Ozzy Osbourne Attacks Brit Paper Over 'Twisted' Quotes

Legendary heavy-metal frontman Ozzy Osbourne has hit back at the online arm of British newspaper the Daily Mail over an article he says has "twisted" his words to make it appear as though he was "excited" in the wake of the September 11, 2001, attacks in New York City.

The Black Sabbath frontman and one-time reality-TV star took to Facebook early this afternoon (AEST) to chastise the paper for its article, first revealing that he'd never even spoken to the paper in the first place — the quotes were taken (and taken out of context) from "another interview I did for The Shortlist that was posted earlier in the day" — before clearing the air about his intent.

"Firstly, I never spoke to ‘The Mail Online’," Osbourne posted. "Several quotes were pulled from another interview I did for The Shortlist that was posted earlier in the day and were taken out of context to create ‘The Mail Online’ story [about 9-11].

"You would think that at my age I would finally realize that any conversation with a journalist can be twisted, reprinted and made into another story. It's another life lesson learned."

The quote that The Mail Online turned into a headline was Osbourne saying, "I wasn't scared, I was excited! It was my kind of craziness," with regard to being in New York at the time of the attacks.

However, reading the full Shortlist interview, it's clear that Osbourne was not actually referencing the attacks themselves:

"The day after that happened, there was fucking nobody in New York," Osbourne told The Shortlist after the now-infamous line. "I remember standing on the steps of the hotel, and — you know when you see an old cowboy film and that tumbleweed rolls past on the ground? There was newspapers just floating around on the streets. It was so fucking weird."

Far less salacious with the full back-up explanation, we'd say.

Osbourne concludes the post by expressing that he has had representatives put in requests with The Mail Online to have the story pulled, but the outlet "refused", he said — leading to the global pick-up and dissemination of the out-of-context story "because of the sensational slant The Mail Online put on [it]".

You can read the full post below.