Suicide Solution

from the LP Blizzard of Oz, Epic Records, 1980



Any fan of Ozzy who had cable in the early 2000s (that’s the first time I’ve written that chronological phrase, and it feels icky…) was surely saturated with the perpetually replayed bio of him & Sharon: her becoming estranged from daddy to support the band-less Ozzy, who was generally just getting loaded on booze, ‘ludes & various other potions, wallowing in the self-misery of getting fired from Sabbath (apparently wallowing in his own sick & filth as well…)---but love conquers all, blah blah blah, they get a record deal, & off we go again. And thank fucking whoever for that woman’s patience & belief in him, as well as for poaching the virtuoso guitarist Randy Rhoads (may he rest in peace), because I can’t imagine having come of age without his ‘80s solo hits & crazy antics as background. This was the track some grieving parents tried to blame for their son’s suicide, claiming there were subliminal messages in the track that tell the listener to “get the gun” (or some such hogwash), even though it’s well-documented that the song was actually written about original AC/DC singer Bon Scott having drank himself to death. Frankly, one has to wonder if Ozzy wrote this tale autobiographically, when you consider his own lifestyle at the time, which was seemingly unaffected by Scott’s death. How is this dude still alive? One word: Sharon.