God Bless Ozzy Osbourne is a 90 minute documentary put together by Ozzy's son Jack Osbourne, which chronicles the life and career of his father from Birmingham school boy, to lead singer of Black Sabbath, subsequent solo career, horrific slide into drug and alcohol addiction, reality show phenomenon, and finally a clean, sober, loving parent. With plenty of backstage footage and interviews, live clips, and opinions from such folks such as Motley Crue's Tommy Lee, Rudy Sarzo, Paul McCartney, Tony Iommi, Bill Ward, Geezer Butler, and Henry Rollins, God Bless Ozzy Osbourne gives the viewer a closer look at the man known as Ozzy than we've ever seen before.
Ozzy and his family talk pretty candidly about his years of addiction and abuse, so I think the goal here was to set the record straight and not sugarcoat anything. Sharon tells of drunken, violent fights, and most of the children quite frankly freely admit that their father wasn't much of a father throughout their growing years, instead a raging drunk and drug addict who was home for brief moments than ran out on tour again. Ozzy matter of factly admits that much of his time with Sabbath as well as his solo career was always 'on the edge' and filled with debauchery, but the interesting contrast is to see just how much things have changed in recent years since becoming sober. Plenty of backstage footage from around the world showing Osbourne doing his pre-show warmup routines reveal an aging rocker doing everything he can to keep his body and voice in shape for each concert. For fans of the late guitar hero Randy Rhoads, there are also some touching recollections from the Osbourne family and Sarzo regarding the young musician who left us way too soon. Ironically, other than him showing up in some of the live clips, not much if at all is said about Zack Wylde, Ozzy's musical partner in crime for many years after Randy died.
Overall, God Bless Ozzy Osbourne is a riveting documentary that goes pretty deep into the strange life of the legendary Prince of Darkness. At times, it's quite sad, especially when it's revealed that throughout the run of 'The Osbournes' reality TV show, Ozzy had once again slipped into alcohol and drugs, and what audiences were laughing at was actually a very troubled human being with severe problems. The high definition quality of the presentation here is quite good, as is the audio, though it would have been nice if more live footage was included in this documentary, or even as special features. The tidbits shown are nice, but more would have really made a difference.
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