When you're the son of a death-metal rock star, you're more likely to be found partying instead of hand jamming up the Salathe Wall. However, Jack Osbourne, son of Ozzy Osbourne, picked up climbing as part of a full-scale detox program, and ever since he gripped his first holds he hasn’t let go. Osbourne disciplined himself to a strict training regimen for six months in order to climb El Cap. During this training he lost 70 pounds and filmed a new reality TV show, “Jack Osbourne Adrenaline Junkie.” At the end of his fitness program, Osbourne took on El Cap and climbed the Salathe Wall, leading six pitches. Shortly after making Wheat Thin, the Central Pillar of Frenzy, Outer Limits and Nutcracker checkmarks on the Valley tic list, Osbourne chatted with Climbing Magazine .

You live part-time in California and part-time in England, yet, your first climb was in Slovenia; how did that happen? Two of my climbing partners, Mike Weeks and Bean Sopwith (I did Salathe with them), were working on a TV show I randomly did on a whim, called “Extreme Celebrity Detox.” The show was about climbing and mediation in the mountains. I went for the climbing because I thought I would try it out. The first R-rated film I was allowed to see, at age six, was Cliffhanger. I always had this weird fascination with climbing. I tried it out and loved it.

Mike and I became good friends on the show and I went out to Croatia where he was filming a deep-water-soloing movie called Depth Charge. I had no idea what I was getting into. I went out there with Chris Sharma, Leo Houlding, Steve McClure, just amazing climbers, and I was 215 pounds deep-water soloing with Chris Sharma. Now, now I realize how surreal that is. Back then I didn’t know who Chris Sharma was. I like to surround myself with people who climb hard because it inspires me, and I think, ‘I want to climb like that.’

Can you describe the moment when you knew you were sold on climbing? In Slovenia, we did three climbs and after the first one I thought “this is amazing” and I wanted to do another one. I don’t know, I seemed to get on with it well. I wasn’t scared of the height and I didn’t feel unsafe at any point. I just went with it.

After immersing yourself in the sport for over a year, what keeps you on the wall now? The rush is the first and foremost thing I love. There is nothing like just gearing up and going for it. You don’t know what you are getting into and you’re having it. That keeps me coming back every time. When you climb all worries in the world disappear. You are so present and focused on what you are doing, and flow smoothly, and being as efficient as you can, and I love that.  I’ve got a really noisy head and it just quiets thing down for me.

As a climber, in what ways has your interest grown? I’ll tell you what, when I was on Salathe after day three I thought, ‘you know what, being up here makes you want to train harder. I trained solidly for the past six months to do it, but I’m going to train harder, come back and free more pitches.’