Ozzy Osbourne At Interop

So, here's something I didn't expect from Interop: I met Ozzy Osbourne. I didn't realize he was standing just a few feet away from me, near the Nokia booth, until he walked up and urged me to fill out a form that someone else had just handed me.Really!!

(I had put the form onto a counter, without signing up for a chance to win a free Xbox 360.)

I noticed his round, blue aviator glasses and his black hair parted in the middle and thought, 'Wow, this guy looks just like Ozzy Osbourne.'

Then he continued to talk and I saw his name tattooed on his knuckles. So, I said something brilliant like, "Wow, I can't believe I met you here."

So, what was he doing there?

"Sharon said I should come and network," he told me.

He seemed like a perfectly normal, likable guy, with no air of grandiosity whatsoever. And that didn't change after I told him I was a news reporter. He just shot the breeze, like there was nothing surreal about it.

The legendary heavy metal singer was kind enough to stand shoulder-to-shoulder with me, chatting for several minutes about the show; his birthplace, Birmingham, England; music; and, well, I can't remember what else because I was wondering if I should pinch myself, and what more I could say?

I have a musician friend, who also was born in Birmingham and has worked with enough major recording artists for me to forget lots of the details. I vaguely remembered a Black Sabbath connection and I talked about the friend briefly. Then, I went outside, called the friend, and found out that he had actually programmed Geoff Nicholls' keyboards.

I also called an editor (who advised me to write this blog.)

Then, I realized that I had filled out a form while talking with Ozzy Osbourne and I had forgotten to turn it in. When I returned to submit the form, I saw Osbourne posing for photos with several attendees. That's when I realized that my father, who listened to Black Sabbath in his younger days, would probably get a chuckle out of seeing a picture of the two of us.

So, I asked an attendee to shoot our photo and told Osbourne I found out my friend programmed Nicholls' keyboards. Then, I blurted out, "and my Dad loves you."

As for me, I'm pretty happy to be attending a show that literally gave me something to write home about.

Interop rocks.