Ozzy Osbourne on His Future: “I Ain’t Stopping”
In a move that’s already been highly publicized before it even happens—there’s even a TV show about it—Ozzy Osbourne is moving home to the UK next year. Telling the Observer when it was first announced that the move is due to gun violence in the United States and the fact that he didn’t want to die there, Osbourne spoke to Kerrang! about the move in a new interview.
“I mean, if I stay here, they’ll kill me. But I am going. I am British. And I’ve got a beautiful house over there. Plus, the weather’s turned great, y’know? I have not been in England in the summer in fuckin’ years, but I went over for the Games and saw what it was like. The only thing is that England’s not equipped for hot weather. You’d stifle to death in your home with no air conditioning. So I’ve had my whole house fuckin’ air-conditioned while I’m away. When I go back at the end of the year, it’ll have the whole nine yards.”
The Prince of Darkness also reflected on his return to the stage at the Commonwealth Games this summer, where he performed alongside Black Sabbath guitarist Tony Iommi and live members of the last Sabbath incarnation.
“Where I was playing must’ve been about a quarter of a mile from where the [Birchfield Road] school once stood. That’s where Tony and I went as boys. If someone had said to me back then that I’d be over there playing at the Commonwealth Games when I was 73, I’d have gone, ‘What the fuck are you talking about?!’ But it crossed my mind while I was playing that if I’d stood on the school steps and pointed in the right direction, I could’ve probably seen where I’d be standing. It was amazing. That meant far more to me than Sabbath getting the bench in Birmingham, because when me and Tony went to that school, we were looked upon as the fuckin’ outcasts!”
Iommi appears on Osbourne’s upcoming Patient Number 9 album, a collaboration Ozzy says could happen again, maybe as a full album. He knows there would be a lot of baggage, though, and he doesn’t want to revive Black Sabbath.
“If Ozzy Osbourne and Tony Iommi do an album together, it’s going to sound like a Sabbath album. Tony was the sound of Sabbath. There’s no getting away from the fact that, when he plays with me, it’ll be some kind of a reflection of that. Maybe the tracks he did on my album was like what Sabbath should have been had we stayed together, but I want to take it away from Sabbath. We put that band to bed. And if he wants to [make it another] Sabbath album, I’m not doing it!”
There’s still gas left in the tank, too. Osbourne told Kerrang! that music is what he does and will continue to do.
“I ain’t stopping. I don’t drink. I don’t smoke. I don’t do drugs. This is what I do, man. It’s the only thing I’ve ever had success at. It’s the only thing I want to do. It’s the only thing I’m here for. People might be dropping like flies, but I ain’t dead yet – and I don’t want to die. There’s a fire in my heart that keeps me going on!”
