This song is about drug use, a subject Ozzy Osbourne knows very well. Until he went completely sober in 1991, Ozzy spent a lot of time under the influence.
The lyric, however, was written mostly by
Bob Daisley, who was Ozzy's bass player and lyricist. Daisley says it was inspired by time when he was playing in Australia, and he got into a discussion about drugs with a "straight" fellow.
Although it was a big part of his life, few of Ozzy's songs are about drugs. "Road To Nowhere," from 1991, is about his life before he went sober, and two songs he did with Black Sabbath were about drugs: "Snowblind"(cocaine) and "Sweet Leaf"(Marijuana).
Speaking with Spin in 1986, Ozzy said: "When I was a drug addict, I used to write things like 'Flying High Again,' 'Snowblind,' all this s--t. And the other night, I thought, 'F--king' 'ell, I sing one song for it and then straight after I sing one song against it.' But the thing is, that's OK. Because that was where I was when I wrote that, so why shouldn't I do it? It's part of my life."
Randy Rhoads played guitar on this song and co-wrote it with Ozzy, Bob Daisley and drummer Lee Kerslake. Diary of a Madman is the last album Rhoads played on; he died the next year while the band was touring in Florida. Rhoads was in a small plane that started buzzing Ozzy's tour bus. It got too close, clipped the bus, and crashed into a house; killing Rhoads, the pilot, and the tour hairdresser.
"Randy Rhoads was the best," Ozzy said in a press statement. "If I had to say which one of the guitar players you'd rather work with, who was the most musically trained, it was Randy, because he could write, he could read, he could play, he taught at his mother's school, and he had patience with me. And he would work with me, as opposed to me having to work on top of what he put down."
This was included on Tribute, a double-album of live tracks featuring Rhoads on guitar. Ozzy selected the tracks with the help of Rhoads' mom, and released it in 1987.
In the UK, this song was released as a single, but it didn't chart.
The album was digitally remastered and re-released in 2002.
Vile covered this for the 1999 collection
Land of the Wizard: A Tribute to Ozzy Osbourne.
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Suggestion credit:
Brett - Edmonton, Canada
