Shinoda and played the song over the phone. This was the start of great things to come as Linkin Park was instantly impressed by the vocal abilities of Bennington and it did not take long to realize the advantages of his voice and his ability to mould it to be both soft and thought-provoking as well as hard and attention grabbing.

Once Bennington had joined the group, they attempted to have Linkin Park signed. Unfortunately, the name was already taken by a 70s and 80s band from Australia so they changed their moniker to Hybrid Theory and Linkin Park's line-up solidified — almost. Farrell temporarily left Linkin Park due to previous commitments with The Snax/Tasty Snax and, as such, wasn't able to record bass for their first, self-titled EP. Instead, Delson and a bassist named Kyle Christner played bass. Released in mid-1999, only one thousand copies of the EP were pressed. Several copies were sent to various record labels, including Warner Brothers Records. The rest of the copies were given to early members of Linkin Park's newly formed street team. Farrell was temporarily replaced by Scott Koziol. Scott appears in the video for "One Step Closer" from the Hybrid Theory album.

Linkin Park was subsequently signed to Warner Brothers in 1999 thanks to Blue. However, they were forced to change their name again due to another copyright issue with a British electronic group called Hybrid. There were several suggestions for Linkin Park's new name, including Clear, Probing Lagers, Ten P.M. Stocker (an inside joke for Linkin Park since they were always recording and practicing material late at night) and Platinum Lotus Foundation.

Bennington eventually suggested the use of Lincoln Park because he would drive by Lincoln Park in Santa Monica, California (now known as Christine Reed Park), on his way to the recording studio every day when Linkin Park was recording demos for its debut album. Bennington thought that it would be a good name for Linkin Park because there are Lincoln Parks all over the country. He figured that Linkin Park would be recognized as a local band no matter where they went. He also liked it because the name had no meaning, allowing the music to describe itself. However, since the domain name "lincolnpark.com" was already taken and Linkin Park couldn't afford to purchase it, they changed the spelling from "Lincoln" to "Linkin" so they could purchase the domain name "linkinpark.com".



On October 24, 2000, Linkin Park's debut album, Hybrid Theory, was released in the United States. The only track cut from the album was the remake of "High Voltage", a hip hop song that appeared on Hybrid Theory EP. Several songs from the EP were re-recorded as demos for Hybrid Theory, but it is unknown whether the tracks will ever appear as official B-sides or not. The record's first single was "One Step Closer".

Linkin Park performed in its first nationally-recognized concert on December 17, 2000 as a part of KROQ Radio's Almost Acoustic Christmas concert special. Shinoda wrote a brand-new song entitled "My December" for the occasion. The song was released as a B-side on the single for One Step Closer and on several versions of Hybrid Theory released internationally. It was later featured on a Christmas album released by KROQ DJs Kevin and Bean.

In early 2001, Farrell joined Linkin Park once again and Linkin Park's second single, "Crawling", was released and won Linkin Park a Grammy Award for "Best Hard Rock Performance" in 2002. Linkin Park embarked on its first ever national festival tour, the Ozzfest, with other acts such as Black Sabbath, Marilyn Manson, Slipknot, and Zakk Wylde's Black Label Society.

In mid-2001, Linkin Park released its third single, "In the End". The song would prove to be Linkin Park's biggest hit and was one of the most-spun songs of 2001. The video for the song was directed by Nathan "Karma" Cox and Hahn, and featured Linkin Park playing atop a massive statue in the rain. The video had a massive amount of CGI compared to most music videos at the time.

On November 20, 2001, Linkin Park released its first DVD humorously titled Frat Party at the Pankake Festival. The DVD featured all of Linkin Park's videos up to this point in their career and featured a documentary of Linkin Park touring in support of Hybrid Theory. There are also a lot of hidden Easter eggs allowing viewers to access hidden videos on the DVD, including a studio performance of a demo of "A Place for My Head" from 1999.

In November, a friend of Linkin Park, Jessica Bardas, suggested forming a fan club. Linkin Park thought that it was a good idea, and the Linkin Park Underground (LPU) was born. Members of the fan club receive a package every year (assuming that they renew their membership) containing a T-shirt, a CD and several odds and ends, including guitar picks, stickers and posters. The first CD featured was a re-issue of Hybrid Theory EP, with new artwork.

