Guest Blog by Paul Booth
I was out on Ozzfest maybe the second or third year in. News about me had traveled to Ozzy and he wanted to meet me. I was sitting backstage tattooing Mark Workman, an old friend that used to do the lights for Slayer. And, Ozzy’s manager came up and said, "Ozzy would like to meet you. Do you have a minute?"
I'm like, "Yeah, I think I do! Of course I do, who wouldn’t?" So, they brought me to Ozzy’s dressing room, walked me in, and then left me there. Ozzy came out of the back room and all of a sudden I find myself alone with Ozzy Osbourne! We sat down on the couch, I got my portfolio out and he started looking through it. We sat there for about 15 minutes together and he was asking me questions and talking about the work he wants to get. It was really cool. I mean, he had really intelligent and thought out questions.
Sitting with him one-on-one, it was nice to see that he really had it together — more so than he’s portrayed in the media. I was pretty impressed, not to mention just sitting alone with Ozzy Osbourne --- I mean, how cool is that?! After our little interview he said, “Maybe next week or over the next few days, I want you to finish sleeving my arm.” So, I was pretty f---in’ excited, obviously!
A couple days later I found myself in catering, talking to Maynard from Tool. Now, I don’t know how much truth there is to this whole next story because this is only what got back to me. But here's what I was told. I was talking to Maynard about Jesus for about 30 minutes or an hour about how he thought it was a mushroom cult. Somehow the conversation traveled to my nifty idea of having a cannibal barbecue and me inviting him. I had this mortician in England who promised to put a leg on ice for me and if I ever wanted to barbecue it I could go out there and he would have it ready.
That led to my idea about of a cannibal barbecue, and I was half-serious about it. I mean, I’d probably end up going to jail if I tried it, but it was a fun thing to talk about. I guess I left him a little bit dumbfounded, and he wasn’t quite sure what to say.
I guess I like to freak people out; it’s my nature. And freaking out anybody is always fun, but the way the story got back to me was that Maynard had gone to Sharon Osbourne, told her the story and apparently convinced her and a group of people that I was a genuine Satan worshiping cannibal. Apparently, Sharon was so freaked out that she wouldn’t let Ozzy get tattooed by me. Again, I don’t know how true it is, but it's a great story.
And at the end of the day, I asked myself, "What could possibly be cooler than tattooing Ozzy Osbourne?" And my answer was, "Having his wife not allow me to tattoo him!"
Comments