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| photo: Ross Halfin |
Black Sabbath will wrap up their farewell tour next February with a pair of shows in their hometown of Birmingham, UK, but frontman Ozzy Osbourne says he’d like to see the run extended to reach more fans before the final goodbye.
"Tony Iommi wants to do 80 shows. We're doing 80 shows. It's good enough," Osbourne tells Billboard. "I wouldn't mind extending the tour for another few gigs. There's a lot of people who won't get to see us, but I don't think it's going to happen."
The rocker is enjoying the farewell shows and has come to appreciate what they mean to both fans and the band.
"It's great. I'm having a blast with it," he explains. "Right now I'm OK with it. I'm sure as it starts counting down to five shows left or something, it's gonna be kind of emotional, I think.
"I mean, we started off as four guys from Aston who had a dream and it became true beyond our wildest dreams. And then we were manipulated, we were ripped off, we were conned, all of the above. We lost each other within each other, if you like. But it's great to have got this back just to end on a high note, y'know?"
Ozzy adds that he still has lots of rocking left to do when Sabbath’s career wraps up in Birmingham on February 4, 2017.
"It's not me that wants to retire; it's Black Sabbath. I'll be continuing my own musical thing," he says. "My wife is good at telling me partial information, y'know, but I know I'm not hanging 'em up for awhile. Being Ozzy Osbourne solo again is not a job. It's a passion. It's a love. It's the biggest, greatest love affair of my life."
Black Sabbath are currently playing shows across Europe; they’ll launch a final North American leg in August before hitting Latin America late in the year and starting the final 8-date UK/Ireland run in Dublin in late January.
See also:
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Black Sabbath announce final farewell concerts
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