A stickup man police have dubbed the "Eminem Bank Robber" struck again on Tuesday in New Jersey, pulling what officials suspect is his 11th heist since October.

The unidentified white male, who favors ski caps and baggy, reversible Carthart jackets, bares a resemblance to the rapper but has not attempted to pass himself off as Slim Shady, according to an FBI spokesperson.

"He doesn't say he's Eminem, but one of the local detectives said he looks like him, ... and having an identifying marker like that sometimes helps the investigation," said Stephen Kodak, a special agent with the New Jersey FBI office.

Kodak said the robber — who hit the Valley National Bank in Kearney, New Jersey, on Tuesday and escaped with an undisclosed sum of money — is described as thin, approximately 6 feet tall, in his 30s, with green or blue eyes.

He is wanted in 10 other robberies in the area and has made the FBI's most wanted list. The bandit has typically worn large wool ski caps with Yankees logos on them and has demanded money from tellers after saying he has a gun, which he has not brandished in any of the robberies, Kodak said.

According to the FBI, the robber tends to favor Monday, Thursday and Saturday mornings for his heists and is considered armed and dangerous. The FBI has posted photos of the bandit and is asking anyone with information to call (973) 792-3000.

—Gil Kaufman

Those things about the night club is sad. I heard about that in the news. 21 people dying is just... a lot.

First, Fox's "American Idol" cut semifinalist Frenchie Davis from the show for posing nude on an Internet porn site. Then "Idol" contestant Jaered Andrews was dropped without explanation. Even though Fox refuses to comment, it has come to light the reason Andrews was dropped was because he might have accidentally killed someone.

In November, Andrews allegedly assaulted 39-year-old Thomas Blakeley outside the Blue Ribbon Grille in Farrell, Pennsylvania, in an incident that led to Blakeley's death. Andrews and friends were reportedly celebrating his status as an "Idol" semifinalist in the hours before the incident.

Robert Kochems, district attorney of Mercer County, says Andrews punched Blakeley in the face, who then fell backward onto the concrete, smacking the back of his head and causing his brain to hit the front of his skull, resulting in his death. "It's called a counter coup injury," Kochems said. "It's the same thing that happens with shaken baby syndrome."

According to an affadavit filed February 27, Andrews has been charged with simple assault in conjunction with the episode. Kochems says authorities are considering charging him with involuntary manslaughter as well. A preliminary hearing is currently scheduled for March 14.

Fox still refuses to disclose why Andrews was dropped.

"All the candidates on 'American Idol' are subject to disqualification at the producers' discretion," a Fox publicity representative said. "We do not comment on the personal lives of our contestants."

—Kristin Roth

lol Ya I think your right Bunnie.

Blondee- have you heard her song that "answers" Justin back yet? Do you know the name of that song?

I know the post is a couple of months old now, but I have heard a sample the "supposed" song that goes back on JT's Cry me a River.

Found at VH1.com -- but saw the interview on TRL

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Britney Previews LP, Denies Rumors Of 'Cry Me A River' Response

NEW YORK — From the sound of things, Britney Spears appears to be channeling Madonna on her fourth album.

The pop singer, who took a step toward womanhood on Britney, has taken the Material Girl's cue, seeming to address

more adult themes and styles while retaining a sense of girlish fun on her upcoming disc, which she previewed for MTV recently at Battery Studios.

"I've really been able to take my time and have creative control and make [the new album] special, special, special," she said.

Producers who have worked with the singer — including Rodney Jerkins, the Neptunes, 7 Aurelius, the Matrix and Fred Durst — have described the new material as having a trip-hop vibe, reminiscent of Madonna's "Ray of Light" (see "Who's Been Hooking Up With Britney? We Got 'Em To Talk").

Parts of Spears' suggestive "Touch of My Hand," one of three songs the singer played for MTV, merit that comparison. With a Middle Eastern influence, the song is sleek and fluid, with Spears singing in a slightly lower register of her desire to be "out of control": "I will be bold/ Going to the places where I can be out of control/ Don't want to explain tonight/ All the things I try to hide."

"It's one of my favorite tracks on the album," Spears said. "I like to compare it to 'That's the Way Love Goes,' kind of a Janet Jackson thing."

While "Touch of My Hand" makes it clear what Spears wants, the dance song "Brave Girl" is about finding out what you want in the first place. Backed by choppy, electro-funk beats, she sings in a bouncy near-rap, "She's going to find her passion, she's going to find her way, she's going to get right out of this/ She don't want New York, she don't want L.A., she's going to find that special kiss."