In early 2002, Linkin Park put together its first headlining tour called Projekt Revolution. The first leg of the tour featured Adema, Cypress Hill, the Apex Theory, and DJ Z-Trip. During the course of the tour, Shinoda and Hahn collaborated with the X-ecutioners on the song "It's Goin' Down". Shortly after the tour ended, Linkin Park headed back to the studio for the first time since early 2000.

After being sent several remixes of Linkin Park songs, Shinoda decided to release a remix album. Initially, Shinoda only wanted to remix a couple of songs and release an EP. However, thanks to encouragement from his bandmates (Delson and Hahn especially), Shinoda decided to take the project a step further.



Reanimation album cover (2002)The project, which would take on the name Reanimation, featured one remix for each song from Hybrid Theory, as well as remixes of the songs "My December" and "High Voltage". Each song was remixed by a different artist and there were rumors that there were over fifty remixes that Shinoda received during the course of the project. Shinoda went through and listened to each remix, hand-picking the best ones. Only two of the remixes that didn't make the album were ever released, those being the Crystal Method's remix of "Points of Authority" (featuring on the CD of the second installment of the LPU) and Marilyn Manson's remix of "By Myself". The only other confirmed remix was of "My December" by Team Sleep. The remix was turned away because it made the song even darker; Shinoda went with the version on the CD because it made the song seem more up-beat and happier.

Artists featured on the album include Chali 2na of Jurassic 5, Stephen Richards of Taproot, Kelli Ali of Sneaker Pimps, Aaron Lewis of Staind, the Humble Brothers, Jonathan Davis of Korn, Aceyalone, Pharaohe Monch, The X-Ecutioners, Black Thought and Jay Gordon of Orgy.

The project was released on July 30, 2002, and its first and only single was "Pts.of.Athrty" ("Points of Authority") remixed by Jay Gordon.

In November, the second edition of the LPU launched as "Underground 2.0" and the second package was revealed. The new fan club-only EP features the Crystal Method's remix of "Points of Authority" and a song called "Dedicated". Also included is fifty-second instrumental track entitled "A.06".

Linkin Park headed back to the studio in mid-2002 to record their follow-up to Hybrid Theory. The name of the album was kept a secret until December, where it was revealed to be named after Meteora, a series of monasteries high atop rock formations in Greece, which they learned about from looking at pictures in a travel magazine. "It's this really spiritual, mythical place," Delson said, "Just looking at those pictures was inspirational to us in terms of how epic it felt. I think some of the guys hadn't even seen the pictures when they heard the name Meteora, and they just really responded to the energy of the name. We think that suitably matches the spirit we tried to create with the record." The album's first single, "Somewhere I Belong", was released in February of 2003 to critical acclaim. On March 25, 2003, Meteora was released and debuted at number one on Billboard's music chart after selling 810,000 copies in its first week. It has sold nearly 11 million copies worldwide, more than 5 million in the US alone.

Following the release of the album, Linkin Park embarked on its second Projekt Revolution tour with blindside, Mudvayne and Xzibit. "Faint" was released as a single toward the end of the tour. Following the second Projekt Revolution, Linkin Park joined Metallica on their Summer Sanitarium Tour 2003 with Limp Bizkit, Deftones and, once again, Mudvayne.

Shortly after the Sanitarium tour came to a close, Linkin Park released "Numb" as a single. They shot a video for the single in Prague, Czech Republic. Simultaneously, Linkin Park shot a video for the song "From the Inside". Oddly enough, the video for "From the Inside" was shot before the video for "Numb". Bennington became ill before the video for "Numb" could be completed, so the remainder was filmed in a church in Los Angeles.

On November 18, 2003, Linkin Park released a brand-new DVD/CD live set entitled Live in Texas. The footage was shot while on the Sanitarium tour in Dallas and Houston, Texas. The DVD combined two live shows together; the video and audio from both shows was edited together. Because of this, Linkin Park had to wear the same clothing for both shows on consecutive days. The DVD featured seventeen songs and the CD featured a selection of twelve of those.



In November, the third edition of the LPU launched. The package's CD contained the five tracks that were cut from the Live in Texas DVD for its CD. This did not sit well with many fan club members, who claimed that Linkin Park should have placed rare songs on the CD (as with year two) instead of the live tracks.



At the end of 2003, Linkin Park performed at its third KROQ Almost Acoustic Christmas concert. They headlined night two and played a seventeen-song set. At the end of Linkin Park's set, they played "One Step Closer" and were joined on stage by P.O.D.'s frontman, Sonny Sandoval.

