There are times when I wonder if I’ve been living under a rock or what color the sky is in everybody else’s world or something. Let me start by saying that I am not ashamed to admit that my kids have that musical disease–no not rap, rock. Hard rock. I’ve got three metal heads living under my roof. My husband thinks Ozzie should be strung up–not for biting the heads off small animals (although he admits that’s completely gross and unnecessary) but for becoming complacent enough to have his own reality show about his family. The pods must have taken over. I mean, this is Ozzie.
As you may know, we are also Netflix fanatics over here. My son recently ordered the 10th Anniversary of Ozzfest CD. For those not in the know, Ozzfest is a rock festival put on by Ozzie and the Ozzlets, most notably his wife, Sharon (more on that later). Anyhoo my husband and daughter were watching the CD before sending it back (I was hiding in my office with old school Motown cranked up as high as it wanted to be) when my daughter calls me to join them in the living room. Watch this band, they tell me.
I think they have invited me to watch solely because the band playing is (almost) all black–as in, see, we’re not the only weirdos digging this. But I’m staring at the female front person of the band. I can’t really call her a singer since she is screaming unintelligible words at the top of her lungs. The only lyrics I can make out are You Don’t Understand. She looks so familiar, but I can’t place her face until she ends the song with a “Thanks for the noise fuckers.” She walks off the stage and they show a close up of her. Underneath a caption reads Jada Pinkett-Smith. JADAFREAKINGPINKETT-SMITH???
I’m thinking this has got to be some hard core joke my family is playing on me, ’til I venture over to Jada’s website. Her band Wicked Wisdom is featured there and apparently they will be touring.
Want to see for yourself? Go here to see a performance on Letterman. Here’s Billboard’s take on it.
Now I admit, I love me some Jada Pinkett-Smith. She’s short (like me), crazy (like me) and she doesn’t take any mess (I try not to, but it’s hard, folks). But damn, girl, it’s a good thing you’ve got your lyrics on your site or not a soul would know what you’re (ahem) singing about. I wish her and her band much success. I’m all for folks stretching the boundaries of what others expect of them and what is acceptable.
Getting back to Ozzie and Sharon for a moment. Ozzie says Ozzfest should be called Sharonfest because she does all the work for it (she’s his manager). It all started because she wanted to get him into Lollapalooza, the rock festival of the time and they told him he was a has been that no one wanted to hear. Ironically, Lolla went belly up after the next year (though it was revived in 2003) while Ozzfest became a phenomenon. Only goes to show you never know whose fortune will rise and fall. As Ralph Kramden would say, be kind to the people you meet on the way up, cause you’ll meet those same people on the way down.
As for me, I’m getting back to what I’m supposed to be doing–and listening to what I like to hear. On that note, sing it for me, Marvin. Sing it.
I got this e-mail today from Bonny Kirby of Affaire de Coeur magazine that came from publisher Louise Snead:
