Throughout his career as a freelance features journalist, he wrote for tabloids such as the 1980s Today newspaper, The Daily Star, The Mirror and the defunct News of the world. In September 1997, Mr Wood spent half an hour with influential Black Sabbath vocalist and solo artist Ozzy Osbourne for The Daily Star, who died last July aged 76. He said: “I was doing a lot of feature writing for The Daily Star and was doing two to three shifts a week. The journalist said: “Because I had interviewed Johnny, his team said I could interview him afterwards for The Daily Star for print. Mr Wood will feature in a new book called Billy Bragg.. the people’s journey where he recounts an interview with the songwriter.