At the beginning of 2004, Linkin Park set off on its "Meteora World Tour" with P.O.D., Hoobastank and Story of the Year. Linkin Park claimed that this was the final leg of the world-wide tour that Linkin Park had been on since Meteora was released.

During the tour, Linkin Park's video for "From the Inside" was released internationally. Following the "Meteora World Tour", Linkin Park began work on their most ambitious music video to date. The video, which was to be based around the song "Breaking the Habit", featured Japanese-style animation by the same studio that created the animated scenes in Kill Bill, Production I.G., and was directed by Kazuto Nakazawa and Hahn. The video featured Bennington's soul travelling through an old apartment building visiting various people struggling with various habits that they were trying to break. Some of the habits included were drug and sexual abuse. Prior to the release of "Breaking the Habit" as a single, "Lying From You" was released to radios to serve as a radio-only single.

Linkin Park then set off on its third Projekt Revolution tour. It would prove to be Linkin Park's most ambitious tour as it included two stages and what Linkin Park called the Revolution Village. The tour was very similar to the Ozzfest and the Vans Warped Tour. The main stage featured Linkin Park, Korn, Snoop Dogg, the Used and Less Than Jake while the second stage featured Ghostface, Funeral for a Friend, M.O.P., downset., No Warning, instruction and Autopilot Off. DJ Z-Trip also travelled with the tour, serving as the between-sets entertainment. During the hip-hop sets, Ivan the Urban Action Figure danced on stage. The Revolution Village featured lots of entertainment, including video game kiosks, miniature skate parks, batting cages, remixing stages and more. Projekt Revolution 2004 was the biggest-selling tour of the year.

At the end of 2004, Linkin Park announced a collaboration with Jay-Z at the request of MTV. The resulting EP, Collision Course, was released on November 30. It featured mashups of seven Linkin Park songs and six Jay-Z songs. The EP's first single, "Numb/Encore", peaked at number twenty on the billboard charts and remained in the charts for six months, going on to win a Grammy. The album itself debuted at number one on the charts.

The fourth edition of the LPU launched in November. The CD that shipped with the package featured two new songs; one was a roughly two-minute long instrumental piece called "Sold My Soul to Yo Mama" by Mr. Hahn, and the other a song called "Standing in the Middle", a collaboration with Motion Man. "Standing in the Middle" was originally recorded in 2001 as a "practice" song for Reanimation. Motion Man was eventually featured on Kutmasta Kurt's reinterpretation of "In the End", "Enth E ND".

The year 2005 marked a rather quiet year for Linkin Park. Linkin Park established Music for Relief, an organization dedicated to helping those affected by the 2004 Indian Ocean earthquake. It has since expanded to become a program dedicated to helping those affected by a number of natural disasters, including Hurricanes Katrina and Rita. Linkin Park played two shows in 2005, one in California for Music for Relief, and one during the Live 8 series of concerts at the Philadelphia, PA venue. Chester Bennington also played in ReAct Now: Music & Relief, which was a four and a half concert played on television on almost all broadcasting channels, in which a number of artists played. Chester Bennington performed a song which he wrote himself called "Let Down," a slow and sad song. Jay-Z joined them to perform most of the Collision Course EP.

In May, Linkin Park demanded to be released from its contract with Warner Brothers on the grounds of "a lack of confidence". Linkin Park was recently in negotiations with the label over a new record contract. Linkin Park had four albums left outstanding on its 2000 record contract. In December 2005 Linkin Park announced that they had finally reached a settlement with Warner Brothers Records.

In July, Shinoda announced a hip-hop side project, Fort Minor. Shinoda explained the project as a way for him to return to his hip-hop roots. He enlisted the help of his best and closest friends in the business, including Styles of Beyond (who are now signed to Linkin Park's label Machine Shop Recordings), Black Thought of The Roots and Common (some of whom also helped produce the Reanimation album). Linkin Park's debut album, The Rising Tied was released on November 22, 2005.

Shortly after Shinoda's announcement of Fort Minor, Bennington was also revealed to be working on a solo project of his own. The project features Amir Derakh and Ryan Shuck of Orgy both playing guitar (as well as producing). Little is known about Bennington's side project other than its name, Snow White Tan. One of Snow White Tan's songs, "Morning After", is a remake of a song that Bennington wrote before he joined Linkin Park. Bennington is also involved with Julien-K, a side project of Derakh and Shuck. It is unknown as to how exactly Bennington is involved. Bennington also has a cover band called Bucket of Weenies. The release date for Snow White Tan's debut album is currently unknown.

