Jack Osbourne

Jack Osbourne
Osbourne at the 2011 Tribeca Film Festival premiere of The Bang Bang Club
Born	Jack Joseph Osbourne 8 November 1985 (1985-11-08) St John's Wood, London
Occupation	Television personality
Years active	2001–present

Jack Joseph Osbourne (born 8 November 1985) is an English media personality, best known as the son of musician Ozzy Osbourne and music manager Sharon Osbourne, and brother of Aimee and Kelly Osbourne.

Early life and family

Osbourne was born in St John's Wood, London. He has two older sisters, Aimee Osbourne and Kelly Osbourne, and also two elder half-siblings; Jessica Hobbs and Louis Jon Osbourne, both of whom are from Ozzy's previous marriage to Thelma Riley. The Osbournes have many pets, and Jack had a female bulldog named Lola, she died on February 21st in 2012. Jack says that his childhood years were "perfectly happy and contented". For the first six years of his life he lived in the Chiltern Hills in Buckinghamshire. When he was six, Sharon and Ozzy decided to move the family to Los Angeles, but a year later the family moved back to Buckinghamshire. When Jack was eleven, the family moved back to Southern California, but this time to Beverly Hills. In spite of moving so many times at a young age, Jack claims "he didn't find it too disruptive".

The only aspect of his life that constant moving did affect was his school life, and Jack soon despised going to school, which was not helped by the fact that when he was eight he was diagnosed with a form of dyslexia, and when he was ten he was diagnosed with Attention-deficit disorder. At the time, Jack was studying at a Christian school in Los Angeles, but their attitude was "pray hard and you'll get better" and Jack returned to England again for a year, before returning to Los Angeles. This time Jack did not return to the Christian school, but was enrolled into a special needs school (Park Century School), and was prescribed Ritalin to combat his ADD. Jack had been on the road with Ozzy throughout much of his childhood, and when he was fourteen he was offered an internship at Virgin Records while Sharon was managing the Smashing Pumpkins on this label.

A&R and music management

After Sharon stopped managing the Smashing Pumpkins, Jack soon started A&R scouting for Epic Records as Ozzy had been on Epic for many years. Jack also helped Sharon in managing his father's annual touring festival, Ozzfest, through advising her about up-and-coming bands.

Television and film

The Osbournes

Jack shot to fame in 2002 after appearing in his family's reality television show The Osbournes, which aired on MTV and won an Emmy Award in 2002. When initially approached about the idea of the show, Jack said to Sharon "I don't want to be famous." In the show Jack was mostly shown as a rebellious teenager who liked to party and fight with Kelly. In a song advertising The Osbournes. Jack Black sings the line "and he's got a big 'fro on his head", describing Jack's curly hair that grew longer until he eventually shaved it off in the third season of the show.

Other appearances

The Osbournes opened many doors for Jack, as in 2002 he briefly appeared in Austin Powers: Goldmember along with the rest of his family, and subsequently starred in a Super Bowl XXXVI advertisement for Pepsi Twist with Kelly. In 2002-03 Jack appeared in Season 6 of Dawson's Creek, as Audrey's childhood friend. He also made cameos in The X Factor (as a "Goth rapper" who sings "Ice Ice Baby"), and in the fifth season of That '70s Show.

Post-rehab, Osbourne went on in 2003 to star in his own show on Channel 4 entitled Union Jack. In 2004 he hit the big screen for a second time to play a small role in New York Minute, a film starring the Olsen twins in which he plays a music promoter named Justin. In 2005 Jack started to show more of an interest in fitness through co-hosting the ITV2 show, Celebrity Wrestling:Bring It On!. In February 2005 Jack appeared in Extreme Celebrity Detox in which he took part in t'ai chi and climbing exercises, which possibly inspired him to appear in his own programme Jack Osbourne: Adrenaline Junkie, which was produced by the same production company (Ginger Productions) as Extreme Celebrity Detox'.

Adrenaline junkie

Jack Osbourne got in shape and lost 3½ stone in Thailand at a Muay Thai martial arts camp in Pattaya in order to be fit enough to climb El Capitan (which he achieved) whilst filming the first series of Jack Osbourne: Adrenaline Junkie . It is aired on ITV2 in the UK, the Travel Channel in the United States, The LifeStyle Channel in Australia, GOtv in South Africa and on MuchMusic in Canada. Adrenaline Junkie focuses on Osbourne's training for sports like rock climbing, mountaineering and a jungle trek in Belize from the Chiquibul Chamber through dense jungle ending at Caracol ruins (Guided by the UK extreme conservation organisation Trekforce). The effects of Jack's weight loss are clearly shown by the two semi-naked photo shoots he did for Cosmopolitan in 2005 to raise awareness of testicular cancer. The first, taken in June 2005, shows him sitting on a motorbike, with him claiming in the same issue that Cosmo are "chubby chasers for wanting to see him starkers". However, in the second photo shoot, which appeared in the December 2005 issue of Cosmo, he was noticeably more toned, and Jack declared that the second shoot was a big "Ha! To everyone to who laughed at him before".

