Ozzy Osbourne Blames Poor Album Sales On Illegal Downloading

Sounds like unlike Trent Reznor, Ozzy Osbourne did not have an OiNK account. Osbourne is complaining that he is "suffering terribly" from the effects of illegal downloading. The Ozz man tells Australia's Herald Sun that sales of his newest release Black Rain have lagged because of Web piracy, forcing him to perform ninety concerts this year -- a career high for the fifty-eight-year-old singer. "If they don't find something to stop [illegal downloading], people won't be able to make records. There won't be any new bands. How are they going to survive?" he asked. (We watched The Osbournes and believe that family could probably survive in a slightly smaller mansion, but point taken).

As for the lagging sales of Black Rain -- the first record Ozzy has written and recorded sober -- maybe the album isn't selling because, well, it's not that great. Or maybe it's because the album's single was locked out by rigid radio playlists and there's no outlet for music videos these days. "I mean, I ain't getting any younger," he says of his live gigs. "Sharon says to me 'Just stand there'. I can't just fucking stand there! I'm a moving target. People would aim their can of beer at my head!" Stay strong and keep on playing those concerts, Ozzy. They're keeping our streets safer.

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Song Stories

“Too Close”

Next | 1998

Next was formed in Minneapolis when the uncle of Terry "T-Low" and Raphael "Tweety" Brown, who was a gospel choir director, introduced the brothers to Robert Lavelle "R.L." Huggar. Sounds of Blackness singer Ann Nesby groomed the R&B group before handing them over to Naughty by Nature's KayGee, who wrote and produced "Too Close." The idea for the song was sparked "from a conversation we had with several girls at a nightclub," explained T-Low. "It's talking about the club scene, with guys getting out of hand and the female telling him to back up, asking, 'What are you doing?'" 

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