Ozzy Osbourne and Animals

I remember when I was a little kid how my brother-in-law (then a jean-jacket-wearing motorcycle-riding teenage boy who used to come 'round to woo my older sister) gave me my first earful of Black Sabbath. In those days, it seemed like fronting metal bands went hand-in-hand with sensationalist media stories -- often based on actual events-- about decapitating live animals with your teeth. Ozzy Osbourne was no exception to this. Of course, his image has softened considerably over the years; the last time I saw him on television was sometime in 2003, surrounded by a small pack of cute dogs. I was fairly surprised to read a story about him this morning that concerned his relationship with animals.

Around a week ago, I had read that Ozzy had become a health advice columnist (??) for the UK's Times Online, so I checked him out and read about a supposed recent change in his diet:

I’ve pretty much become a vegetarian. Seriously. It’s my new phase: brown rice and vegetables. I don’t even drink milk, apart from a splash in my tea. It ain’t because of the animals. I mean, I used to work in a slaughterhouse. You won’t see me marching over the frozen tundra, hunting down people who club seals. I just can’t digest meat any more.

So, given mainstream media's complete inability to engage in anything other than conjecture and extrapolation, it's no surprise that articles have already begun to pop up proclaiming that the former bat head nibbler has... gone vegan! As is the case with so many stories involving celebrities and trends, it's only a matter of time before someone latches on to the latter of these two stories and spits it back out ad nauseam. Just remember that the man himself has made it clear that it just ain't so.