Singer Ozzy Osbourne has remarkably made it to 70 years old, despite heavy drug and alcohol abuse in the past. It turns out that he is more than just lucky, according to a new book. Scientists reportedly found that he has a never-before-seen mutation that could explain how the rocker has survived after years of drug and alcohol abuse.
“Ozzy is indeed a genetic mutant,” Bill Sullivan wrote in the new book Pleased to Meet Me: Genes, Germs and the Curious Forces that Make Us Who We Are, reports the New York Post. The book looks ar how humans have shaped our DNA and biological factors that have impacts on our genes.
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Sullivan, a professor at the Indiana University School of Medicine, wrote that there are gene variants that can effect out love of coffee and candy, sexual attraction, and even our political leanings.
“After all these years of thinking we were free agents, we’ve come to realize that most, if not all, of our behavior is not of our own volition,” Sullivan wrote in the book, which will be released by National Geographic this month.
According to Sullivan, people with liberal politics have a specific gene variant, and scientists can predict someone’s politics with a brain scan with 72 percent accuracy. Some conservatives were found to have a bigger amygdala, which can be triggered in fearful situations, in the brains. Many liberals have a larger anterior cingulate cortex, which analyses instinctive thoughts.
Osbourne’s DNA was analyzed by Knome, Inc., a Massachusetts company that analyses the human genome. They started sequencing Osbourne’s genome, which helped them discover his mutation.
“I’ve always said that at the end of the world there will be roaches, Ozzy and Keith Richards,” Osbourne’s wife, The Talk co-host Sharon Osbourne, said of the news, reports The Daily Mail.
The “Crazy Train” singer has been open about his struggles with drugs and alcohol in the past, particularly in his autobiography I Am Ozzy. He said he used cocaine, LSD, antidepressants, alcohol and hash, and spent multiple stints in rehab. He also used drugs to treat dyslexia and attention deficit disorder.
Osbourne also survived a 2003 bike accident that broke his neck. He also has a genetic disorder similar to Parksinson’s Disease.
“By all accounts I’m a medical miracle,” Osbourne told the Sunday Times back in 2010. “When I die, I should donate my body to the Natural History Museum. It’s all very well going on a bender for a couple of days – but mine went on for 40 years. At one point I was knocking back four bottles of cognac a day, blacking out, coming to again, and carrying on.”
He continued, “While filming TV show The Osbournes I was also shoving 42 types of prescription medication down my neck, morning, noon and night – and that was before all the dope I was smoking in my ‘safe’ room, away from the cameras. Meanwhile, I used to get through cigars like they were cigarettes. I’d even smoke them in bed.”
The same year Osbourne made that comment, Sky News reported that Knome would study Osbourne’s DNA.
Photo credit: Greg Doherty/Getty Images
