NOVEMBER: OZZY OSBOURNE
The Double O revealed he was hanging up his crucifix
It has been a year of endings. Black Sabbath, The Dillinger Escape Plan, HIM – the list of bands and people taking their final bows is impactful and bittersweet. In November, Ozzy Osbourne became the latest legend to announce his retirement – at least from touring. Rumours began to circulate in the summer that the 69-year-old would be following Black Sabbath’s lead and hanging up his metal crucifix, fuelled in part by hints dropped by his wife Sharon. But the man himself seemed to be having none of it.
“People around my age go, ‘I’m 65 now. I’m retired.’ Then they fucking die,” Ozzy said in September. “My father got a bit of cash from the job he had, did the garden and died. I ain’t retiring. People still want to see me, so what’s there to retire from?”
Except that wasn’t the whole truth. Just a few weeks later, Ozzy announced a farewell world tour. “This will be my final world tour, but I can’t say I won’t do some shows here and there,” he said in a statement, shutting the door on his live career but not quite locking it.
It’s going to be a long goodbye. The tour – which sees the much-anticipated return of former guitarist/right-hand man Zakk Wylde – is set to extend into 2020, and includes a headlining appearance at Download in June alongside Guns N’ Roses and Avenged Sevenfold.
And then there’s the small matter of Ozzy’s first new studio album since 2010’s Scream. The singer says he’s “about seven songs into it”, including tracks titled Mr Armageddon and Crack Cocaine. And while he suggests the music industry is economically fucked – “you don’t sell records anymore. It’s not cost-effective to make a record” – it would hardly be an earth-shattering shock if the as-yet-untitled album appeared in time for his alleged swansong tour.
We say ‘alleged’, because Ozzy has been here before. The singer ‘retired’ back in 1992, claiming that the punningly titled No More Tours run of shows would be his last. Three years later, he was back with a brand new studio album, Ozzmosis, and a set of dates dubbed the ‘Retirement Sucks Tour’.
This time looks like being different. By the time the tour finishes, Ozzy will be well over 70 – hardly ancient, but well past the age that most sensible people’s thoughts turn to putting their feet up. And let’s face it, he’s got a lot more miles on the clock compared to other people his age…
Of course, we all know the prospect of Ozzy spending the rest of his life tending the herbaceous borders is remote. And retiring from long, exhausting tours doesn’t means he’s retiring from playing live or making records. Which is good news, because a world without
Ozzy in it is pretty much unthinkable.
“This will be my
final world Tour, buT i can’T say i won’T do some shows here and There”