"It's basically about going out and having a good time," Spears said.

The bubbly nature of "Brave Girl" also seems to be more indicative of what the rest of the album might sound like, according to sources close to Spears who've heard more tracks and describe them as upbeat.

Of the songs previewed, "Every Time" is Spears' most adult and her closest attempt at a traditional pop ballad. "Every Time" has a lilting piano intro accompanying the singer's breathy vocals, which build from soft to strong, despite lyrics that suggest she feels otherwise. "Go to sleep ... why carry on without me?/ Every time I try to fly/ Without my wings/ I feel so small."

"Sometimes when I get kind of bored, I come behind here and play the piano," Spears said while giving a tour of her studio space. "There's a piano in the hotel room, so I was really excited. I don't know what 'C' is or, like, all that, but I do my own thing."

One thing you won't find on the album is a response track to ex-boyfriend Justin Timberlake's "Cry Me a River," despite rumors to the contrary. "You know, it's funny," she said. "I read that I wrote this song and I wrote these lyrics, and that's not my style. I would never do that."

Spears is the guest host of several radio concert festivals this weekend, including Q102's Q Concert 14 on Friday (May 30) at Philadelphia's Tweeter Center, KISS 108's Kiss Concert 2003 on Saturday at the Tweeter Center in Mansfield, Massachusetts, and New York station Z100's Zootopia 2003 at Giants Stadium in East Rutherford, New Jersey.

Wow it's been a long time since I've updated this topic. Sorry about that Guys... I will post a few news story's tonight to help keep you updated All from MTVnews of course.

Durst Admits Bizkit Album Titles Were Fakes, Turns Other Cheek To Haters
06.26.2003 7:59 AM EDT

With a string of scrapped titles and release dates in its wake, the new Limp Bizkit album may seem like it's getting farther from completion with each passing day. In a recent e-mail, however, Fred Durst insists that the LP, which is in the final stretch of production, "rocks."

"It's so ready to rip the heads off any haters out there," he wrote in a letter sent to subscribers to the band's e-mail list.

Despite multiple postings on the Limp Bizkit Web site, www.limpbizit.com, that announced album titles that ranged from Bipolar to Panty Sniffer, Durst said that the title of the band's first album of new material in three years is none of the above.

"It's a secret already,' the frontman said. "The fake titles are for the people who just won't be patient."

Although Limp Bizkit's fourth studio album was recently revamped to include the services of new axeman Mike Smith (see "Limp Bizkit Start Over On New LP With Guitarist Mike Smith"), Durst soothed his worried fans by declaring, "It's still Limp Bizkit, and that is a fact."

That doesn't mean that the follow-up to Chocolate Starfish and the Hot Dog Flavored Water, which is still expected to drop in September, will be a retread. "Don't be scared of the metal" and "Don't be scared of the growth," he offered as advice when hearing the new effort, which, incidentally, Durst said no one has heard, despite a few record reviews that have surfaced in some magazines.

He also took a moment to turn the other cheek to two of the other bands on the Summer Sanitarium trek, which begins July 4 in Pontiac, Michigan (see ""More Dates Added To Metallica/ Limp Bizkit/ Linkin Park Tour"). In response to Deftones singer Chino Moreno's comments made in Revolver magazine ("A big problem for me was opening for Limp Bizkit and Linkin Park, two bands that wouldn't exist if it weren't for me, straight up!") and Metallica's Kirk Hammett's insinuation that Durst went back to the drawing board for the Bizkit LP after hearing St. Anger, Durst wrote, "All I've heard is sh-- talk going on from other bands on the bill. It's sad that they see this tour as a competition. I see it as summer camp with the fellas. I think Limp Bizkit is secure enough to completely avoid talking sh-- about anybody."

Durst ended his correspondence by bringing fans up to date on his personal life and other projects he's working on. First, he still has a crush on Angelina Jolie. The self-professed "greatest dad in the world" claims his nearly 2-year-old son Dallas is getting "cooler and cooler every day." After Summer Sanitarium concludes, he'll begin directing the horror movie "Life Without Joe," leaving other film projects "Runt," "Wanna Be," and "Lords of Dogtown" alone for the time being (see "Fred Durst To Start Rollin' Film On Skateboard Flick"). And finally, to make amends for having to cancel a handful of European festivals in order to finish the new album, he plans to stage a "big-ass" free concert, which he promised would be "sick!"

