Kelly’s back. And this time it’s personal.
By Brandon Voss
At 20 years old, Kelly Osbourne has already been through enough shit to fill two E! True Hollywood Stories, three after-school specials, and a Lifetime Movie of the Week. But following a stint in rehab last year for her addiction to painkillers, the Christina-loathing mega-brat we loved (or loved to hate) on MTV’s now-wrapped hit series The Osbournes has matured into a grounded glamour girl.
Fed up, she says, of “being a puppet on a string to a record company,” the First Daughter of Darkness shifts gears from punk rock to ’80s-inspired electro-pop with her soul-bearing sophomore album, Sleeping in the Nothing, a Linda Perry-produced disc on which she tackles heartbreak, drug abuse, date rape, and the deterioration of society. The Chris Cox remix of the robolicious first single, “One Word,” is currently burning up the Billboard dance chart.
I recently caught up with the budding diva while she wound down in her London hotel room after rocking Top of the Pops alongside New Order and Ana Matronic of Scissor Sisters. Kelly returns to New York this week with an exclusive performance at Marquee’s queer Charm School University party and a special interview with Trai La Trash at boybar Barracuda — but don’t even think about calling her a “fag hag.”
HX: Kelly, you’ve been all over the place, promoting the hell out of your new CD for months. Are you over it?
Kelly Osbourne: [Laughs] It’s getting to that point now.
What’s the most annoying question journalists ask you?
[Annoying journalist voice] “So, what’s it like now that The Osbournes is over?” I say, “It’s over.” What more can I say about that, you know? Or “You’ve had a change in your music. What made you change?”
Ugh, how lame. Last time you were in New York, you made two high-profile gay club appearances. Tell me about performing at Roxy.
It was sooo fun!
Are you into sweaty muscle boys?
[Laughs] It’s just so funny how they whip their T-shirts off. My parents went down [with me to Roxy] because our family are really big supporters of the gay community. But my dad was in shock. He goes to me, “I just saw a man giving a blowjob in the corner. I have to leave.”
Scandalous! The Heatherette crew also joined you on stage.
They’re friends of mine. I wear a lot of their clothes, and I’m going to do their fashion show this year.
How was it DJing the Charm School party at Marquee?
It was really cool because I got to meet two of my idols — Nina Hagen and Deborah Harry. And Lady Bunny.
What tracks did you spin?
I always play a Blondie song, but I couldn’t because she was there — I thought it was cheesy. I played The Faint, Fischerspooner, Scissor Sisters...
Kelly Osbourne?
I played “One Word” — just to plug myself. How cheesy is that?
Eh, why not? So do you identify with all those crazy club kids?
I love all of them. I know all of them.
Do you prefer New York nightlife to L.A. or Miami?
It’s really weird because there is a huge difference in scenes. I like the New York scene better because of that whole Charm School thing I love.
Why don’t you just move here?
Because my parents won’t let me. They want to keep a tight leash on me. I want to. Eventually I will.
Kelly, why do gay boys love you so much?
I don’t know — I didn’t even know they did. It’s so cool, though. It’s just been so fun because most of my friends are gay. It’s great because [club appearances are] something they enjoy doing with me. So I’m like, “Please come help me find a cute boy!” Or I’ll go find cute boys for them!
But something tells me you hate the term “fag hag.”
Well, because I’m not a hag! I think it’s really stupid — me and my mom were talking about that. I just really support the gay community because I truly believe that no one in the world can tell you who you can love and who you can’t love. I wrote one song called “Suburbia” on the album, and it was influenced by a friend of mine who is gay. He turned to drugs because he wasn’t accepted by his parents or his hometown. He had to move, like, a hundred miles away; he became a huge alcoholic, got a DUI, was in jail. Horrible stuff happened to him all because where he was from, he wasn’t accepted. And that’s a really big issue to me. I believe you can be whoever you want to be, as long as it’s not harmful to others.
What was it like working with Linda Perry on the new album?
She’s one of the most awesome [pauses] people in music that I’ve met. I hate to say “female” because she’s probably more talented than any male out there.
Was the creative process ever tense? Did you ever say, “Fuck you, go produce Christina Aguilera again!”
No, no, no. Never.
Damn. I understand the album title, Sleeping in the Nothing, is an allusion to the 1984 film The Neverending Story.
The Neverending Story [is about] how Fantasia is your fantasies and your dreams, what you wish for. “The Nothing” was taking it over and killing it. I was sleeping in the nothing; I had no dreams, I had no goals, I had no fantasies. I was asleep within myself because of what I was doing to myself.
Heavy stuff. Why tackle such serious topics on a pop record?
It was a lot about exorcising demons, but it was also like, maybe I can help someone.
After rehab, were you forced to cut ties with “bad influences”?
You learn who your real friends are. You put yourself into your situation, and you can choose to be in a place and do bad things, or you can choose to be in the same place and do good things.
Let’s move on to a happier topic: Your apparent quest to be the new Queen of All Media. You’ve got a rock-inspired T-shirt line called Stiletto Killers — and weren’t you supposed to take over the role of Tracy Turnblad in Hairspray on Broadway?
On, n-n-no, I’m not doing that. They asked me to do it, they kept sending me scripts, they sent me to a dialect coach to make me talk with an American accent, and they sent me to a singing teacher. And then they put out a press release [stating] that they didn’t think that I’d have the talent to do it. So I didn’t understand.
Well, can you do a good American accent?
No. [Laughs.]
I was a big fan of your now-canceled ABC show, Life as We Know It. Would you ever do another TV series?
It was fun; they were all really nice. If it was filmed in L.A. or New York, I would do it. But Vancouver [where the series was filmed] was hard. I liked [my character] at the time, but I’d like to play something different.
I think Paris should have you replace Nicole on The Simple Life 4.
No, we’d fight the whole time because I don’t think she’s that cool.
Speaking of reality television, are you going to TiVo Chaotic, Britney and Kevin’s new trainwreck?
Oh, hell yeah, I cannot wait to see that!
Girl, don’t get me started. Do you pay a lot of attention to the current crop of pop culture icons?
Not really. I’m not in with that crowd. As you can tell — my number was not on Paris Hilton’s Sidekick.
What is your crowd, Kelly?
I’d say it was normal people. I don’t hang out with celebrities. I have celebrity friends that if we’re in the same town, maybe we’ll go to dinner together. But if you look in my cell phone, I don’t really have any celebrity numbers.
So we won’t see you hanging out at Marquee on weekends with, like, Lindsay and that whole crew?
Nope. I think it’s because I don’t really do coke anymore… [Laughs.]
HX, June 2005.