The Prince of Darkness Ozzy Osbourne is gearing up for his last ever ride with Black Sabbath, and says he’ll “do the best [he] can.”
Ozzy Osbourne has opened up about his final live performance, Back To The Beginning, the one-night-only mega-show in July that will officially bring the curtain down on both his solo career and Black Sabbath’s legacy.
In a new exclusive interview with The Guardian, Ozzy reveals that the show – going down July 5 at Birmingham’s Villa Park – was conceived by his wife and longtime manager Sharon Osbourne as “something to give me a reason to get up in the morning.”
The show will reunite Ozzy Osbourne, Tony Iommi, Geezer Butler, and Bill Ward on stage for the first time since 2005. They’ll be surrounded by a metal hall of fame of support acts, including Metallica, Pantera, Gojira, Guns N’ Roses, Tool, Anthrax, and more. Everyone on the bill will reportedly be playing classic Sabbath or Ozzy tracks in tribute.
The show won’t be a full Black Sabbath set, though. Ozzy clarified that Back To The Beginning will be a “sample” of what fans love: “We’re only playing a couple of songs each. I don’t want people thinking ‘we’re getting ripped off,’ because it’s just going to be…what’s the word?…a sample.”
“You’re going to get a few songs each by Ozzy and Sabbath,” he says.
Despite the high-profile guest list alongside Black Sabbath and massive production planned, Ozzy has remained brutally honest about the state of his health heading into the gig.
“You wake up the next morning and find that something else has gone wrong,” he says, reflecting on his relentless medical issues over the past decade. “You begin to think this is never going to end.”
Maynard James Keenan of Tool, who’s performing at the Black Sabbath show, recently admitted, “I don’t know what kind of modern miracles we’ll come up with to get him on stage to do the songs, but this is gonna be a challenge for them.”
Ozzy’s response? Plain and unshaken: “I’ll be there, and I’ll do the best I can. So all I can do is turn up.”
He’s currently working with a vocal coach four days a week and says he’s fighting to get his strength back after being “laid up for such a long time.”
“It’s tough,” he explains. “The first thing to go is your strength. It’s like starting all over again… I have problems walking. I also get blood pressure issues, from blood clots on my legs. I’m used to doing two hours on stage, jumping and running around. I don’t think I’ll be doing much jumping or running around this time. I may be sitting down.”
The lineup also includes a newly formed all-star supergroup featuring Billy Corgan, Fred Durst, and Papa V Perpetua of Ghost among others, with Tom Morello serving as the event’s musical director.
It might be the end of an era for Black Sabbath and Ozzy himself, but his message is clear: he’s going out doing what he was born to do – even if he’s got to sit through it.
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