—Joe D'Angelo

Alien Ant Farm Crash Justin And Christina Tour, Gay Parade, BET Awards
06.25.2003

LOS ANGELES — A rock band crashes the Justin and Christina tour, a gay pride parade and the BET Awards to play their new single? It might sound like an episode of "Jackass" or "PUNK'D," but it's not. It's the setup for Alien Ant Farm's next video.

"At first we didn't know where we wanted to go with it," guitarist Terry Corso remembered of the band's brainstorming sessions for "These Days," the first single from their forthcoming truANT.

But once the band tapped director Marc Klasfeld, who helmed Ant Farm's famously funny videos for "Smooth Criminal" and "Movies," the ideas started flowing like crazy. Immediately, Klasfeld and the band — Corso, bassist Tye Zamora, drummer Mike Cosgrove and singer Dryden Mitchell — started thinking in terms of guerilla maneuvers. "We were going to make some kind of stupid instruments that we carry on our backs and run into places like 24-Hour Fitness and restaurants and start jamming," Corso said.

"We were just sitting there cracking up and that usually tells us we're on the right track," he continued. "It was very similar to when we were sitting around and we were like, 'Mr. Miyagi runs out!' or 'Dryden jumps on the top of a car and the windows blow out of it!' Eventually, someone just said, 'Wouldn't it be cool if we just went way over the top with this, and just sort of bombarded some events that were happening around town?' "

So late last week, the bandmembers piled their gear onto a flatbed truck and headed for the parking lot of the Los Angeles Staples Center as fans filed in to see Justin Timberlake and Christina Aguilera. "We sent out scouts to take notice of security patterns," Corso said, laughing. "At a certain time the security guards go inside to take tickets. And there's still a ton of kids outside. And they're like, 5- to 15-year-old girls with their parents."

"It was so scary," Corso said of the moments leading up to their arrival. "I was in the back of the truck looking up and I could see the 'Staples Center' sign and I was like, 'Dude, I don't think anyone's ever done anything like this, have they?' "

As the truck parked, an Ant Farm agent planted in the crowd tore the fake "KAAF" radio station banner from the side and exposed the band, who ripped into "These Days."

"These kids looked like a UFO landed," Corso said. "I was trying to perform and watch people at the same time. I would see security guys on their radios. I'm almost positive that 80 percent of the security population — including the police — thought it was some kind of radio promotion that was supposed to happen. And we weren't supposed to be there at all! We finished the song, we waved, Dryden threw a microphone out, and then we [left]."

On Sunday, the band dressed the truck as a giant ant — complete with mandibles, antennae and legs — and entered it as a float in West Hollywood's Gay Pride Parade.

"We thought it would be funny to just go down the parade on a float, appreciating diversity and jamming on our instruments," Corso said. "And it was a really long parade, too. We did multiple takes of the song going down Santa Monica Boulevard."

And how did the crowd react? "It was wonderful! We didn't 'belong' there, but it was cool. There were a couple of like 'Blue Oyster Bar'-type biker boys on the side of the street, in full garb, like a couple of Rob Halfords. [They] threw me metal horns.

"The most negative response we got all day was [from] the [anti-gay] fanatics," he continued. "All those ignorant bastards were corralled in [one area] with megaphones, placards, everything. When we went by, we stopped playing and started gesturing at these people, if you know what I mean. They were gesturing back at us, and they were yelling. And all the people attending the parade were cheering for us."

Tuesday, Alien Ant Farm showed up on a rooftop overlooking the red carpet at the BET Awards (see "BET Awards Night Belongs To 50 Cent, B2K, Jacko And... Alien Ant Farm?"). "We're all into different types of hip-hop and R&B," Corso explained. "And we'll go play to whomever, just like the old days. When we were young we used to do a lot of guerilla type sh--."

Ant Farm had a chance to get in touch with their younger side a week before the video shoots as well while snapping photos for truANT — the group's first album since recovering from a tour bus accident overseas at a California high school. "It just so happened — total coincidence — that they were doing a 'Battle of the Bands' in the auditorium. We just kind of showed up and said, 'Hey, can we play?' We used one of the bands' gear, jammed on a couple of songs, said, 'Stay in school,' and left!"

—Ryan J. Downey

Hey Guys! I thought this story seemed pretty interesting so I figured I would post it for ya'all'. I haven't actually read it yet but I want to read it soon. Oh and what did everyone think about the britney story I posted?