Linkin Park's fifth installment of the LPU fan club launched on November 21, 2005. The CD shipped with the fifth fan club package featured live tracks from Linkin Park's performance during Live 8 plus several songs with Jay-Z.

In November, it was revealed by Farrell that Linkin Park had recorded a new song for the Machine Shop Mixtape series. The song has still yet to be publicly heard. Mike Shinoda was confirmed as the co-producer for the next Linkin Park album in December 2005. Shinoda produced the Hybrid Theory EP. On February 8, 2006, Linkin Park announced the producer for their third studio album would be Rick Rubin, who has worked with such bands as The Beastie Boys, Red Hot Chili Peppers, System Of A Down and countless others.

During the Grammy Award Ceremony 2006 Linkin Park performed with Jay-Z and Paul McCartney collaborating on the song "Yesterday". During the Grammy awards, Rolling Stone had an interview with Chester Bennington, he stated that the new album will be different from their previous albums, which fused hard rock and rap. "It's dark and spooky, poppy and very melodic," says Bennington. "Not a hard, heavy rock record. What it is, is fucking insane!" Linkin Park has already come up with fifty new tracks and are in the recording phase of the album. A report in the New York Post said that Linkin Park is likely to leave their current agent, "The Firm".

On June 9, 2006, a trailer for a series of new "LPTV" episodes leaked via YouTube and was brought to public attention by a member at the Linkin Park Underground message boards. There will be 10 episodes and they will feature footage from their Meteora World Tour and their work on the new album in the studio, all of which will be found on Linkin Park's official site soon. A reported update from Mike says Linkin Park is currently narrowing down the songs from 100 to about 15, which will result in the album, whose title is currently unknown.

The official website recently was closed down for remodeling. However, fans were treated to being able to watch "Making of..." videos, the whole Live in Texas concert and all the music videos (excluding all of the rare Reanimation videos except for Pts.Of.Athrty) that Linkin Park has produced to date, as well as use the message boards and read news about recent events concerning Linkin Park.

Linkin Park performed live in August 2006 at Summer Sonic, hosted by Metallica in Japan. A new song, tentatively codenamed QWERTY, leaked on numerous websites after being played at the concert. The song was significantly different from their previous work.

On August 29, 2006, the entire catalog of Linkin Park, including their collaborative work, was finally added to the iTunes music store. The albums contain extra bonus tracks not found in the physical version as well as interactive booklets.

Mike Shinoda said recently in an interview with KROQ that Linkin Park expects their new album to be released towards the beginning of 2007. This was reconfirmed in an interview with MTV.com.

Chester Bennington, one vocalist in Linkin Park, made a cameo appearance for the movie Crank, which was released September 1, 2006. Chester has been codenamed the stoner pharmacist for the movie. He only says one line in the movie.

Linkin Park, as well as Fort Minor, will be heading to Louisiana on September 10th, 11th, and 12th, to hand out school supplies to 17 different schools affected by Hurricane Katrina. It is not known if they will perform at any of these schools.



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Ozzy Osbourne Biography

Biography


Ozzy Osbourne Biography

John Michael Osbourne (born December 3, 1948 in Aston, Birmingham, England), known as Ozzy Osbourne, was the lead singer of the heavy metal band Black Sabbath and is also a popular solo artist and reality television star. Osbourne has been married twice and is father to six children: Jessica Hobbs, Louis Osbourne, and adopted son Elliot Kingsley, by first wife Thelma Riley; and Aimee, Kelly and Jack, by current wife Sharon. He has two grandchildren by daughter Jessica.


Black Sabbath met with swift and enduring success. Built around Tony Iommi's driving guitar riffs and Ozzy's eerie vocals, their early records such as their self-titled debut, Paranoid and Master of Reality in particular are considered definitive of heavy metal.[citation needed] This was despite rather modest investment from their US record label Warner Bros. A particularly clear example of Warner Bros. lax commitment to the band can be seen in the album Paranoid which was initially named War Pigs after the first track. The cover art featured a man with a pig snout brandishing a sword. The album was renamed because War Pigs is an anti-war song. However the cover art was never changed.[citation needed]

Several of their early singles, especially "Paranoid" and "Iron Man", continue to draw significant radio airplay to this day. Osbourne himself continues to play these hits when performing as a solo artist.

