Trust Me, I’m Dr. Ozzy: Advice from Rock’s Ultimate Survivor

This highly entertaining and often enlightening (really!) collection of the best q&as from Osbourne’s (I Am Ozzy) popular weekly advice column in the Sunday Times (and sometimes in Rolling Stone) is based on Ozzy’s notoriously excessive lifestyle as lead singer of metal legend Black Sabbath—the book’s disclaimer reads: “Dr. Ozzy’s memory of events between 1968 and the present are not entirely reliable.” But Ozzy writes like the charming, avuncular Muppet-style goofball he displayed in his 2002–2005 reality show The Osbournes. Half of the book features wacky medical questions (“I crushed my finger between two heavy steel pipes: now it’s swollen and black. Do you think it’s broken?”) and equally wacky answers (“This question isn’t as stupid as it sounds, ’cos I once broke my tibia—my shinbone—and I didn’t realize it... because I was off my nut and fell down a flight of stairs”). But the book’s other half—obviously showcasing the knowledge of co-writer Ayres—gives sound and sensitive advice, especially to questions in the areas of drug abuse and mental health. (Q: “I can’t control my anger.” A: “There’s got to be an underlying cause—something in your past, or maybe even just anxiety. Anger is a symptom.”) Who knew that Ozzy really meant it way back in 1971 when he wrote in “Children of the Grave” that people must “Show the world that love is still the life you must embrace.” (Oct.)