I missed the exciting news last week that Ozzy Osbourne has been working on a piece of musical theater about "mad monk" Grigory Rasputin. Apparently, he and co-writer Mark Hudson have written enough songs for a double LP, "in styles that vary from rock to coassack folk music." I can't wait! From The Guardian:
"I always wanted to do a musical for the West End or Broadway," Osbourne said. "If it gets picked up it gets picked up, but it was a lot of fun to do anyway … being Ozzy Osbourne is great, but if I don't sing about the fucking devil or bats or whatever, people don't really want to know."
Osbourne was inspired to write the show after watching a BBC documentary about Rasputin. Though he came from humble beginnings, the so-called "Mad Monk" became a leading figure in the Romanov dynasty during the early 20th century. Rasputin, said Osbourne, lived the rock'n'roll lifestyle before it was invented. He drank heavily, was a womaniser, disregarded personal hygiene and was linked with witchcraft and the occult. He was also famously hard to kill – his assassins had to poison, shoot and drown him.
