As Black Sabbath prepares for its farewell tour, Ozzy Osbourne says one of things he’s most proud of is that the band formed organically in their hometown of Birmingham, UK as opposed to being created by the machinery of the music industry.
“When we started out I thought ‘this thing will be all right for a year or two,” Ozzy tells news.com.au “One of my greatest memories of anything Sabbath was that we were a band that weren’t created by some London f---ing business d---head. 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 ‘f --- off you’re winding me up’. It remained in the top ten for over a year and none of us have looked back since.”
Black Sabbath will launch their 2016 farewell tour on January 20 in Omaha, NE. Billed as “The End”, the trek marks the group’s final series of live shows after a five-decade career.
“It’s the end of Sabbath and people have been asking ‘well I thought you were doing an album,” says the singer. “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.
“Just to be remembered is enough for me,” he adds. “I thought no one would remember me when we first started playing music. I’d rather end it now though than drag it out for another five albums. I mean I’m 67 in December.”
On January 22, Black Sabbath will release expanded editions of their first three albums – 1970’s “Black Sabbath” and “Paranoid”, and 1971’s “Master Of Reality” – in sync with the launch of the farewell run.
Osbourne has plans of his own once the Sabbath machine shuts down for good.
“Well I did pretty well for 35 years, and I’m not retiring,” Ozzy explains. “I’m going to do a solo album and a solo tour. I mean my wife’s a shop-a-holic always off buying f---g shoes or something so I’ve got to keep the money coming somehow.”
"It's going to be a really special album," Epic Records president Sylvia Rhone revealed in August. "It's going to be amazing, it's something Ozzy has never done before that he's always wanted to do."
See also:
Black Sabbath to release expanded editions of first three albums
Black Sabbath may release extra tracks from 13 sessions
Ozzy Osbourne producing show for The History Channel
Black Sabbath add German festival dates to farewell tour
Search Black Sabbath at hennemusic