After the first series of Adrenaline Junkie he began filling in for Stephen Mulhern on CITV's Saturday morning kids' show Holly & Stephen's Saturday Showdown (the show has now ended). Jack took part in Sport Relief and faced former singer in the band S Club 7, Bradley McIntosh, in a boxing match of three one-minute rounds to raise money for the charity. Jack won by a unanimous decision.

He once claimed to be considering a career in law enforcement and was on reality television show Armed and Famous. The show was pulled from CBS in January 2007, and Jack is being sued by a woman from Muncie, Indiana whose house was accidentally raided during the filming on the show.

Jack's recently filmed a programme for the BBC's Saving Planet Earth series. In it he travelled to Namibia to highlight the tensions between elephants and the local people, and what can be done so that both groups can live peacefully beside one another. Whilst filming, Jack had a near-miss when an elephant was threatening to charge at him, but luckily the elephant walked off.

The fourth series of Adrenaline Junkie, which was aired on ITV2, showed Jack taking on a leadership role as he led a group of celebrities through similar challenges to the ones he faced on the first two series of the programme.

After the end of the third series Jack took part in the Mongol Rally with News Corporation director Andrew Knights' daughter, Amaryllis Knight. Their challenge was to drive a car with under 1000cc from London to Ulan Bator, the capital of Mongolia, for charity.

In the first episode of the new series Jack is joined by sister Kelly and parents Sharon and Ozzy, as the Osbournes take part in a family adventure Adrenaline Junkie style.

Osbournes reloaded

Jack and the rest of the Osbourne family reunited with a reality TV show on Fox. Debut March 31, 2009. It was cancelled after the first episode.

Directing and producing (2009-present)

Since Jack's time as a reality T.V. star, he has taken on the roles of producer and director. Osbourne made and produced a documentary all about his father, Ozzy, that was originally to be titled to "Wreckage Of My Past: The Ozzy Osbourne Story," but was changed to "God Bless Ozzy Osbourne." This film premiered in April 2011 at the Tribeca Film Festival and was released on DVD in November 2011. In early August 2010 Jack took on the role of directing his first music video, for his dad's song "Life Won't Wait" of the album Scream. The video debuted on August 23.

Drug addiction

On his 13th birthday, Jack got drunk for the first time on whisky; by the time he was 14, he was drinking regularly and had started smoking marijuana. He started partying heavily, and made headlines on 21 April 2003 when he was admitted to a child psychiatric ward for an addiction to OxyContin. Jack's drug addiction escalated after Sharon was diagnosed with cancer as well as battling with his own depression. His self-destructive behavior came to a head when he attempted suicide by taking absinthe, a cocktail of prescription pills, and cutting his hands with shards of glass after hearing his girlfriend's ex-boyfriend pick up her phone when he called her. He woke up 12 hours later.

Rehabilitation

Jack continued with his drug use until he realised "I never want to feel this way ever again" and admitted himself into an adolescent psych ward, as that was the only place that could legally detox adolescents. He spent 10 days detoxing, and was then moved to an adolescent rehabilitation centre in Malibu, where he enrolled in the Twelve-Step Programme. Jack has been clean since he left rehab, apart from when he accidentally had a shot of vodka jelly, mistaking it for normal jelly.

Personal life

In February 2005, Jack had a "high value amount" of jewelry stolen from his suitcase at Los Angeles International Airport, and offered a £100,000 reward for any information that could lead to prosecution.

In October 2011 Osbourne announced he is expecting his first child with his fiancee, Lisa Stelly.

Tattoos and piercings

Osbourne is very interested in body modifications and has various tattoos all over his body. These include:

• A tattoo across the whole of his back which includes a dragon
• A tattoo saying "Mum" inside a heart in white ink on his left shoulder blade
• A smiley face on each knee (his father, Ozzy Osbourne, also has this tattoo)
• A skull and crossbones on the back of his neck
• An intricate pattern on his right forearm including a fish and a wheel
• A sobriety symbol of a triangle within a circle on his left arm
• The name "Kelly" on his inner left wrist (His sister, Kelly, has one that says "Jack")
• A crucifix on the centre of his chest
• The words 'Savage Times' across his right breastbone
• A lobe piercing in each ear
• A tiger on his lower left arm

Further reading

• 21 Years Gone: The Autobiography (2006) ISBN 978-0230014329
• Ordinary People: Our Story (31 Oct 2004) ISBN 978-0743462228

External links

• Jack Osbourne at the Internet Movie Database
• The Osbournes
• Jack Talks About His Addiction and Recovery
• MTV.TV's guide to Jack's appearances on MTV's The Osbournes
• Jack's extreme expeditions with Trekforce Worldwide