Jun 26 2008
Extreme Survival
Reading Sharon’s first book Extreme was eye opening to me. I feel like I learned a lot about Sharon through reading her book. It made me sad to hear about Sharon’s father who was named Don Arden. He treated Sharon dreadfully, disrespected her, bullied her and under minded her on several occasions throughout her life. It seemed he only wanted to cause misery for his daughter. I cannot understand how any father could want to inflict such suffering on their daughter.
Sharon’s father managed many early rock and rollers such as “Gene Vincent” and “The Animals” during these times he used Sharon as an object to his get rich schemes. At the age of 15 Sharon was used to repel creditors and appease bailiffs on the door. Don Arden was born as Harry Levy on 4th January 1926, Manchester, England and died on 21st July 2007, Los Angeles. It is said that Sharon made peace with her father before he died. I think that this is fantastic and shows Sharon’s strength of character to forgive a father that put his daughter through hell and back.
Sharon broke free from her father’s clutches and decided to go it alone. Yet despite her decision to go it alone Sharon’s father did not give up without a fight. He did every under handed thing he could think of to get his daughter working for him again. Fortunately Sharon is not the type of person to give in without a fight and has come a long way without the help of her father. Due to lack of love and understanding from her parents Sharon had to learn to stand on her own two feet from a very young age. Sharon is now the wife of rock legend Ozzy Osborne. During her early rock and roll years she grew up with entertainers and learned the trade from observation and experience. Sharon was on the road a lot with Black Sabbath in her early years.
I felt sad as I read about the way Sharon was used by her father. Don Arden even stole money from Ozzy and Sharon. I was starting to think things couldn’t get much worse when Sharon moved into her first home with Ozzy. According to Sharon they were the loneliest years of her life. Imagine moving in to your first home without even unpacking your bags the house goes up in flames. A gift courteous of Ozzy who had put too much coal on the fire as a welcoming gift.
It is fair to say that as Sharon was growing up it was a combination of glamour and violence.
Sharon’s marriage was a white knuckle ride throughout. Yet Sharon stood by her soul mate Ozzy through thick and thin. Even when he caused black eyes and played away. Again this shows the strength of character that Sharon has.
