Ozzy and his former BFF, a coke spoon

Let’s face it, Ozzy Osbourne, the former and now again lead vocalist of Black Sabbath, leader of the Blizzard of Oz, author and one of reality television’s first stars, is a survivor.

For over forty years, Osbourne has battled drug and alcohol addiction. He would routinely consume four bottles of Hennessy a day and instead of eating, Ozzy snorted cocaine for breakfast. After almost being killed crashing his ATV in 2003, Ozzy spent eight days in a coma and when he miraculously awoke, was left with but a fractured vertebrae, eight fractured ribs, a partially collapsed lung and a badly fractured left collarbone. In stark contrast, he emerged from his tour bus virtually unscathed on March 19th, 1982 after a plane carrying Blizzard of Ozz and Diary of a Madman guitar virtuoso Randy Rhoads (who was killed), crashed into the bus, setting it aflame. To say nothing of the time that Ozz bit the head off of a live bat onstage that same year. According to the CDC, rabies kills somebody every nine minutes worldwide. Unless your name is Ozzy Osbourne, of course.
 

 
Back in 2010, Ozzy became one of a small number of people in the entire world to have their genetic code broken down and analyzed. The researcher in charge of the project referred to Osbourne as a “medical miracle” and after a genetic review of a blood sample that was obtained from Osbourne, some of the results, while revealing, make a lot of sense. Here’s the breakdown:

Ozzy is 6.13 times more likely than the average person to have alcohol dependency or alcohol cravings; 1.31 times more likely to have a cocaine addiction; and 2.6 times more likely to have hallucinations caused by cannabis use.

 

Ozzy and his partner-in-crime, Lemmy Kilmister

While the revelation that Ozzy has a natural propensity to party out of bounds a bit more than the rest of us do isn’t all that shocking, there were some fascinating factoids that came to light thanks to the genome study. It turns out that Ozzy’s ADH4 gene (which is responsible for breaking down alcohol) is able to break down booze much quicker than the average person. You know, like his little pal Lemmy Kilmister.

In addition to that was the finding that Ozzy also has two versions of the COMT gene (Catechol-O-methyltransferase) known also as the “warrior” and “worrier” - an enzyme that deteriorates dopamine, epinephrine, and norepinephrine. What all this means is that in addition to his weakness for booze and drugs, other functions such as awareness, planning, organization, self-awareness, and of all things self-regulation are super heightened in Ozzy. If that’s not enough for you, the study confirmed that Osbourne is a distant relative of The Late Show host, Stephen Colbert and also shares DNA with Neanderthals which is actually quite common for Europeans. Coincidentally (and defying all odds), Ozzy turns 67 today. Now that’s what I call a real Iron Man. 
 

Black Sabbath performing, “Fairies Wear Boots.” Live in Paris, 1970. In case “trippin’ and smokin’” is all that you do.

Previously on Dangerous Minds:
‘Black Sabbath—The Ten Year War’: Amazing promo artifact from 1978, with R. Crumb style artwork