— by Gideon Yago

There are certain clichés about the select few who get flung into superstardom at an early age. If a young star isn't ultimately found strung out and/or holding up a cash-and-carry by their mid-20s, many people are either shocked or palpably disappointed. But while drugs and debauchery make for pat story lines, they also ruin lives — and not just privileged teenage lives. Jack Osbourne got addicted to a nasty cocktail of pain pills including OxyContin, and in that respect, he is like many kids his age: OxyContin continues to spread as a party drug in rural, suburban and urban areas. But unlike many 17-year-olds, Jack also had the guts to go to his parents with his problem, knowing full well that a trip to rehab would be a full-on media event. Whatever you make of Jack Osbourne, he is a young man who deserves immense credit not only for tackling his addiction in public but also for being so forthright and honest about what drove him to abuse drugs in the first place.

Gideon: How was rehab?

Jack: It was good. It was really good. I went in there with the mentality of "I'll do my time. I'm just gonna get out of here and I'll be fine." I did a lot of soul searching.

Gideon: Was there anything that just shocked you to learn about yourself?

Jack: I have a tendency to really stuff things. I don't really express, you know? Like, express certain feelings and stuff.

Gideon: Anything in particular?

Jack: I'd read things, like people criticizing me. "You're the least favorite Osbourne. Can we vote you out of the house?" Sh-- like that. And I would be like, "F--- that," you know? But no one likes to read stuff about that, and I know you should probably never read sh-- like that. And probably the main thing that was getting to me was me mum's illness.

Gideon: What was that doing to you? I can only imagine.

Jack: When my mum first told me she got sick, I didn't cry. I probably cried over my mum's illness twice. And that sh-- hurt a lot, you know? I was constantly just drowning it out.

Gideon: How were you drowning it out?

Jack: Drinking and using.

Gideon: Using what?

Jack: Uh, a lot of opiate based drugs. OxyContin.

Gideon: Anything else?

Jack: I had smoked pot and drank every day for two years. I was taking Vicodin by the handful. Valium, Xanax, Dilaudid, Lorcet, Lortab, Perocet, you name it.

Gideon: That's a laundry list of stuff. How would you get your hands on it?

Jack: It's so easy. It's L.A., you know? You just get it from people.

Gideon: Let's backtrack a little bit. You said you'd been drinking and smoking pot for two years.

Jack: Well, every day for two years. But I've been drinking and using since I was 13.

Gideon: How have the last two years been for you?

Jack: It's been real weird. It wasn't how I expected my life to turn out. Especially, mainly pertaining to the show. It never crossed my mind that one day I'm gonna be big and famous and have my own TV show, you know? All of a sudden we are meeting with MTV, [and they're] saying, "You are gonna be doing a show, and you are gonna be followed around." When we were filming I never thought once about it coming out. And then when it came out, it was just such a ... it was like a shock to the body. Because ... I wanted to go one way, I was interning at a record label — OK, cool. I'm gonna do what my mom did, you know, work her way up in the music industry, the business side of things. I was comfortable with that. That was what I wanted to do. And then just suddenly I am thrown from that.

Gideon: You describe it in these huge terms, your shock to the system ...

Jack: Because it was for me. It was super insane and just like, "What is this?"

Gideon: How did it stress you out?

Jack: There's people outside our house; you get followed by photographers; you can't go out and have a cup of coffee with a friend without someone coming up to you with a picture and [saying,] "Sign this." I'm totally grateful for the fans my family has and I have; they gave me a lot of support when I was in treatment. But it was just odd, you know? It's stressful. Just the whole fact of being someone in the public eye.

Gideon: Were you able to talk to your parents about how stressful it was for you?

Jack: Not really, because, going back to the stuffing, that is what I would stuff.

Gideon: Was there a Jack Osbourne that existed here in this room for you that your parents didn't see, that your friends didn't see versus the one that everyone can recognize — you know, kid brother of America?

Jack: It was weird. There was the Jack Osbourne my parents knew, the Jack Osbourne my friends knew, and the Jack Osbourne the public knew.

Gideon: Tell me who each of these three guys were.

Jack: The one my parents knew was the funny, facetious, nice, loving son my parents know, who is truly caring. With my friends it was a crazy, insane, drinking, using, party animal who knew how to have a good time. And with the public, it was the one they wanted to vote out of the house. Well, a lot of them.

Gideon: And then who are you? I mean, what was going on for you then?

Jack: Where I felt comfortable was being the one that everyone liked to party with. And it was kind of the way I could fit in. Something a lot of people will have in common is drinking and using.

