What Inspired Jack Osbourne’s Prepper Lifestyle After Hurricane Katrina?

You should consider yourself lucky if you’re friends with Jack Osbourne in the event of a doomsday scenario.

During a recent podcast appearance, Jack revealed that he had gotten heavily into prepper culture when he was still in his 20s.

What Event Made Jack Osbourne Become a Doomsday Prepper

Osbourne recently appeared as a guest on Leave No Doubt, a podcast about fatherhood hosted by Trapped Under Ice guitarist Sam Trapkin and Grief Recovery Institute CEO Cole James.

Both hosts currently live in Idaho, where Osbourne also has a home. James also mentioned that he and Osbourne “got sober together” in their 20s. That was also when Osbourne first revealed to James that he was preparing for a doomsday scenario.

The process started after he spent eight days mountain climbing El Capitan at Yosemite National Park in California. Following his descent, Osbourne walked to a nearby gas station where he saw a newspaper whose front page was covered in headlines about Hurricane Katrina decimating New Orleans.

“I was reading all this stuff about like just chaos and people murdering each other and people dying in the street and all of this. And I was like, ‘Whoa this can happen,'” Osbourne said on the show. “And I just got plugged into not wanting to not have that happen to me.”

Jack Osbourne on ‘Leave No Doubt’

What Jack Osbourne Did to Become a Prepper

Osbourne described himself as going “deep into the prepper world.” In the coming months, he started to stock up on food and ammunition. A short while later, he enrolled in survival courses.

Today, Osbourne calls being a prepper “a hobby.” But that doesn’t mean those skills haven’t come in handy.

In November and December of 2025, Osbourne was one of 12 contestants on the British TV series I’m a Celebrity…Get Me Out of Here! On the show, notable names are taken to a remote part of Australia to see how long they can last in the wilderness before wanting to go home or being eliminated from the competition.

Osbourne lasted 20 days in the wild, finishing in sixth place on the show.

Jack Osbourne on ‘I’m a Celebrity…Get Me Out of Here!

The Lesson Jack Learned From Having Ozzy As His Dad

Eventually, the conversation during the podcast episode turned toward lessons Jack learned from having Ozzy Osbourne as a father. Immediately, Jack called out his dad’s work ethic and how Ozzy’s childhood shaped that.

“Both of his parents worked in factories. He got like one pair of shoes a year type thing when he was a kid,” Jack said of Ozzy’s childhood. “He did not grow up with any wealth, any abundance, nothing. So I think for him, respecting work and respecting the privilege of his job, he always knew that as quick as it comes, it can also go.”

READ MORE: What Sharon Osbourne Is Doing at Home After Ozzy’s Death

That not only affected Jack’s work ethic, but also how he treats others in his life.

“He would always say the same people you meet going up, you meet going down. So be good to people you work with and show up when you say you’re going to show up and do your job.”

Ozzy died July 22, 2025 at the age of 76. Here is a look back at the Osbourne family through the years.