‘The Osbournes’ Brought ‘Bad-News People’ Into Family Home
Aimee Osbourne, the eldest child of Ozzy and Sharon, recalled how the success of the reality TV show The Osbournes resulted in the family home being full of “bad-news people.”
Five years after releasing her first single under the name ARO, Osbourne also explained why she didn’t want mom Sharon to manage her career, even though she's close to both of her parents.
Aimee was 18 when The Osbournes premiered. Now 37, she remains comfortable with her decision not to be involved with the show and having her face blurred the few occasions she did appear onscreen. “I moved out because it was just a bit too chaotic for me,” she told Yahoo! Entertainment in a new interview. “It wasn't an easy time. In retrospect, I think my parents would have liked to have maybe done things a little differently. … There were definitely moments when I think all of us were like, ‘This is almost too much.’ No one was anticipating quite the level of exposure and interest that it got.”
She added that "it was a level of fame and exposure that attracts a lot of bad-news people who are kind of like parasites. I remember going over to visit my family's house and seeing a bunch of cling-ons that literally no one really even knew, but were just at the house because it looked great on camera. My siblings [Kelly and Jack] were super-young, and when you are that young, you make friends really quick. They had false friends all of a sudden showing up. It was kind of an explosion.”
Aimee said she wound up “being taken for a bit of a ride” as she worked on her debut ARO album, Vacare Adamare, which will arrive on Oct. 30. “I think people assumed that it was an easy payday — you know, that I must have access to limitless funds, and so therefore they had a right to easily dip into that," she explained. "It delayed things, and it made things really messy. … But it has definitely helped me become very good at being able to tell if someone's interested in any capacity with my project for the right reasons.”
Asked why she didn’t ask Sharon to manage her, Aimee said, “She comes from a generation where management was handled a little differently from how it is today. Also, the genre of music that I make isn't something that she was necessarily super-familiar with. ... I mean, there were all these common-sense questions that I, of course, would turn to her for, but as far as the nuances of everything that I was trying to do and the way I was trying to do it, we are very different in that way. That's why it was healthier for both of us to be supportive and there for each other, but not directly involved business-wise with each other.”
Aimee also said Ozzy was “super-supportive,” but added that "he’s always got so much going on, as far as his own work and his own writing. He's forever listening to music and painting and writing poetry or lyrics or toplines. He's very dedicated and committed to what he does, so he's not necessarily got loads of time. … He has commented on a couple of the tracks that he really liked on the album. He's the perfect combination of being supportive but not overly involved to where it can feel a bit suffocating.”
Both Ozzy and Sharon were concerned at Aimee's decision to enter the music business, she noted, but added, “I think, for my parents, knowing that I was a sensitive and creative person, they were concerned that I wouldn’t develop enough of knowing when to say no. I grew up in a world with direct access to fame and a really blessed lifestyle, and it's been a wonderful gift. I've really focused on never taking that for granted, because I know where I come from is not the norm.”