Gideon: What did you like so much about being the party guy, the life of the party?

Jack: The party guy was just, you know, drunk Jack. It was just fun. I would do things I never thought I would do. Just stupid sh--, you know? Drunk Jack wound up in, like, parties with insane celebrities, hanging out with them. If I was sober they'd be like, "You are boring." I always had that. If I was sober, people wouldn't like me.

Gideon: Did someone come up to you at a party and be like, "Jack, I'm sorry, you are bumming me out; I don't like you at all"?

Jack: No, but I'd think that they were thinking that.

Gideon: Was there other stuff going on in your mind where you were interested in cutting yourself down?

Jack: Dad had his own thing, so in the equation, dad is in his own realm. Mum is kind of shortly behind my dad, so Kelly and I for a while were neck-and-neck, and sh-- kinda started taking off for Kelly and she had her own thing. I hate ... I don't want to come off like the jealous brother who wasn't getting the attention, but it was like no one was really into me anyway. I wasn't really a priority, and [the attention] was kinda all [on] my mum, dad and Kelly, even though now I know it's not true, but back then it was a very realistic thing for me. Keep in mind this is before mum's illness. My own thing was, you know, wake up at 5 in the afternoon, it's dark out, hang out, maybe take a shower, then start drinking, start smoking pot, go out with friends, get wasted.

Gideon: How affected were you by your mom's cancer?

Jack: I was like, "Hey, my mom has cancer, be the strong one." But you know, my mom having to go to the hospital seven times, not like, "Oh, I'm feeling kinda woozy," but like passed out because of pain ... Every time she went into the hospital, I wouldn't come home and sit with my family and be with my dad — I'd come home, I'd call someone up and be like, you know, "Meet me at a bar," and I'd go and get obliterated drunk and I'd go, like, on two-week benders.

Gideon: Tell me a little about what was going on in your social life at that time.

Jack: I had my group of friends, you know, like my real group of friends, and then I had, like, party friends.

Gideon: So did you start hanging out with a new group of kids once you guys moved to the beach house?

Jack: Yeah, the kids out in Malibu, you could get away with a lot more. ... Malibu's just a totally different place. It's like a mountain town right next to a city, so if you can imagine, like, some of the weird sh-- that goes on in, like, you know, a 15,000-population mountain town, it goes on there, you know? There's a lot of drugs, a lot of alcohol, a lot of sex. It's like debauchery's paradise.

Gideon: What did you like so much about the kids you met out there and the kids you were hanging out with?

Jack: They weren't kids, they're adults. ... Throughout this, I was hanging out with no one under 21.

Gideon: You know, for anybody that's been watching the show or watching MTV for years, they'll see you at 14 holding stuff down at Ozzfest, they'll see you 16 scouting for Epic. Did you ever get a chance to hang out with kids your own age?

Jack: I did in school, but it was like it was kind of boring to me, 'cause I was, like, stepping up, and I was kinda doing the next thing. The stuff they were doing, it was boring to me, you know, running around the back yard playing laser tag.

Gideon: Did you feel that there were some expectations that were put upon you when you hung out with kids that were that much older than you?

Jack: No, but I thought that if I really wanted to fit in I had to, you know, I had to show them that I was in a way just as adult as they were, 'cause I could hold my own just as well as they could if not better.

Gideon: And by "hold your own," you mean?

Jack: Drinking. Like, I could remember being 13 and at a bar and people were like, "What's this 13-year-old doing here?" and I would proceed to drink them under the table.

Gideon: When did you start getting into the harder drugs — the pills, the OxyContin.

Jack: I started taking Vicodin occasionally when I was like 14, and from about 14 onward it was just picking up, so another one here and there. It started maybe once every two months and [got] shorter and shorter and it really started picking up April of last year.

Gideon: So right before your mom got diagnosed?

Jack: Yeah.

Gideon: I think a lot of people might not have any idea what OxyContin is and what you went into rehab for. What is OxyContin?

Jack: It's basically in a nutshell legal heroin. It's a highly powerful painkiller mainly for cancer patients, completely legal and super powerful.

Gideon: What did you know about OxyContin before you used it for the first time?

Jack: I knew it killed people. I knew that it was the closest thing to heroin.

Gideon: Did you know anybody who overdosed or anything?

Jack: Actually, yeah. Before I started using it, a friend of mine overdosed using it.

Gideon: It didn't freak you out that you were getting into a drug that had killed your friend?

