OZZY OSBOURNE On BLACK SABBATH’s Final Tour: ‘This Is Really The End’
The North American leg of BLACK SABBATH‘s final tour, which is being billed as “The End”, will start on January 20 in Omaha, Nebraska, ending on February 27 in New York City. Dates in Australia and New Zealand have been confirmed for April, with European festival shows taking place during the summer.
During a recent conference call with reporters, BLACK SABBATH bassist Geezer Butler promised “The End” will be the end for SABBATH, which formed in 1968 in Birmingham, England.
“We just all decided that we wanted to do one last tour,” Butler said. “We’re all getting up there in our age, and while we’re still at the top of our profession both musically and aesthetically, then we wanted to go out on top and we feel like this is the right time to do it.” Singer Ozzy Osbourne added: “We’re not gonna get back together in three years when we all run out of cash or whatever. I have no intention of that. This is really the end.”
Osbourne confirmed that he will make a new solo album after SABBATH is done touring. As for his plans to keep playing shows, he said: “I don’t know what the touring situation’s going to be. I don’t want to do extensive touring, just ’cause I can’t do it anymore, a year out on the road. I’m done. I’ll do gigs. I’ll do watered-down tours and things. But I’m going to be still actively involved in music to a certain degree, I hope.”
BLACK SABBATH recently revealed that it will sell a new limited-edition CD titled “The End” at the shows on its farewell tour. The disc will feature four previously unheard studio tracks left off the band’s 2013 reunion album, “13”, as well as live versions of four songs from the world tour the band did in support of that disc.
The four studio cuts are “Season Of The Dead”, “Cry All Night”, “Take Me Home” and “Isolated Man”. They feature drums by Brad Wilk.
The live tracks, with drumming from Tommy Clufetos, are “God Is Dead?”, “Under The Sun”, “End Of The Beginning” and “Age Of Reason”. The live cuts were recorded in Sydney, Australia, Auckland, New Zealand and Hamilton, Ontario.
Wilk and Clufetos had to get involved after founding SABBATH drummer Bill Ward withdrew from the reunion after initially agreeing to participate in it.
“13”, the first SABBATH full-length studio album in 35 years to feature original members Butler, Tony Iommi and Osbourne, also became SABBATH‘s first No. 1 album in the U.S. when it was released in June 2013. The band abandoned plans for a follow-up after deciding that the upcoming trek would be its last.
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