Osbourne told his life story quite nicely about five years back with his "I Am Ozzy" memoir and it is not Popoff's intention to repeat or try to best what was included in that tome. Instead "Steal Away the Night" lets the story play out in quick little bursts through concise summaries of what happened on what turned out to be significant dates from the Black Sabbath days through till autumn of 2013. There are only about 20 pages covering the '70s and Black Sabbath; mostly those dates and snippets are used to set up the more extensive coverage of Ozzy's solo career in the ensuing pages and include occasions like Ozzy's last Sabbath performance of the decade on December 11, 1978, of which Osbourne comments, "We were demoralized within ourselves. That's when I realized we weren't happening." The bulk of the book tracks Ozzy's highs and lows throughout the '80s and '90s; the hit records, the drug problems, the joy of working with Randy Rhoads and the sorrow of his tragic death, and crazy stuff like the dove and bat incidents and his arrest and banishment from San Antonio, Texas after getting caught urinating on the Alamo. Many of the players who came in and out of Ozzy's band over the years comment and the input segments from the likes of Zakk Wylde, Bob Daisley, Jake E. Lee, Sharon Osbourne and Ozzy himself are generally longer than the day-by-day entries which run anywhere from a couple lines to about a hundred words. Presented as a coffee table-style book in hardback and with lavish illustration on every page (photos, concert tickets and posters, T-shirts, picture discs, etc.) "Steal Away the Night" is meant for lingering, not a rush read. The coverage from this century is more or less just a footnote covering things like Ozzy's foray into reality television, and the book appropriately enough ends right back where it began, with Oz back in Black Sabbath and the release of 13. Order your copy here

Teenage News Issue #2