OZZY OSBOURNE: ‘People Aren’t Really Interested’ In Hearing New Music From BLACK SABBATH
BLACK SABBATH singer Ozzy Osbourne spoke to Australia’s News.com.au about the band’s decision to embark on one final tour next year before calling it quits. He said: “It’s the end of SABBATH and people have been asking, ‘Well, I thought you were doing an album. But the things we’ve discovered are — number one: People aren’t really interested in hearing new stuff and number two: If we were to do an album before the tour, it would take three or four years to complete the album. We want to end it on a high note.”
He continued: “I’d rather end it now though than drag it out for another five albums. I mean I’m 67 in December. When we started out, I thought, ‘This thing will be all right for a year or two.’
“One of my greatest memories of anything SABBATH was that we were a band that weren’t created by some London fucking business dickhead. We were four guys in different bands and we all got together and made a record.
“I remember being in a pub in Birmingham and the manager at the time said to me, ‘I have some news for you. Your album is entering the British charts at Number 17 next week.’ I went, ‘Fuck off! You’re winding me up.’ It remained in the Top Ten for over a year and none of us have looked back since.”
Asked how he reacted to seeing SABBATH guitarist Tony Iommi fighting cancer, Ozzy said: “When Tony was diagnosed with lymphoma, we are all, ‘Oh God, why now?’ But in saying that, we all got around him.
“He said to us, ‘Look, If I sit at home in my house thinking I’m going to die, I’ll fucking probably will die.’
“He’s a different person to everyone else — he’s one of those guys who say, ‘What do I have to do to fucking beat this?’
“I mean, there’s never been a leader of BLACK SABBATH, but I suppose in the early days, it was him. But don’t forget, in the very early days, he left and joined JETHRO TULL, but then he told them to go fuck themselves and came back.
“He has courage in his own conviction. He’s fucking unbelievable.”
Ozzy also confirmed in the same interview that he has no intentions of retiring anytime soon and he revealed that he is “going to do a solo album and a solo tour.”
Epic Records president Sylvia Rhone recently told Billboard.com that Osbourne is working on a “really special album.” She added, “It’s going to be amazing. It’s something Ozzy has never done before that he’s always wanted to do.”
Ozzy has not released an all-new solo album since 2010’s “Scream”, having spent the last few years touring with BLACK SABBATH and recording that band’s “13” album.
Ozzy will rejoin SABBATH in early 2016 for what is being dubbed as that band’s farewell tour, which kicks off on on January 20 in Omaha, Nebraska. A second leg of North American dates commencing on August 17 in Wantagh, New York was unveiled in October.
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