Kelly Osbourne 'Sleeping In The Nothing' album

Forget what you know about Kelly Osbourne. If you watch her hit MTV reality series “The Osbournes,” Kelly says you’re just seeing “24/7 of my life edited into twenty minutes.” And if you bought her debut album Shut Up, you don’t know the depth and range of music that this complex girl is capable of making.

But if you think that Kelly is opinionated, not afraid to make a statement and could care less what you or anyone else thinks of her—well that’s the only thing you’re right about—and the only thing that will never change!

Enter SLEEPING IN THE NOTHING. It’s a total 80s dance club soundtrack yet it’s set against vulnerable, emotional lyrics. “Originally we talked about doing something that was very raw . . . no backing vocals, nothing too electronic but suddenly we had this 80s pop vibe and we went with it,” Kelly explains. “I wanted an album that could be played at any dance club in the world!” But while you dance the night away to her music, pay close attention to her lyrics. They’re a personal invitation to come inside and meet the real Kelly Osbourne.

These days, Kelly is a triple threat. She’s singing, she’s acting and she’s designing clothes. Kelly found a place on TV away from the world of reality. In October, she made her acting debut with a starring role on the hit ABC series “Life As We Know It.” And in the fashion world, Kelly recently launched a rock inspired line of t-shirts called Stiletto Killers. The song “Changes” from her last release was #1 in the UK and was the first #1 for both Kelly and Ozzy, who joined her on the single, which went on to sell over 500,000 copies. Music is where Kelly wears her heart on her sleeve.

She’s letting the world get to know her in ways the media and television never could. SLEEPING IN THE NOTHING is Kelly unedited. “Recording this album was like therapy,” says Kelly. “I let a lot of stuff out.” The album began as a second chance for Kelly to have the music career she wasn’t allowed to have during her first album. Kelly was forced into a direction she wasn’t behind. After that experience, Kelly was convinced she’d never record another album again. “For a while, I didn’t want to do music anymore,” Kelly explains. “And then I met Merck Mercuriadis from Sanctuary records. He gave me the confidence I needed and never pushed me into things.” But SLEEPING IN THE NOTHING turned into a lot more than just a chance for Kelly to make music. It was a chance to change her life.

For starters, Kelly got the opportunity to work with producer Linda Perry. In recent years, Linda has emerged as a producer and songwriter with a special knack for helping young pop stars find themselves as artists. With Linda serving as producer and co-writer on the album, she helped bring out the real Kelly that was always inside of her. And SLEEPING IN THE NOTHING is 100% genuine because Linda and Kelly began recording as Kelly got the biggest reality check of her entire life.

Kelly entered rehab to battle an addiction to painkillers at the exact same time she began recording. “It was set up for me to go and work with Linda before I went into rehab,” says Kelly. ”But they said in rehab it would be good for me if I did something that would give me a goal at the end of it. So I would leave for the day with a sober companion and go and do the album.” Recording while facing her demons was both exhilarating and scary for Kelly all at the same time. “I was so nervous because I was like, ‘Can I do this?’” Kelly explains. “I had never done anything like this sober.”

From day one, Linda forced Kelly to let go of what she thought singing should be and taught her how to release what was building up inside. “I started singing and Linda said, ‘Stop right now. You’ve had singing lessons before?’ And I said yes. She said ‘Forget anything you’ve ever learned. Start over and do it again. And over and over I would sing the songs again and again,” Kelly explains. “Linda brought something out of me that I really didn’t know was there.” When they were writing lyrics, Linda wouldn’t let Kelly stop at the surface—she made Kelly dig deep. Sometimes it was deeper than Kelly thought she could go. “It was like therapy letting a lot of that stuff out in my lyrics. Sometimes it was too personal and it was hard to do,” Kelly explains. “Linda would give me a pencil and a piece of paper and would have me go outside and write. I would come back and she would be like, ‘No, you’re just writing that because you think it rhymes—go write it again. She could tell when I wasn’t letting something out or just putting stuff down to be done with it.” Nothing they worked on was ever done for the sake of getting it done. “Linda told me if you’re gonna go in and do an album that’s really honest like this one, you just can’t fake it. You’ve got to be real.”

While Linda pushed Kelly to write about rehab, her new lease on life and her family, songs such as “Secret Lover,” “Can’t Wait” and “Uh Oh” also have to do with a broken heart—something Kelly has mended many times. “Having my heartbroken was one of the biggest struggles I ever had to go through in my entire life,” Kelly reveals. “Because when someone is sick and in the hospital, you know they’re going to get better because the only thing that hurts is you can’t have them when they’re sick. But when you have a broken heart, there’s nothing that can fix it.”

“Secret Lover” is an upbeat track that tells of a guy who doesn’t acknowledge his girlfriend in public—or worse yet, admit to his friends that they’re dating. “There was a guy I was dating who would sneak me in and sneak me out of wherever I met him,” Kelly explains. “I didn’t understand until I finally figured out he was hiding me from everyone—of course the first thing I did was tell everyone we were dating!”

Kelly says various ex-boyfriends have influenced all her songs in some way—yet she doesn’t want to give them too much credit. But singing about her broken heart hasn’t necessarily healed it. In fact, Kelly doesn’t plan on being in a relationship ever again. “I like the idea of having someone to hang out with and having someone to cuddle with,” says Kelly. “But I’m a total brat and I hate being dumped and rejection is the worst part about it. It’s like, he dumped me?”

On other tracks, Kelly delves into her emotional state of mind before and after life in rehab. “One Word” is about the power of a single word. “My mom looked at me and only said my name and I instantly knew that the shit had hit the fan and I was going to rehab,” Kelly says. But it’s the track “Save Me” that really examines Kelly’s personal relationships before she entered rehab last May. “Certain people in my life knew I was doing drugs and never did anything whatsoever to help me,” Kelly recalls. “They let me go on that way because they didn’t want to stop me from showing up for events because they wouldn’t make money for that night.”

The catchy “Red Light” describes how Kelly felt stuck before rehab and how she can finally move her life into the right direction. “I couldn’t turn either way. I couldn’t move forward, I couldn’t move back and what I was doing was killing myself,” Kelly says. And on “Suburbia” Kelly even offers a bit of social commentary on how society contributes to drug use amongst minors. “It’s the small towns in the world that are very “one-track minded.” These aren’t open-minded people. They don’t give you a chance to express yourself the way you want to,” Kelly explains. “And kids get depressed about that and the first thing they’ll turn to is drugs.”

Kelly’s gone to hell and back but the journey has left her smarter, wiser and in control. Are four letter words still in her vocabulary? Yes. Is her style still on the cutting edge? But of course. Does she still speak her mind? Absolutely. The only thing that’s different about Kelly is she’s grown up and she wants to share with the world what she has learned. But to get the full effect, you have to forget what you thought you knew about her. “I know I am one of those artists people don’t like to admit that they like,” says Kelly. “I want this album to be the one where they admit they like me!” So pop in SLEEPING IN THE NOTHING and get to know Kelly Osbourne all over again. Even Kelly does that herself. “I know this sounds really cheesy, but every time I get depressed or upset about something, I put my album on!”

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Kelly Osbourne - Sleeping In The Nothing