In 1979 Ozzy Osbourne was fired from Black Sabbath. Though many believe it is due to drug use, it was in fact due to his failure to show up for gigs often. He was replaced by Ronnie James Dio. Depression fueled his drug and alcohol problems. He divorced his first wife Thelma, and was diagnosed with bipolar disorder. Despite these difficulties Osbourne attempted to launch a solo career, managed by Sharon Arden, who was Black Sabbath manager Don Arden's daughter. Ozzy met with considerable success on his first solo effort. With Sharon Arden's help, Ozzy Osbourne was able to gain a recording deal with Jet Records, then a subset of CBS. However even though Don Arden was Sharon's father, she herself recounts that the band and her as manager, were lucky to be able to record and tour under the tough deal they received from Jet.

The Ozzy Osbourne Band actually started out as The Blizzard of Ozz. When the first album, which was supposed to be a self-titled album, was to be released it was agreed to name it Blizzard of Ozz featuring Ozzy Osbourne, but the record company featured Ozzy Osbourne with the album simply annotated Blizzard of Ozz. After this, things were simplified to The Ozzy Osbourne Band. Drummer Lee Kerslake (of Uriah Heep) and bassist/lyricist Bob Daisley (of Rainbow) however still refer to that era as the "Blizzard of Ozz". The collection immediately sold well with heavy rock fans who were impressed with the well crafted lyrics written by Bob Daisley and, more importantly, the impressive technical ability of guitarist Randy Rhoads.

To keep Ozzy Osbourne from delving into his addictions following the momentum of the first album and tour, Sharon decided to try to keep the band working. During this time period Ozzy's second album, Diary of a Madman, took shape,. Like the first album, Diary of a Madman was hailed as an instant classic and featured more of Bob Daisley's gifted songwriting and more incredible guitar work by Randy Rhoads.[citation needed] The album release did not go without controversy. Even though the songs were written and performed by the same four band members that created the Blizzard of Ozz album, the internal album art and credits were seemingly given to Ozzy's new touring band consisting of Ozzy, and Randy along with bassist Rudy Sarzo (Quiet Riot) and drummer Tommy Aldridge, formerly of Black Oak Arkansas. Also not shown was keyboardist, Don Airey, who played on the first three Ozzy Osbourne albums but was never credited until the fourth album, Bark at the Moon.

In March 1982, while in Florida for the follow up album Diary of a Madman tour, and a week away from playing Madison Square Garden in New York, a light aircraft carrying guitarist Randy Rhoads crashed while performing low passes over the band's tour bus. The pilot (also the tour bus driver) who was aparently trying to scare his ex-wife[citation needed] (who was also part of the Osbourne entourage) clipped the parked tour bus and crashed into a nearby house, killing himself, Rhoads, and the band's hairdresser. Osbourne awoke from the tour bus and managed to save the life of the man living in the house, but those on the plane died on impact. Osbourne subsequently fell into a deep depression following the death of his close friend and bandmate. The record company gave Osbourne a break from performing to mourn for his late band member[citation needed], but Ozzy stopped work for only one week.

Bernie Torme was the first guitarist hired to replace Randy once the tour resumed. However, Torme could not handle the pressure of playing the guitar parts in front of thousands of fans still mourning the loss of Randy Rhoads. There are very few photos of Bernie Torme playing with Ozzy, as his tenure with the band lasted less than one month.

In a rare interview later in Guitar Player magazine, Brad Gillis discussed how he came to play for Ozzy following Bernie Torme, and a few tidbits about the recording of the infamous 1983 Ozzy live album, "Speak of the Devil" performed in New York City. During an audition for guitarists in a hotel room, Ozzy discovered then Night Ranger guitarist, Brad Gillis. Ozzy sat on the edge of a bed and sang "Flying High Again," while Brad played the song and solo with his electric guitar unplugged. He played it so well that Ozzy, crying a little, hugged him and asked him to help out in the tour. The tour continued and culminated in the 1983 release of a live album, "Speak of the Devil", recorded at the Ritz in New York City over two days. A live tribute album was later released in which Osbourne talks about his relationship with Rhoads. This album included a studio song by Randy, taken from studio outtakes, called "Dee". This was a record for his mother.

Ozzy Osbourne rejoined the original line-up of Black Sabbath in 1997 for a reunion tour and has sporadically performed live with the band, parallel to his ongoing solo career.

According to the press, Osbourne's antics progressively worsened during the 1980s; his alcoholism and drug abuse continued. (He later underwent a number of treatments for alcoholism and drug abuse.)