Jack: Well, someone gave me one and I put it in a jacket pocket, and I was in New York City and I got really drunk. Friends of mine in Malibu were talking about OxyContin and how occasionally some of them were doing it. So I called my friends and I said, "I've got an OxyContin here, you know, how do I do it?" And my friend, he says, "Look, I'm not gonna tell you not to do it, but I'm gonna tell you what it's gonna do to you and what it can do to you."

Gideon: What did he say?

Jack: He said, "It can kill you. You've obviously been drinking. You might die." And he said, you know, he basically broke it down, [but] whatever went in one ear flew out the other. I was like, "OK, how do I do it?"

Gideon: How long did it take for you to get addicted to OxyContin?

Jack: Probably instantly.

Gideon: Really?

Jack: I remember waking up the next morning, you know, rubbing my finger on the desk, seeing if there was any left.

Gideon: What was it like to be high on OxyContin?

Jack: I compare it to this: It's like when you're sitting on an airplane and you've just taken off and they come around with those hot towels. You rub your hands with it, it's all warm and cozy, and then before you know it it's cold. You know, it was great for a while but, you know, it just gets cold, and that's the way it was.

Gideon: What would you feel like to come down off it?

Jack: It sucked. It was like, "Aww," but I always had something to help it along the way. You know, I either pass out, have a whole bunch of Valium, Xanax, you know, another handful of Vicodin or, you know, Percoset. ... I was doing it maybe four, five times a week.
Gideon: When did you bottom out? When were you at your absolute lowest on this drug?

Jack: For a while I was suicidal and I tried to kill myself.

Gideon: Really?

Jack: Yeah.

Jack: I tried... I took a bottle of pills. I'd been in Europe and I had a lot of absinthe and I was just drinking and drinking, trying to, you know, just shut my body down.

Gideon: Why did you want to die?

Jack: There's a lot of things that were going on. I'd run out of OxyContin, I was doing a lot of Dilaudid. Dilaudid is like a millimeter down from OxyContin. I was doing a lot of those, and life just got super stressful for me, and I just sat in a hotel room, [thinking,] "I want it to end, I want it to end." And I'd actually gone up to my mum one morning, just sitting on her bed, and I started crying. Mum was like, "What's wrong? What's wrong?" I said, "I need help. Something's wrong. I need help." And she was really sick at the time, and she was like, "What can I do? What can I do?" And I said, "I don't know, I need a lot of help," and she goes, "Is it the drinking? Is it the using?" I said, "Yeah." She said, "OK, I'll get you help," and then I went in my room and I got high and I convinced her I was OK and that I was just tired, and she was like, "No, you just told ..." And I just said, "No," and I kind of went on with it saying I was fine.

Gideon: Did your parents recognize that this was going on for you?

Jack: She was in a mess 'cause Mum had her cancer, so she had to really focus on herself, you know — she was surviving. And dad was just an emotional wreck. He was drinking a lot of the time, he was smoking a lot of pot. And because he takes certain medications, the drinking was making him ... you know, he wasn't even present, really.

Gideon: What about your sisters?

Jack: Aimee, I think Aimee kinda had an idea. I think she kinda knew what was going on. Kelly was so busy with her career she wasn't really around.

Gideon: And there were cameras on you all the time?

Jack: Yeah.

Gideon: Was there anybody you felt you could talk to?

Jack: It wasn't like that. I just wasn't recognizing it, so there's nothing to talk about because everything was fine. ... You know, it's funny because I can remember thinking ... I would always go, "I'm gonna go dry for four weeks. I'll be fine. I'm just gonna stop. I'll do it tomorrow. I'll stop tomorrow." And then the next day, "I'll stop tomorrow." And that was the way it was from January on.

Gideon: When did you realize that you had gotten into something you couldn't control?

Jack: When my parents approached me to go to rehab.

Gideon: So your parents approached you.

Jack: They came up to me and they were like ... mom threw a bag down and was like, "You're going to rehab," and I was like, "No. How dare you say that to me? I'm fine." A friend had called my mom and said, "Jack's hooked on OxyContin. He's in a pretty bad way." At this point she had been cancer-free [and] she was starting to regain her strength, her awareness of what was going on around the house. She was trying to mend things. Dad she smacked down to shape, and my dad started getting back on track when my mom said, "You're going to rehab or you're dead." So I ran away. I just took off running. I went to a friend's house and I went pretty buck wild. I was snorting Demerol, OxyContin. I'd gotten a hotel room and just ... I don't really remember much.

