Get to know Aimée Osbourne, the media-shy sibling who makes atmospheric metal

The Osbournes' eldest kid might be wary of reality telly, but the sometime-actor also releases brooding pop-rock under her ARO moniker

If you ever watched The Osbournes – the sweary, early-’00s reality TV show that followed the chaotic family life of Black Sabbath singer and heavy metal solo artist Ozzy Osbourne, his music manager wife Sharon and their kids Jack and Kelly – you might not remember their sister Aimée. The couple’s oldest kid decided not to take part in the show, and only appears in occasional cameos – either blurred out or obscured, or mentioned by other family members.

Though Aimée Osbourne keeps a lower profile, she is a singer and a musician – with a debut album on the way. She sees the creative project as being separate from her life. “I don’t think I will ever cross-contaminate my private life and my family life with my public and professional world,” she told Rolling Stone. “For me, nothing’s more important than having a very clear boundary between the two. That’s just part of who I am.”

What’s the deal with her music?

Five years ago, Aimée started releasing music as ARO, with little fanfare. The understated moniker spells out her initials. Debut single ‘Raining Gold’ channelled hefty dollops of both Mazzy Star and Slowdive, with Lana Del Rey-esque visuals to match. The brooding and bassy ‘Cocaine Style’ followed the same year, along with 2016’s ‘I Can Change’ – an LCD Soundsystem cover that trades the original’s blooping melodies for slow-burning melancholy.

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The artist has previously cited both PJ Harvey and Massive Attack as key influences, and it shows in her first single in four years, ‘Shared Something With The Night’. “The song is like a My Bloody Valentine lullaby for the romantically tormented that struggle to sleep at night,” she told Rolling Stone this year.

Why didn’t we see much of her on The Osbournes?

Reality TV’s most rock‘n’roll show never featured Ozzy and Sharon Osbourne’s oldest child because Aimee chose not to take part; instead, she moved out aged 16 to avoid the MTV camera crew stationed at her family’s home. “I’d grown up around having a pretty well-known dad anyway, and I always really valued my privacy within that family,” she later explained, speaking to New York’s Q104.3 radio station. “For me personally, for who I am[…] morally, and also just to give myself a chance to actually develop into a human being as opposed to just being remembered for being a teenager. It didn’t really line up with what I saw my future as.… I felt if I’d stayed with The Osbournes and done the whole thing, I would have been typecast right away.”

What does she think about her siblings taking part?

Though Aimee opted out of the show, her siblings Kelly and Jack were a regular fixture of the potty-mouthed chaos, and became celebrities in their own right off the back of it. Speaking toThe Independent in 2015, Aimee described her relationship with her siblings: “I wouldn’t say there is an ease between us,” she said, “but there is an acceptance. Do we socialise? No.” Aimee and Kelly were next-door neighbours for a short wile back in 2014, but after a year both sisters put their respective West Hollywood houses up for sale.

Has she stayed away from TV entirely?

Not exactly. Though reality telly was never Aimee’s bag, she has given the small screen a whirl elsewhere. A year after The Osbournes first aired, she appeared in a cool and very Californian remake of Wuthering Heights by MTV, which brought Emily Bronte’s classic gothic novel into the present-day. Over a decade later, she also appeared in Postman Pat: The Movie (2014),  an oddly dystopian film in which Pat faces being replaced by a robotic postman as one of his boss’ budget-cutting measures. And thus, he is forced to enter a talent contest so that he can afford to take his wife on holiday. Bizarrely, it also stars David Tennant, Rupert Grint, and Ronan Keating.

Is there any more music planned for the future?

Debut album ‘Vacare Adamaré’ is on the way. Rolling Stone recently reported that songs will be released in a series of EP-like chapters, with a video for each song. ARO explained that these visuals will also form a large part of any future live shows. “I want the live show to feel like you’re on the haunted mansion ride at Disneyland, with a little Studio 54, a touch of vaudeville and a lot of Blade Runner,” she said. “It will be ghostly and poetic with some neon and hypnotic laser lights to captivate all the senses.” Further teasers, posted on her Instagram, give a sneak preview of what to expect.

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