Ozzy Osbourne’s Trust Me, I’m Dr. Ozzy offers a plethora of self-help advice that is not intended to be taken seriously, but some of which is worth taking to heart. The cover and sleeve offers ample warnings that the Prince of Darkness is not a real doctor, but given the medical abnormality that Ozzy is, it’s fair to say any reader will walk away from the book with a piece or two of valuable knowledge.
The bulk of the book consists of Q&A between the good (pseudo) doctor and fans that was originally published in his Rolling Stone column. Topics covered include home remedies, diet and exercise, family problems, sexuality, mental health and death (“Getting Ready for the Great Mosh Pit in the Sky”).
While Dr. Ozzy has lived a very, very unhealthy existence, his decades of alcoholism, drug abuse, snorting ants, breaking his neck, and narrowly surviving plane crashes give him a bit of authority on what it takes to survive. When you factor in his fatherhood, failed and successful marriages and plenty of strange sex with groupies, you start to appreciate that the man has had a great deal of life experiences. When it comes to dealing with your doctor, having family problems or struggling with drug addiction, Ozzy is a guy who may not speak from a position of authority, but has more experience than most people will live through.
One of the more interesting facts that comes to light throughout the book is that Ozzy is a hypochondriac and a germaphobe. Give his history of snorting ants and biting the heads off of bats, this may come as a shocker, but he goes on and on about how it should be a law that bathroom doors push out from the inside so you don’t need to touch them after washing their hands.
What was also a surprise, but makes perfect sense, is that Ozzy Osbourne is one of about 200 people who have had their genome sequenced. The low number is attributed to the high costs, but scientists reached out to the Prince of Darkness because, as his book explains, he is a medical abnormality. Ozzy should have died many times over by now, but somehow he has survived. The scientific community willingly put great resources into understanding what makes Ozzy the survivor he is with the hopes that they could learn something from his transmundane existence. While Ozzy first resisted, he agreed when they told him any diseases they discovered in him would bear his name.
It is a little disturbing how many people with very serious problems wrote to the former (and future) Black Sabbath front-man regarding serious medical problems, and while he was always willing to put his two cents in, Ozzy told every single one of them to visit a real doctor. Trust Me, I’m Dr. Ozzy isn’t going to change the way you live day to day, but it will provide you with plenty of entertaining anecdotes that just may prove to be applicable to your life.
