Aliens. Drugs. Rock & roll. And more! That's what the legendary Ozzy Osbourne and longtime friend and sometime collaborator Billy Morrison (Billy Idol, Camp Freddy) promised they'd be getting into with their new The Madhouse Chronicles podcast. And while they've unveiled just a single episode so far, they're making do with that promise. Tenfold.
The program, which premiered as part of the recently launched Osbourne Media House venture, is somehow both casual and chaotic. There's a natural, loving, and generally relaxed rapport between the pair — they became friends decades ago when Morrison first popped up at Osbourne's California home. Most recently, they gelled in the studio while tracking "Crack Cocaine," the first chunkified metal-blues single from the recent self-titled album from The Morrison Project.
Then again, both get bug-eyed while discussing anything from Area 51 tourist traps and perceived government hoaxes, to freaky triple-jointed contortionists they found on social media, to what it would be like to get high with an alien.
Future episodes will apparently be full of "unscripted, unfiltered lunacy," as they weigh in on conspiracy theories, TikTok challenges and gross-out nature vids. The kernel of The Madhouse Chronicles, however, is just two old pals enjoying each other's company while contemplating the weirdness of the world we live in.
"What I learned is we're going backwards as a species," Morrison suggests of the most bizarre scenarios he and Ozzy have peeped through The Madhouse Chronicles.
It's a madhouse out there, truly. But even at its freakiest, Osbourne and Morrison are going to enjoy the show.
How often were you having these kinds of conversations with each other before deciding to do the show?
BILLY MORRISON Probably the whole 30 years we've known each other. I mean, that's probably where the idea of the show came from, people listening to me and him talking about random shit. It's quite funny.
OZZY OSBOURNE My son said to me, "You and Billy have the craziest conversations, bordering on arguments… You should do something with that." I said, "OK… in the day of podcasts, we'll just do that."
MORRISON It's basically like watching me and Ozzy at a restaurant.
This first episode dives into aliens, UFOs, and the assorted conspiracy theories and government hoaxes around that. What intrigues you both about diving into the rabbit holes of the internet on these kinds of topics?
OSBOURNE You know what fascinates me? People say that they're here, or whatever, but why haven't we seen one [up close]? There's been a million UFO sightings. If they can build the things that get here, they must have supersonic technology… [but] if mankind is what I think it still is, the first thing we'd want to know is what weapons [they have] so we could use their weapons.
MORRISON Ozzy and I have been talking about aliens for years…
OSBOURNE I want to meet one, I do.
How receptive do you think you'd be if you actually saw an alien? A lot of people would be freaked out…
MORRISON I ask Ozzy on the show what he would say if an alien landed in his back garden, and on the show his answer was, "What are the drugs like?" [Laughs]
So, this first episode gets almost philosophical with how you're contemplating alien life. Some of the other teases that we've seen from The Madhouse Chronicles are more lighthearted — looking at TikTok trends like the Jenner Lip Challenge, for instance. What kind of lunacy have you seen so far, while diving through social media?
MORRISON Ozzy, do you remember watching the thing about animals, where the cat reverses his ass onto the doorstop?
OSBOURNE I've got another one. Sharon showed me one last night of a fox shitting into a Porsche.
MORRISON Oh, yeah… on the windscreen of the Porsche. I saw that. And it keeps coming back every day!
We saw a lot of weird stuff. There were a lot of TikTok challenges that actually didn't make us laugh — they made us quite concerned about the youth of today. You know what I mean? They were swallowing detergent tablets to get high.
OSBOURNE I remember one guy says, "Well, what's it like?" The other guy says, "It was like a near-death experience."
MORRISON As long as it's near.
OSBOURNE It's all right, Billy, we got a near-death experience.
MORRISON See, that's one of the problems doing this with Ozzy. He watches that and then goes, "Hey Billy, let's try that!"
Ozzy, Ordinary Man's "Eat Me" was somewhat inspired by the Armin Meiwes cannibalism case you'd read about in the news one time. Could what you're absorbing through The Madhouse Chronicles end up inspiring either of you to write a song?
MORRISON There's a lot of shit to write songs about other than people swallowing laundry tablets to get high.
It's a big spring for you both, between this podcast, the broader launch of Osbourne Media House, and Billy's Morrison Project album. What's the general plan for The Madhouse Chronicles? Will this become a weekly get-together for you?
OSBOURNE It depends on if people want to see or not. If people go, "Oh, this is a load of shit..." we're not going to sit there and talk, and have one fucking person look at it. So, it depends on how it's received.
Considering what you've come across so far, is social media — or maybe the internet at large — fun, scary, or both?
OSBOURNE You know what? It's just the way to go now because I think in the not-too-distant future things like radio and TVs will be not used much, if at all.
MORRISON I agree with Ozzy. Love it or hate it, I think you've got to embrace it because it's not going anywhere. These days, that's where people get their news. I don't think it's a matter of 'do you like it or do you hate it' — I think it's here to stay.
OSBOURNE The genie's out of the bottle!
Whether it's investigating the conspiracy theories or the online challenges, what do you think you've learned about humanity through the experience of The Madhouse Chronicles?
OSBOURNE They're fucked-up.
MORRISON They're what? [Laughs] I think what Ozzy meant to say is there's a lot of strange people, and it takes all sorts in this world.
OSBOURNE I think society is getting too much information. Sooner or later, something's got to give. Because as someone was explaining to me, it's like the un-policed Wild West right now.
MORRISON For me, I did learn that despite having lived quite a life — and I've seen a lot of shit — there is still worse and weirder out there for me to discover.
This interview has been edited and condensed for clarity.
