Ozzy Ahead of Jack in Sobriety Contest

By Stephen M. Silverman

Wednesday July 09, 2003 11:00 AM EDT

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Some TV families compete in sports: Remember the potato-sack race on "The Brady Bunch"? But in the Osbourne household, the race is for sobriety, and dad Ozzy says he is ahead of son Jack, 89 days to 88, PEOPLE reports.

As PEOPLE reported two months ago, Ozzy, 54, who has struggled with drug and alcohol addiction for decades, was jolted into giving sobriety another try when Jack, 17, entered rehab in April.

At the time, the aging rocker said he hadn't taken a drink or puffed on a joint in more than a month and was even running about five miles a day. "Jack and I are racing," Ozzy told PEOPLE, "to be the first one to 100 days sober."

Tuesday night, in an exclusive MTV interview, Jack talked about his treatment in rehab and admitted to an addiction to the controversial painkiller OxyContin.

Issues that Osbourne had to face in the hospital, he said, were his sudden fame and his mother's cancer.

"That sh-- hurt a lot, and I was constantly just drowning it," he said, revealing that he began drinking at age 13 and in the past two years was adding Vicodin, Valium, Xanax, Dilaudid, Lorcet, Lortab, Percocet, marijuana and Oxy to the mix.

Meanwhile, in more upbeat news about the Osbournes, MTV said Tuesday that their offbeat reality show will return in 2004 for a 20-episode third season.

Furthermore, Jack will be guest co-host on ABC's "Jimmy Kimmel Live" next week.