Ozzy Osbourne is infamous for biting off the head of a live dove during a meeting with his newly signed record company. He was banned from CBS' buildings but he still retained his contract with CBS; though it has been speculated that this was a calculated stunt meant to intimidate the label executives into giving Osbourne more favorable contractual terms. Osbourne was also hospitalized for rabies after biting the head off of a stunned bat thrown on stage by a fan in Des Moines, Iowa. He later claimed to have thought the bat was a rubber toy. He was arrested after urinating near the base of the Cenotaph, a monument located in front of The Alamo, while wearing one of his wife's dresses, for which he was banned from San Antonio, Texas for ten years.

In the 1980s and 1990s, Osbourne's career was an effort on two fronts: continuing to make music without Rhoads, and becoming sober. Rhoads' first replacement was Bernie Torme (who reportedly could not cope with the pressures of learning the set list at short notice, and who never recorded with Osbourne), followed by Brad Gillis of Night Ranger, who filled in for the rest of the tour and associated live album Speak of the Devil. This live title, known in the United Kingdom as Talk of the Devil, was originally planned to consist of live recordings from 1981, primarily from Osbourne's solo work. With news of Black Sabbath also about to release a live album titled "Live Evil" however, Osbourne pre-empted his former band's efforts and the album ended up consisting entirely of Black Sabbath cover material, recorded with Gillis, bassist Rudy Sarzo, and drummer Tommy Aldridge. The music media hype and reporting that followed probably helped album sales for both bands. In the same Guitar Player interview where Brad Gillis discussed how he came to play for Ozzy, he discussed the live album, and admitted everyone in the band wanted to rework some parts, but were not given the opportunity. "Speak of the Devil" was musically left alone.

In 1982, Ozzy Osbourne was the guest vocalist on the Was (Not Was) pop dance track "Shake Your Head (Let's Go to Bed)" with Madonna performing backing vocals (a little known fact). Osbourne's cut was remixed and re-released in the early 1990s for a Was (Not Was) greatest hits album in Europe and it cracked the UK pop chart. Madonna asked that her vocal not be restored for the hits package, so new vocals by Kim Basinger were added to complement Osbourne's lead.

Jake E. Lee, formerly of Ratt and Rough Cutt, was a more successful recruit than Torme, recording 1983's Bark at the Moon (with Daisley, Aldridge, and former Rainbow keyboard player Don Airey) and 1986's The Ultimate Sin (with bassist Phil Soussan and drummer Randy Castillo) and touring behind both albums.

Meanwhile, Osbourne was involved in a legal battle of his own. In late 1986, he was the target in the first of a series of US lawsuits brought against him, alleging that one of his songs, "Suicide Solution", drove two teenagers to commit suicide because of its "subliminal lyrics". The cases were decided in Osbourne's favor, essentially on the premise that Osbourne cannot be held accountable for a listener's actions. Soon after, Osbourne publicly acknowledged he wrote "Suicide Solution" about his friend, AC/DC lead singer Bon Scott, who died from alcohol abuse, and that alcohol as a solution of one's problems is not the answer (hence the song's title). However, Bob Daisley asserts he wrote this song about his concerns over Osbourne's ongoing battle with substance abuse.

Lee and Osbourne parted ways in 1987, however, reportedly due to musical differences. Osbourne continued to struggle with his chemical dependencies, and commemorated the fifth anniversary of Rhoads's death with Tribute, the live recordings from 1981 that had gone unreleased for years. Excellently recorded, the album cemented Rhoads's legendary status as an imaginative and talented musician. In 1988, Ozzy appeared in The Decline of Western Civilization II: The Metal Years and told the director, Penelope Spheeris, that "sobriety fucking sucks." Meanwhile, Osbourne found his most enduring replacement for Rhoads to date, a guitarist named Zakk Wylde, plucked from a New Jersey bar. Wylde joined Osbourne for his 1988 effort, No Rest for the Wicked, in which Castillo remained on drums and Daisley once more returned to co-writing/bass duties. The subsequent tour saw Osbourne reunited with erstwhile Black Sabbath bandmate Geezer Butler on bass, and a live EP (entitled Just Say Ozzy) featuring this lineup was released two years later. Geezer continued to tour with Ozzy for the subsequent 4 tours, and was a major stage presence throughout, playing as strongly as anyone since Rudy Sarzo.