Gideon: Did you ever get close to overdosing?

Jack: I think I should have died about four times.

Gideon: What happened each of those four times?

Jack: The first time I was just really drunk and I vomited in my sleep while I was on my back and I didn't wake up.

Gideon: Who woke you up?

Jack: God. The next morning

Gideon: What about the other three times?

Jack: The other three times I'd taken about five extra-strength Vicodin, I drank about eight beers, had about five shots of tequila and like three Ambien and I went swimming.

Gideon: Who pulled you out of the pool?

Jack: (shaking his head) God. ... When I was in treatment they said, "There's no reason why you should be sitting here, because everything you say you've done and have done has killed people, has pretty much killed most people that would do it."

Gideon: When did you realize for yourself that you needed to get help?

Jack: I went to a friend's house and we just started using. I took myself out of the picture for a second and I looked around at every single person in the room — at who they were, how old they were and what they had going on in their lives. A lot of them were near to 30, unemployed, living off their parents. Everyone was, you know ... they were heroin addicts. They were just guys on The World's Biggest Couch Tour and it was like, "I don't want to be like that." I don't want my life to be controlled by a drug. I want to be in control of my life. I was really loaded and I came home and just sat on my mom's bed, and I said, "I'm going to go pack my bags. I'm ready to go. And you know, I want to go — I need to go."

Gideon Yago: What were your first thoughts when you saw the rehab facility?

Jack Osbourne: I didn't get at first put into a rehab facility; I got put in a adolescent psychiatric unit for my detox.

Yago: You went to a psych ward first? What was that like?

Osbourne: I was pissed. I was told I was going to a detox and I was like "OK, cool I'm going to go in a place full of kids who were hurt." And I went in and there's kids running and smacking their heads into walls, it was like — it was a mental institution.

Yago: So you were basically going through detox in a mental ward?

Osbourne: 'Cause that was the only place who could legally detox adolescents.

Yago: Tell me what about what it was like physically going through detox off OxyContin.

Osbourne: I was detoxing for both Oxy and alcohol, so I was shaking a lot. I felt like someone was coming up behind me and grabbing my neck, just squeezing as hard as they could. You'd wake up in the middle of the night feeling like your knees were just in pain cause this stuff is all in your system. Sweating a lot, throwing up on myself in the shower.

Yago: Not a pretty picture.

Osbourne: No.

Yago: What were your first thoughts when you saw the rehab facility?

Osbourne: Thank God, 'cause it was a really nice place. It was better than barred windows, no shoelaces, no belts. It was like a house in the middle of the hills and it was nice.

Yago: Was going to rehab the first time you were surrounded by kids your own age?

Osbourne: Yeah. It was real interesting because, in a way, when I was up in rehab I wasn't Jack Osbourne, I was a normal 17-year-old kid who had a problem as well as everyone else up there and it was great. I got to be who I was.

Yago: Were there some kids that held it against you that you were the son of a rock legend, superstar?

Osbourne: They all told me that when I went up there they were pissed off 'cause they were like, "Oh, some f---ing obnoxious, egotistical prick is going to come up here ... you know, just totally make this place crap."

Yago: Was that a good thing for you, to have to deal with people like that?

Osbourne: Yeah, because I think I found some true friends. Up there we saw each other in our greatest moments and in our utmost weakest moments. We were completely vulnerable to each other, which just brings an automatic closeness. I met some people who I still call on a daily basis.

Yago: Where do you go from here? What do you have to do now to stay clean?

Osbourne: I go to a meeting every day. I surround myself with people who don't use. I recently got back from Ozzfest and I caught myself in kind of a sticky situation where I was around a lot of people using, drinking and it was kind of — I didn't have the urge to use once, but I just knew I shouldn't have been there. There's a saying in the program, "If you hang around a barbershop long enough, you're bound to get a haircut."

Yago: So you're worried about going on tour this summer?

Osbourne: As long as I know my head's in the right place, my feet are on the ground, I think I'll be fine.

Yago: They say part of beating addiction is relapsing. Are you worried that one day you'll hit that wall and relapse?

Osbourne: Well, all I can say is today — it's a day by day program and so I'm very worried about relapsing, but I don't know. I don't want to use. I don't want to go back to that place because nothing good came of it. It was super dark; it's not nice.

Yago: Was there any part of you that got into these drugs because you wanted to emulate your dad?

Osbourne: No, not at all.

