Jack Osbourne is dishing on his father, Ozzy Osbourne.
The former Black Sabbath vocalist's life has been revealed in a new docu-series, "Biography: The Nine Lives of Ozzy Osbourne," and in the wake of its release, Jack got candid about his father's working-class upbringing, addiction and his struggles with Parkinson's disease.
In an interview with Fox News published Monday, the 34-year-old revealed that Ozzy had been brought up in a working-class family and had to live with eight people in a small, two-bedroom house that had no running water or inside bathroom. Their family was well below the poverty line and life was tough on Ozzy, but it helped create a strong work ethic that paved the way for his success and eventually led to him being invited to the White House in the early 2000s.
"He still talks about it often. Think it was a pretty big deal for him," Jack said of the occasion. "My dad and how he was growing up, it was very blue-collar, very working class. And I think the fact that you're all of a sudden being invited to the White House Correspondents' Dinner and President Bush is up there giving you a call out, that was kind of cool."
Ozzy's musical career is defined by multiple noteworthy achievements, but it is also tainted by drug addiction. Jack admitted it was something that did not have as much of an impact on him as it should have and his young age had a lot to do with it.
"I think it certainly was that, and not to normalize things that shouldn't be normalized, but when you're in a family of addiction and you have nothing to compare it to, you just think that that's what's normal," he said. "I think it was when I was getting older that I started to go, 'There’s something going on here, and this isn’t normal.'"
After numerous stints in rehab, Ozzy was able to overcome his addiction before he could destroy his relationship with wife, Sharon. Now things are going well for their family, even as they learn to cope with the rocker's battle with Parkinson's disease.
"He's doing good," Jack said. "I mean, we're actually on vacation together right now, and we're up in Santa Barbara. He was just in the pool with my kids swimming around till the last hour. He’s slowly but surely getting better. It's a very slow recovery. He's frustrated, but I like to remind him that he's never been 70 years old with a broken neck before, so it's going to take time."