Ripple CTO Reflects on Regretful Ozzy Osbourne Q&A: “It Wasn’t Authentic”

David Schwartz Admits to Faking Ozzy Osbourne Q&A: “I Cheated”

David Schwartz, chief technology officer at Ripple, recently opened up about a long-held regret from his early career — staging what was meant to be a live and authentic fan Q&A session with rock icon Ozzy Osbourne and Black Sabbath.

In a candid post shared on X (formerly Twitter), Schwartz described how, during his time at a company called WebMaster, he was tasked with facilitating an online Q&A session using the company’s ConferenceRoom chat software.

But what fans experienced as a real-time interaction with their favorite band members was far from genuine.

“I cheated,” Schwartz confessed. “To me personally, it was a failure — but to everyone else, it was a success.”

Fans Wanted Ozzy — Nobody Else

As a skilled typist, Schwartz was responsible for speaking with the band members by phone, transcribing their responses, and feeding them into the chat platform. The goal: simulate a seamless, live conversation between the rockstars and their fans.

But there was a hitch.

“I specifically asked the moderators to give me questions that weren’t for Ozzy,” Schwartz explained. “There just weren’t any.”

Despite being a group event with all of Black Sabbath, nearly every fan question was directed at Osbourne. In an effort to include the rest of the band, Schwartz used pre-written “backup” questions and blended them with scripted responses provided by management.

“I passed a canned question to each of the other band members in rotation. And I mixed what I could make out of what they said with the canned answer from their manager.”

Only two or three actual fan-submitted questions reached the band during the session, Schwartz estimates.

Source: GENX

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Cleaning Up Ozzy’s Censored Responses

In his post, Schwartz also revealed that Osbourne’s responses were often difficult to understand — not only due to the poor phone line quality, but also because of the language.

“Ozzy’s answer featured the C-word a lot. The bad C-word. The one that Americans really don’t like to say,” he wrote.

“It was pretty close to the only word I could hear clearly.”

Attempting to remain professional, Schwartz took it upon himself to sanitize Osbourne’s responses, editing out the most extreme profanity before publishing the answers in the chat.

While the session was considered a success from the public’s perspective, Schwartz said the experience fell short of the genuine, unscripted interaction he had hoped to create.

“At the time, I felt really bad about the whole thing. It wasn’t the authentic interaction with celebrities that I wanted it to be and that I tried to make it.”

Ozzy Osbourne’s Passing Sparks Crypto Frenzy

Following the news of Ozzy Osbourne’s death at age 76, tributes poured in — not just from fans, but from crypto markets as well.

One Ozzy-inspired memecoin, The Mad Man (OZZY), skyrocketed more than 16,800%, reaching a price of $0.003851 and a market cap of approximately $3.85 million. While the token is unaffiliated with the Osbourne estate, the sudden surge reflects a broader trend in speculative digital assets tied to celebrity news.

Conclusion: A Tech Exec’s Unexpected Rock 'n' Roll Confession

What began as a behind-the-scenes tech job evolved into a memory that Ripple’s CTO still wrestles with decades later. David Schwartz’s admission sheds light on the early days of internet celebrity culture — and the ethical gray areas that often accompanied them.

For fans and technologists alike, it's a reminder that authenticity in digital interactions matters — even when no one’s watching.

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