Former Black Sabbath lead singer Ozzy Osbourne wrestled with a burglar on Monday at his rural English home before the intruder and an accomplice made off with up to â,¬1,4-million, (R10.9-million) worth of jewellery, police said.
Ozzy, 55, discovered one of the thieves around 4am in his wife Sharon’s dressing room, next to the master bedroom, at their massive house near Chalfont Saint Peter, south England.
”I dived and grabbed him,” Ozzy told the Sun newspaper. ”I had him in a headlock, the rest of his body was dangling out the window.”
”He didn’t say anything, nor did I. I just looked at him, he was heavy. All I could see were his wild red eyes.
”But then I just let him drop, I couldn’t kill him, I couldn’t live with that on my conscience.”
The robber fell nine metres and along with his accomplice made off with some of Sharon’s most prized possessions, including two gold wedding rings and her ”survival ring”, a gift to herself for beating cancer.
”It’s not the money, it’s the memories,” Ozzy told the Sun.
”The moments they have taken from my wife are the things that you can’t buy, the things that are so precious, they are the sum of your life, of your good times and bad.
”There is so much love in those things, they were bought out of love, and these people have taken our love away as if it is
worthless,” he said.
Ozzy, infamous for his wild on-stage perfomances for Black Sabbath in the 1970s, found stardom again in 2002 when a reality show based on his family life in Los Angeles, The Osbournes, became a massive hit in the United States.
The show also featured Sharon, his son Jack, 19, and daughter Kelly, 18.
Last December, Ozzy spent eight days in a coma after breaking his collarbone, six ribs and two vertebrae in a quadbike accident while driving around the south England estate.
English-born Sharon, 52, whose American talk show was axed earlier this year, is currently appearing in The X-Factor, a talent show on Britain’s ITV network. – Sapa-AFP