Paranoid: Black Days with Sabbath and Other Rock Icons Book

Another book about Black Sabbath? Ozzy biting the heads off chickens and all that? Err, sort of. Ozzy and his Brummie mates are certainly in this book and there's plenty of rock star excess for anyone who likes that sort of thing. But Paranoid is not really about rock stars at all. What Paranoid is really about is the writer Mick Wall. Or to be absolutely precise it's about Mick Wall's heroin addiction and opens with a mainlining scene so revolting as to make Irvine Welsh blanch. Wall was a chancer in the rock PR industry in the late 1970s when introduced to smack by no less a connoisseur than Phil Lynott back stage at the Marquee. We then get a blow-by-blow account of being stoned in music paper offices, in hotels and, of course, back stage. There's a great bit at the American Live Aid gig-- Ozzy wanted to do "Food Glorious Food" for an Encore--and walk-on parts for Stevie Nicks and David Bowie. But while the rock industry likes to make much of walking on the wild side, this book does us all a favour by skulking on the sad side. --Nick WroeRead More