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Ozzy and Jack's American Road Trip

Ozzy And Jack's American Road Trip: Jack Osbourne Interview

Ozzy and Jack are back and this time they're on the ultimate American road trip. Following on from their exploits in World Detour, they're now travelling the States, focussing on exploring the weird and wonderful of American life.

On a bi-coastal adventure from Florida to Alaska in the GMC Camper (the same model of van Ozzy first toured America with when he was in Black Sabbath) they'll be in for a bumpy ride.

Jack gave us a quick call, taking time out from his nappy changing duties - he and his wife have just welcomed baby Minnie to their family - to talk about the road trip, about Trump's America and why you should never go to the airport with Ozzy Osbourne.

Tell us about American Road Trip?

It's a season two, so instead of a continuation from season one, we kind of switched things up a little from World Detour and it became less about doing the historical things and more about exploring the weird and wonderful side of America with my Dad, and although he's toured a lot, he's never really explored it. So we decided to go from coast to coast and we started in Key West Florida and ended in Juno Canada and it was like one big epic road trip.

Jack introduces the road trip at the start of episode 1

What's the weirdest place you visited?

The first thing that comes to mind is that we went to this place that was called 'The Body Farm' and it's a forensic palaeontology centre so basically they just study the decomposition of human bodies.

It was basically a forest of about 40 decomposing bodies, just in it and in various stages and it was pretty horrific.

Tell us about the 1973 GMC Camper, what is the significance of this vehicle?

Back when the GMC Camper first came out, it was the hot ticket and Dad had one of those when he was in Sabbath and when they started touring in America, that was their tour bus.

So I think he felt some sort of fondness toward it and we were very lucky that we found one. Although doing a road trip in a vintage car is not really that great. It had nothing that we're spoiled with now. It was just a bit bare bones and it wasn't that fun to drive and it had no air conditioning and it was heading into summer.

What else did you drive along the trip?

Jack and Ozzy road tested a variety of different vehicles on their journey

We drove a bunch of different things. Dad drove this big old earth mover. He got behind the wheel of a race car while I was in the back seat of it. That was interesting. Yeah, we did a bunch of stuff.

He said during season one that he was kind of nervous about getting stuck in, because he was in the middle of a Black Sabbath tour and so last year he was like well 'I don't have a tour to worry about', so he took his gloves off.

Who was the most memorable person you met on your trip and why?

There is a guy that we still talk about today, we called him, the 'Rock'n'Roll Redneck'.

We were in Georgia and we met this guy who used to manage Pit Crews for Nascar and this guy was a character. To describe him would do him no justice. You jut have to see this guy. He worked in the race car business and his job was to sell dirt. Selling dirt is a thing.

Your parents are British but you grew up in America, does this give you a different perspective on the country?

I think inherently, yes. If you have ever lived in other countries and then you come here, it really does not only make this country seem even bigger but just how different it is from the rest of the world.

So what was the best thing about travelling with Ozzy?

The best thing is probably just the ability to spend the time with. He's not easy to travel with but it's worth it.

I'm 32, he's 70 this year, it's nice to have the memories this late in the game.

What's the worst thing about travelling with Ozzy?

He is the most neurotic OCD man alive and you can imagine what comes with that. And he's also the worst to go to an airport with because he insists on going everywhere dressed as Ozzy Osbourne so it makes it difficult to move quickly.

He's dripping in jewellery, he's got his glasses on. He's gotta be Ozzy Osbourne everywhere he goes.

Apart from your Dad, if you could go on a road trip with anyone from history who would it be and why?

It would have to be someone pretty awesome like some old-school pioneer guy. They'd have to be up for it, probably Lewis and Clarke because they like to explore.

How has America changed since 2016, when you filmed World Detour and in 2017 when you filmed Road Trip?

Here's the interesting thing about that, about doing this show and going to the places we did, you visit everyone.

You see the people who probably didn't benefit from the last president very well, and lost businesses and this and that and you can see the frustration there.

"'Holy sh*t Trump is going to win."

It was funny, we were filming all through the election in the first season and the whole time, we were going to these places and I'm like "Holy sh*t Trump' is going to win. And everyone was like, 'Nah it's never going to happen'." I was like no, he legitimately is because there was a sense of these people were so p*ssed off and then it was almost like a f**k you.

So it was really interesting because there is a massive difference between the people who voted for Hillary and the people who voted Trump and when you go to a lot of these working class areas and you see it, you can see there's a lot of frustration.

Everyone back in LA was like 'no way' and I'm like I'm telling you 100% he's going to win. You go to the places I've been to and meet the people I met, people were fired up and they were not happy. So it's like ‘well, sh*t’. The world has gone mad.

What was your favourite American state you visited and why?

I really like Texas. Utah is amazing. If you like the outdoors, they have every type of climate...they have desert and forest and mountains and they have everything and it's so stunningly beautiful.

I'm tending to like places with not a lot of people now. I recently went up to Wyoming and there's no-one in Wyoming, there's less than a million people live in the state and it's pretty cool.

In your opinion why should our viewers watch American Road Trip?

Season two is a lot more culturally based and a unique look into Americana and it's me and my dad hitting the open road. You will see things you haven't seen before, including a body farm!