Geezer Butler Says Ozzy Wants to Do One Final Show for His Solo and Black Sabbath Career
Ladies and gents, we’re very likely witnessing the actual final wind down of Ozzy Osbourne‘s career. Health problems have plagued him for too long and his ability to perform is hindered as a result. Nowadays, all we hear is how Ozzy wants to do one last show to put a neat little bow on an absolutely legendary legacy spanning multiple decades and including some of the most iconic songs from his time fronting Black Sabbath, as well as his solo efforts.
Apparently, Ozzy’s desire to end his musical journey on his own terms has reached his former bandmates, as Sabbath bassist Geezer Butler revealed during an interview on New York’s Q104.3 radio station (as transcribed by Blabbermouth) that he’s down to play one last time with the “Prince of Darkness.”
“Yeah. Ozzy desperately wants to do, ’cause of his health conditions, he desperately wants to do a final Ozzy Osbourne [solo] concert. And he said to me, ‘I’d love Sabbath to do a couple of songs, two or three songs, as the final show ever’ — Ozzy’s final show and Sabbath’s final show. And I said, ‘Yeah, I’m up for it, definitely.’ But I’m not sure what the others are up to. Me and Ozzy, we’re up for it. But whether Tony and Bill would do it, I don’t know.”
Now, I know what you’re saying — Black Sabbath already had multiple farewell shows, so why do another? Well, as we’ve reported on in the past, Ozzy thinks it wasn’t a real finale since drummer Bill Ward wasn’t around. At the time, a dispute erupted between Ward and the rest of the band, as there were some concerns about his health and physical fitness for a final tour.
Butler went into a little more detail about what happened during the interview, explaining that it became and all or nothing kind of scenario.
“It was great. I mean, we knew that physically it was becoming hard, especially since Tony had cancer at the time and he just said, ‘I think I’ve got one more tour left in me and that’s it. That’s all I can do.’ And so we put that tour together as the final thing. We all would have loved to have Bill [Ward, original Sabbath’s drummer] with us, but Bill’s a proud guy. He’s had heart problems and everything. And we said, ‘Well, just come out and do, like, three songs or something,’ and he said, ‘No. I either do the whole thing or I’m not doing any of it.’ And so, fair enough. And so we just carried on to the end, and that was it.”
As these legendary metal icons come to the twilight of their careers, it would be great to see them finish things how they would like to. Far too many never got that chance, so it would be fucking great that a band considered one of the pioneers for heavy metal would get to take one final bow nearly 60 years later.
