Smashing Pumpkins Hire Ozzy’s Wizard

Call him paranoid, but Ozzy Osbourne has always felt disrespected by rock critics, which explains why he lashed out last week at the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame for repeatedly snubbing his old band, Black Sabbath.

Too bad for Ozzy that Billy Corgan of the Smashing Pumpkins doesn’t handle the inductions.

“[Black Sabbath], that’s the sonic obsession,” Corgan once told Rolling Stone magazine. “Those are some of the best-sounding records ever made. . . . ‘Masters of Reality’ sounded pretty awesome to my wee ears with the doubled Ozzy vocals. Right there you pretty much have the Pumpkins sound: that voice cutting through the thick guitars.”

Sabbath and the Pumpkins will now share more than a sound--Corgan’s alt-rock powerhouse will announce this week that its search for a new manager has ended with a surprising selection: Sharon Osbourne, Ozzy’s wife and Sabbath’s manager.

“Billy talked to every manager in the industry, I think, and he liked me best,” Sharon Osbourne said with a chuckle. “And I can’t blame him.”

The Pumpkins split late last year from the New York-based firm Q-Prime, and their search for a replacement has provided major grist for the rumor mill. Industry players from John Silva (who represents the Beastie Boys and Beck) to Michael Ovitz’s Artists Management Group have been among the purported candidates, but instead the band will go with an outsider on the modern-rock scene.

“There’s going to be some bruised egos, I’m sure,” the Englishwoman said. “I think [Corgan] wanted someone who would be hands-on, someone who doesn’t have a whole roster of superstars, somebody who has been around a long time. . . . Nobody has the history I do.”

Indeed, Osbourne grew up on tour buses and standing near the spotlight. Her father, Don Arden, carved out a reputation as one of Britain’s most colorful and controversial promoters.

“My first memory is being on the road with Sam Cooke, and Gene Vincent taught me how to swim,” Osbourne said. “Jerry Lee Lewis, Chuck Berry, I met all of them. I never went to school, I grew up on the road and in this business. It’s the only thing I know.”

She was hired to help with the family business at age 15, and, when Arden became a manager for Black Sabbath in the 1970s, she met her heavy-metal husband-to-be. Now, with Black Sabbath bowing out after a successful reunion tour, the mother of five finds herself representing one of the biggest bands in rock.

“This is the goods, it’s not like I’m bartering off with Tommy Lee,” she said. “Billy is a huge talent, and the band is hugely talented.”

Osbourne expects to be busy--the Pumpkins’ new album is due in February and a world tour will follow. But she says her job is also about helping artists survive and thrive. “I’m married to one, I know what they’re like,” she said. “They are delicate people. They’re not like us.”

Speaking of Ozzy, what was his reaction to becoming his wife’s second-biggest client? “He was so happy,” Osbourne said. “He called Billy up and welcomed him to the family.”

BACK IN BUSINESS

The corridors of power within the music industry’s major labels are plush and treacherous places, and no one knows that better than Danny Goldberg.

In the past decade, Goldberg held some of the biggest jobs in the business, bouncing between marquee posts such as president of Atlantic Records, chairman of Warner Bros. Records and president of Mercury Records. On his watch, those labels signed Jewel, Hanson, Hootie & the Blowfish and other mega-sellers.

Then last year, Goldberg was, in his words, “spewed out” after Mercury was scooped up by Universal Music Group, and he opted for a new path. Last May, he launched an indie label, Artemis Records, with a reported war chest of $20 million and considerable industry buzz.

So how’s the great experiment going?

This week Artemis will announce two veteran signings, Steve Earle and Warren Zevon, and next month rapper Kurupt’s new disc comes out on ANTRA, a label under the Artemis banner. One young act that has Goldberg intrigued is the metal quintet Kitty, an all-female band whose oldest member is 17.

“It’s intense, strong, hard rock, and perhaps the first female voice that will resonate with the Limp Bizkit and Korn generation of rock,” Goldberg said of the debut album, which is set for November.

Goldberg sees golden opportunities for indie outfits in the era of the Internet and corporate upheaval in the industry.

“There’s a real vacuum of people judging success on years of roster development instead of by the months leading up to a quarterly report,” he said.

Goldberg envisions one-third of the roster set aside for veteran artists such as Zevon and Earle, who may not be blockbuster sellers but have “a future bigger than their past,” if fostered. That’s music to the ears of Earle.

“The problem with big corporations that sell music, socks, beer or whatever is that what they’re really selling is stock,” said Earle. “It’s about being just in the money business instead of the music business. If you’re smart, though, there are ways to do both.”