While very successful as a heavy metal act through the 1980s, Osbourne also enjoyed some commercial success into the 1990s, starting with 1991's No More Tears, which enjoyed much radio and MTV exposure. It also initiated a practice of bringing in outside composers to help pen Osbourne's solo material, instead of relying solely upon the recording ensemble to write and arrange the music. The platinmum selling, top-10 No More Tears album was mixed by veteran rock producer Michael Wagener, who also mixed the Live and Loud album which followed in 1993. At this point Osbourne expressed his fatigue with the process of touring, and proclaimed his "retirement", which was to be short-lived. Osbourne's entire CD catalog was remastered and reissued in 1995. Also that year, he released Ozzmosis and went on stage again, dubbing his concert performances "The Retirement Sucks Tour". A greatest hits package, The Ozzman Cometh was issued in 1997.



Osbourne's biggest financial success of the 1990s was a venture named Ozzfest, created by his wife/manager Sharon and managed loosely by his son Jack. Ozzfest was a quick hit with metal fans, spurring up-and-coming groups like Incubus and Slipknot to broad exposure and commercial success. Some acts even had the pleasure to share the bill with a reformed, yet much older Black Sabbath. Osbourne reunited with the original members of Sabbath in 1997 and has performed periodically with the band ever since. Since 1997 there have been rumours of a new Black Sabbath album, though Ozzy has denied any further studio plans as Black Sabbath.

Osbourne's first album of new studio material in seven years, 2001's Down to Earth, met with only moderate success, as did its live follow up, Live at Budokan.

In the wake of a lawsuit by former band members Daisley and Kerslake, reportedly for unpaid royalties, Osbourne's catalogue was "remastered" again in 2002. This time, the original bass guitar and drum tracks from Osbourne's first two albums were controversially removed and re-recorded entirely. Two of the commercially less successful titles, Speak of the Devil and The Ultimate Sin, were permitted to go out of print entirely.

Ozzy Osbourne garnered still greater celebrity status by the unlikely success of his own brand of reality television. The Osbournes, a program featuring the domestic life of Osbourne and his family (wife Sharon, children Jack and Kelly, but not elder daughter Aimee, who declined to participate), has turned into one of MTV's greatest hits. It premiered on March 5, 2002, and the final episode aired March 21, 2005.

In 2002, Ozzy Osbourne and wife Sharon were invited to the White House by president George W. Bush for a ceremonial dinner. Bush praised Osbourne for his work on The Osbournes.

During 2003, a member of Birmingham City Council campaigned for him to be given Freedom of the City.

On December 8, 2003, Osbourne was rushed into emergency surgery when he was involved in an accident involving the use of his all-terrain vehicle on his estate in Chalfont St Peter, Buckinghamshire, UK. Osbourne broke his collar bone, eight ribs, and a neck vertebra. An operation was performed to lift the collarbone, which was believed to be resting on a major artery and interrupting blood flow to the arm. Sharon later revealed that Osbourne had stopped breathing following the crash and was resuscitated by Osbourne's then personal bodyguard, Sam Ruston.

While in the hospital, Ozzy Osbourne achieved his first ever UK number one single, a duet of the Black Sabbath ballad, "Changes" with daughter Kelly. In doing so, he broke the record of the longest period between an artist's first UK chart appearance (with Black Sabbath's, "Paranoid", number four in August 1970) and their first number one hit; a gap of 33 years.

Since the accident, he has fully recovered and headlined the 2004 Ozzfest, where he again reunited with Black Sabbath. He has also turned his hand to writing a Broadway musical. The reputed topic is that of the Russian monk Grigory Rasputin, who held sway with Russia's last royal Romanov family. In 2005, he released a box set called Prince of Darkness. It contains four long-awaited discs, the first and second discs are collections of live performances, B-sides, demos and singles. The third disc contained duets and other odd tracks with other artists, including "Born to Be Wild" with Miss Piggy. The fourth disc is entirely new material where Ozzy covers his favorite songs by his biggest influences and favorite bands, including The Beatles, John Lennon, David Bowie and others.

Ozzy Osbourne and wife Sharon starred in yet another MTV show, this time a competition reality show entitled "Battle for Ozzfest". A number of yet unsigned bands send one member to compete in a challenge to win a spot on the 2005 Ozzfest and a possible recording contract.

In 2004, Osbourne received an NME award for "godlike genius".

In May 2005, the tremors he experienced and always linked to his continuous drug abuse were diagnosed as Parkinson's disease. He will have to take medication for the rest of his life.

Shortly after Ozzfest 2005, Ozzy Osbourne announced that he will no longer headline Ozzfest.