Yago: I remember seeing an interview that your sister did where she said that your dad was the best anti-drug ad on the planet. Did you feel the same way?

Osbourne: I never even thought of it like that. I would look at him like, "Yeah, drugs are bad, but that's never going to happen to me. I'm never going to be like that; I'm going to be different."

Yago: Growing up, what was your parents' attitude about drugs? What did they tell you? Were they "Just Say No" parents?

Osbourne: They were very strict about it. Drinking was pretty much OK 'cause, as you know, we're from England [where] drinking is super socially accepted and it's just part of everyday life. But drugs — when Kelly first got caught smoking pot, mom and dad went apesh--. And of course when they went apesh-- on Kelly, she sank my ship, too. She was like, "Jack did it too!" I was 13, completely getting yelled at and then I was like, "OK, I'm not going to do it any more, I swear." Then I started smoking pot again and my school found out and they threatened to expel me and then I just started doing certain things, like cleaning up my act.

Yago: How has going to rehab changed your relationship with your mom and dad and your sisters?

Osbourne: It's brought me and my dad a lot closer. In a way, we're doing this together this time around. He'll openly admit he's been trying to get clean for some 18-odd years or so. When I was younger I was like "What the f---? Why can't you get this right? What's so hard about it?" And now I can understand how hard it is. ... Sobriety can't be forced upon you; you're gonna have to want to do it.

Yago: But at least now he's got you to help him out, and you've got him to help out ...

Osbourne: If I have a problem, stuff's going through my head, I feel like using, I usually go and talk to him.

Yago: What does he say to you?

Osbourne: It's nothing people can ever say to you; just the sheer fact of talking about it helps.

Yago: Your dad's had a very long history with battling drugs. Do you every worry that you're going to be forced to inherit the same fate?

Osbourne: No, because I think a huge difference is [that] I decided to get sober a lot younger than he did. He first tried to get sober when he was like 32, I believe.

Yago: How did going through rehab change your relationship with your mom?

Osbourne: I realized how much I hurt her and how much pain I put her through. There's not enough sorrys in the world that could fix it.

Yago: What about your sisters? How did they respond to the fact that you got checked into rehab at 17?

Osbourne: Well, the funny thing is, some of Kelly's friends knew I was going, knew my parents were thinking of sending me to rehab before I did. ... Kelly and I were continually working on some of our differences. Sadly, she wasn't able to come to as many of the group therapy sessions up where I was at.

Yago: Did she resent the fact that you were in there? Was she angry about that?

Osbourne: No, I don't think so. She was not resentful. I think actually more than anything, she was just happy and glad that I was taking care of myself.

Yago: What about Aimee?

Osbourne: The same. You know, Aimee's been very supportive in her own way.

Yago: Have you had to cut any friends out of your life now that you're clean?

Osbourne: Yeah, a lot. Pretty much all of them.

Yago: Is that hard for you?

Osbourne: Yes and no. The hard part is, those were my friends, but then I start thinking, "Well, they never returned my calls when I was in treatment, they never sent me a letter, they never asked or came up to see me. ... Were they really my friends?" Then I still think they're my friends, you know, "Whatever, stop kidding yourself. They're your friends, they've helped you out lots of times," but actually, when you start thinking about it, with a lot of them, the only real thing we had in common was using.

Yago: Could someone had said something, could anyone have done anything that could have gotten you off OxyContin and gotten you out of that hard-partying lifestyle? Could your mom or dad have said the magic bullet? Could your sisters have intervened? Could someone have said or done anything that could have kept you from using?

Osbourne: I found out, from being around the program, that it's nothing anyone can do.

Yago: If somebody's watching this right now, and they've got a friend who they see spinning out of control, or they're spinning out of control themselves, what advice would you give them?

Osbourne: Do they really think that what they're doing is normal, or what they're doing is right? How happy is it really making them? You think, "Oh, I'm great, it's all wonderful," until you don't have the drugs, until you don't have anything, and then a real normal everyday life situation comes up and you freak out. You're like, "What is this sh--? I don't know how to deal with it."

Yago: How does it feel to be clean?

Osbourne: It feels good. It feels really good. I'm real clear, you know? There's no fogginess.

Yago: Are you clean now?

Osbourne: Yes.

Yago: Have you had any slipups since you've got out of rehab?

Osbourne: Not one.

Yago: Not one?

Osbourne: Not one.

Thanks for that article, Mary! That was actually really interesting. Sad to see someone so young with so many "adult" problems, but it's nice to see he's making the effort to fix his life.