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And Finally Artist News
Ozzy Osbourne a “genetic mutant”, says new book on DNA
By Chris Cooke | Published on Wednesday 14 August 2019
A new book that looks at how people are shaped by their DNA says that Ozzy Osbourne is a “genetic mutant” whose genes made him more prone to addiction but also more able to consume large quantities of alcohol.
And how would Bill Sullivan, a professor at the Indiana University School Of Medicine, know this? Well, because in 2010 a Massachusetts-based research company called Knome apparently analysed a blood sample from Osbourne, in a bid to map his genetic code and work out how he’d been able to survive so many years of drug and alcohol abuse.
In his book ‘Pleased To Meet Me: Genes, Germs And The Curious Forces That Make Us Who We Are’, Sullivan writes “Ozzy is indeed a genetic mutant”. Knome’s researchers apparently confirmed that the Black Sabbath frontman was genetically predisposed towards addiction, but also that a unique mutation allowed him to drink in much larger-than-normal quantities.
“After all these years of thinking we were free agents”, Sullivan notes elsewhere in his book, “we’ve come to realise that most, if not all, of our behaviour is not of our own volition … However magical they may feel to you, your emotions are purely biological in origin”.
Of course all the drinking and drug taking didn’t leave Osbourne entirely unscathed, and ill-health has resulted in dates on his farewell tour being rescheduled, despite him having now kicked the booze and the drugs. But still, that he is still with us and able to grandly tour a big farewell is probably pretty impressive.
And as Blabbermouth notes, the man himself has previously said the same. In column he once co-wrote for The Times he stated: “By all accounts, I’m a medical miracle. When I die, I should donate my body to the Natural History Museum”.
