Books Like I Am Ozzy

Mötley Crüe (Musical group), Tommy Lee

If Ozzy's road stories had you gasping, this band-told oral history of Mötley Crüe goes even further into eighties debauchery, and Ozzy himself turns up in one of its most notorious tour episodes.

Stephen Davis

The classic, lurid account of Led Zeppelin's touring years captures the same seventies era of private jets, wrecked hotels and myth-making that Black Sabbath lived through alongside them.

Keith Richards, James Fox

Like Ozzy, Keith narrates his own survival of decades of drugs and chaos with dry humour and surprising candour, mixing outrageous anecdotes with real love for the music.

Tony Iommi, TONY IOMMI

Black Sabbath's guitarist tells the same story from the other side of the stage, from Aston factories to the riffs that invented metal, offering a calmer counterpoint to Ozzy's version.

Lemmy Kilmister

Lemmy's memoir has the same blunt, working-class swagger as Ozzy's, with gleeful tales of Hawkwind and Motörhead and zero apologies for a life lived loud.

Anthony Kiedis

Kiedis matches Ozzy's openness about relapse after relapse, telling his addiction story with energy and humour while showing the cost to friends and bandmates.

Russell Brand

If Ozzy's comic, self-mocking tone was the draw, Brand's riotous account of addiction and fame is told with the same laugh-out-loud honesty about his worst moments.

Trevor Noah

Like Ozzy's poor Birmingham childhood, Noah's upbringing is told with warmth and huge comic timing, turning hardship into stories that are both funny and moving.

Patti Smith, Patti Smith

For a more reflective rock memoir, Smith's account of her early years in New York shares Ozzy's theme of music as salvation from poverty, told with tenderness.

Bruce Springsteen, Michael Morpurgo

Springsteen also grew up working class and found escape in rock and roll; his memoir explores family, depression and ambition with the depth Ozzy's heartfelt passages hint at.

Bob Dylan

A very different voice but the same pleasure of a legend telling his own story his own way, full of digressions, odd characters and a sense of how myths get made.