In 2005 he was inducted into the UK Music Hall of Fame along with Black Sabbath where he decided to moon the crowd because of their poor reception while they were playing. This led to a standing ovation.

In March, 2006, Ozzy Osbourne said that he hopes to release a new studio album soon with long time on-off guitarist, Zakk Wylde of Black Label Society.


Osbourne has shown symptoms of a mild hearing loss, as evidenced in the tv show, The Osbournes, as he often asks his family members to repeat what they say. This is possibly as a result of being exposed to dangerous noise levels at music venues.
Osbourne is a supporter of Aston Villa FC.
In 1982 during the "Diary" tour where Ozzy bit into a bat onstage, he contracted rabies and was required to get multiple rabies shots to cure him. The treatments caused some temporary hair loss, and as a result Ozzy shaved his head. At one point there were a large number of photos taken by the media where Ozzy is bald and posing wearing military fatigues and holding various weapons. At another point he admitted to wearing a blonde wig, colored "hooker blonde", and stated he would begin a show with it on, then pull it off at another point in the concert, to the complete surprise of fans. Such photos were used in music magazines at the time, but are now rarely seen.
The main chords and melody of the song "Diary of a Madman" were created while Randy Rhoads was teaching a student classical guitar. Randy would hold guitar lessons while the band was touring around the United States. Ozzy was asleep and was awakened by the ongoing guitar lesson. He ran into the room, happily yelling at Randy something like; "What is that? What is that you're playing?!" Its brilliant, I'm taking it!" Randy tried to explain it was already a written classical part but Ozzy would have none of it.
Ozzy made more than a few well known rock bands famous by touring with them as opening acts, and supporting their musical styles and success. In 1984 the opening band for the "Bark at the Moon" tour was Motley Crue, touring their second album, "Shout at the Devil". During "The Ultimate Sin" tour, Ozzy toured with Metallica, supporting their latest effort "Master of Puppets". Others include Soundgarden during their "Badmotorfinger" tour, and Korn, during their "ADIDAS" tour.
Ozzy Osbourne's alcohol abuse and misadventures resulting from his alcoholism came to a very serious peak in 1988 after an assault on his wife/manager Sharon Osbourne. Ozzy made one final determined effort to finally rid himself of his distructive lifestyle. He successfully beat his addictions and has been sober since 1991.
Facts

Ozzy Osbourne's attitude was always the focus of attention. It gave him nicknames such as "the madman" (in the 1980s, thanks to the commercial success of Diary of a Madman), "the Godfather of heavy metal" (in the 90s, due to his long lasting contribution to rock music) and "Prince of Darkness" (in the 2000s, as he started calling himself).

Despite media criticism, Osbourne's on-stage charisma managed to turn Black Sabbath in a major act, hitting #1 in UK with the landmark album Paranoid and selling 8 million copies during the 70s. The four Black Sabbath founders are widely considered the creators of heavy metal style. Since 1969, the band sold over 70 million copies worldwide, and over 25 million in the US alone; their biggest album, Paranoid, is quadruple platinum in US since 1995.

During his solo career, Osbourne's only #1 single hit was a re-recording of Black Sabbath's 1972 classic "Changes", performed in a duet with his daughter Kelly in 2003. However, he managed to hit #4 in US with his last two studio albums.

Ozzy Osbourne sold over 27 million albums in the US, by far his biggest market, and over 50 million worldwide, more than any other hard rock/heavy metal solo act.[citation needed] Two albums, Blizzard of Ozz (1981) and No More Tears (1991) are certified quadruple platinum, for sales of over 4 million copies in US.

5 million people have attended Ozzfest and it grossed over US$100 million. It helped promote many new hard rock/heavy metal acts of late 1990s and early 2000s, including System of a Down, Limp Bizkit, Korn, Linkin Park, Papa Roach, Velvet Revolver, Godsmack and Slipknot in spite of always having Osbourne (either solo or with Black Sabbath) as the headliner, it also featured other famous artists such as Pantera, Iron Maiden, Judas Priest and Megadeth. Ozzfest also helped Osbourne to become the first hard rock star to hit US$ 50 million in merchandise sales.

Ozzy and Sharon Osbourne are one of UK's richest couples, according to The Sunday Times Rich List. They rank #485 in the 2005 list, with an estimated £100 million earned from recording, touring and TV shows. They rank above most music stars, such as Rod Stewart, George Michael, Robbie Williams, the Rolling Stones' Charlie Watts and Ron Wood, and Pink Floyd, Led Zeppelin, Queen etc