FREE SPEECH II: Rock’s leading heavy-metal voice,...

FREE SPEECH II: Rock’s leading heavy-metal voice, RIP magazine, also takes on anti-rock crusaders with its September “Rock Censorship Special” issue. (The magazine’s cover is a classic, featuring Ozzy Osbourne with a warning sticker plastered over his mouth.) The issue features a host of artist perspectives on censorship from the likes of Metallica’s Lars Ulrich, Jane’s Addiction’s Perry Farrell, Frank Zappa and Axl Rose, who sagely notes that everybody knows “that the Mona Lisa is art--well, so is Led Zeppelin.” But our favorite quote comes from Ozzy, who has been taken to court by parents alleging that his song “Suicide Solution” caused a teen-ager to take his life. Bemoaning the fact that he’s always been the focus of anti-rock tirades, Ozzy complains: “When I die, it will be ‘There lies Ozzy Osbourne, who sent more people to their graves than Adolf Hitler!’ . . . Just last week someone else shot himself and has blamed me! I believe in God. I am not a devil worshiper. My kids don’t sleep in the attic, hanging upside down on rafters.”