logo
#

Latest news with #NoEscapeFromNow

Why the World Never Fell Out of Love with the Prince of Darkness
Why the World Never Fell Out of Love with the Prince of Darkness

Yahoo

time5 days ago

  • Entertainment
  • Yahoo

Why the World Never Fell Out of Love with the Prince of Darkness

Ozzy Osbourne told Rolling Stone in 2002 he already knew what his epitaph would say. 'I guarantee that if I was to die tonight, tomorrow it would be, 'Ozzy Osbourne, the man who bit the head off a bat, died in his hotel room …'' he said. 'I know that's coming.' He'd made his peace with that fate. 'I've got no complaints. At least I'll be remembered.' But Ozzy got this one wrong. The world is in mourning for him, after the news of his death yesterday at 76. But not as a cartoon metal maniac chomping on bat flesh. We're mourning for Ozzy as one of the most unimpeachably human voices in music, and one of the most cherished legends in pop culture. It was Ozzy's moon. The rest of us just barked at it. For a guy with such a niche background — no rock band had ever set out to scare normies away like Black Sabbath — he became a universal figure as beloved as Ringo. Who else could sing duets with Lita Ford, Busta Rhymes, Elton John, Post Malone, and Miss Piggy without losing any metal cred? No matter how prolific or unprolific he was, even when he was a mess, people cherished Ozzy with an intensely loyal affection that was really unlike anything else. The world never fell out of love with this Prince of Darkness. More from Rolling Stone Ozzy Osbourne Documentary 'No Escape From Now' Still Set for Release This Fall Lita Ford Remembers Ozzy Osbourne: 'In Ozzy's Name, Keep Rocking' Drake Honors Ozzy Osbourne at Birmingham Concert Ozzy blew up into a Seventies teenage antihero because he seemed to speak for the misfits, the rejects, the outcasts. He helped invent metal as we know it with Black Sabbath, but he kept rolling through the years with one of the longest and strangest rock careers. With The Osbournes, he became the world's favorite sitcom dad. By the 2000s, he could show up at Buckingham Palace for Queen Elizabeth's Royal Jubilee, to celebrate her 40th anniversary, and serenade Her Majesty with 'Paranoid.' There was nothing at all controversial about the Prince of Darkness singing for the Defender of the Faith. She greeted him in the reception line with 'I hear you're a bit of a wild man.' 'Prince William said to me later, 'It would have been great if you had done 'Black Sabbath,''' Ozzy told RS. 'If I had done 'Black Sabbath,' the fucking royal box would have turned to stone, and the Archbishop of Canterbury would have had to douse them in holy water.' Ozzy's nine lives had nine lives apiece. He managed the historic feat of getting kicked out of Black Sabbath for doing too many drugs, in 1979. The fact that he kept waking up alive every morning for the next 40-plus years is one of the weirdest things that's ever happened in rock & roll. Nobody would have bet on this guy to survive the Eighties, much less keep getting more famous every year, but his star never stopped rising. He did more farewell tours than Cher, Elton, and the Who combined, following up No More Tours in 1992 with his Retirement Sucks tour, then going out again in 2018 with his awesomely titled No More Tours II. But he hated being offstage, and talked constantly in his final years about his drive to get back out there, despite his Parkinson's diagnosis. He even got to attend his own farewell party, performing his last concert with his old mates in Black Sabbath just a couple of weeks before his death, in his hometown of Birmingham, England. The 'Back to the Beginning' farewell show was a full-on celebration of his life and legacy, an electric funeral, with a host of fellow music legends paying their respects. One of the most poignant and heartfelt tributes came from Dolly Parton, with whom Ozzy has a surprising amount in common. Both became anti-establishment stars in the 1970s, too out there for the mainstream, dismissed as cartoon jokes, yet finally celebrated as true heroes decades ahead of their time. Her video message played on the screen between sets. 'Now, are we supposed to be saying farewell to you?' Dolly said. 'Well, I don't think that's going to happen. How about we just say good luck, God bless you, and we will see you somewhere down the road. Anyway, I love you, always have. And we're gonna miss you up onstage, but you know what? I wouldn't be surprised if you don't show up somewhere else — and I'll be there.' It all came down to his voice. Even when Ozzy wasn't the one writing the lyrics, they were inseparable from his quavering voice, as pure in its earnest simplicity as Brian Wilson. He sang about the morbid sense of doom that Seventies and Eighties kids felt during the era of the superpower nuclear arms race, a topic he revisited far more than any other rock star, in classics like 'War Pigs,' 'Crazy Train,' 'Children of the Grave,' or 'Electric Funeral.' He was one of very few voices anywhere in pop culture who brought this much moral wrath and empathy to the kids living under the mushroom cloud, especially the American teenagers reaching draft age around the time Paranoid and Master of Reality came out. For them, the fiery doom of 'Black Sabbath' was no occult metaphor. Ozzy's Iron Man and Bowie's Major Tom were the twin rock images of alienated youth in the 1970s, pissed off at the nuclear future their elders had built for them, sneering in aloof disdain behind a spaced-out mask. As Ozzy said, they'd seen the future and they'd left it behind. Right from the start, Ozzy sang with an authentic purity, but that purity was more than just part of his voice — it was his voice. Unlike other hard-rock singers at the time, he did not try to get bluesy, and he did not aspire to the muscle of a soul belter. He didn't bother with sexy-stud posturing or macho bluster. He was one of us. His moral force is part of what made him so genuinely scary when he arrived — Alice Cooper, that guy was funny and cool, but Ozzy's power was all in the way he undeniably meant every word he sang. Black Sabbath's music was terrifying to me as a kid, growing up in the suburbs — it was the stuff that the cool, scary older kids listened to when the adults weren't around, when they were smoking and partying, scared kids in the dark. On the bridge near my house, by Milton High School, the words were spray-painted: 'Welcome to Ozzy's Coven.' (Which was how I learned the word coven.) Yet Ozzy's voice sounded so benign and compassionate, downright vulnerable. The first time I ever heard his voice was at my next-door neighbor's house, in his big brother's basement pad, where he kept a piranha and played the first Sabbath album. I remember hearing 'N.I.B.,' with Ozzy singing in the voice of the devil. Yet what made it so scarily piercing was how forlorn and frail he sounded. It blew my mind when he quoted Buddy Holly, singing 'Your love for me has got to be real' — I knew that line from my Fifties-rocker parents listening to 'Not Fade Away.' What did Ozzy mean by making the devil a Buddy Holly-style romantic? It was a world away from the just-call-me-Luuucifaaaah strut of Mick Jagger. Ozzy's devils sounded so scary because they were mostly afraid of themselves. In his solo years, he played up the comedy, in a great hit like 'Flying High Again,' kicking off with a massive Randy Rhoads riff while Ozzy burbles in his most hapless voice, 'Oh noooo! Here we go!' It sums up his immensely lovable warmth right down to the way he sings, 'Am I just a crazy guy?' and then snickers, 'You bet.' But he still had that unimpeachable realness in his voice — for him, it was practically all he had in his voice. John Darnielle of the Mountain Goats really captured his mystique for latter-day fans in his novella Master of Reality, written in the voice of an institutionalized teenage Sabbath fanatic. 'No matter how many songs he sings, Ozzy always always sounds like they just grabbed him off the street and stuck him in front of a microphone, and then they either handed him a piece of paper with some lyrics on it or he already had some written on his hand or something.' In Rolling Stone's year-end issue for 1990, the first page had loads of stars giving their summary of the year, mostly pimping their latest career highlights. But Ozzy kept it short and sweet. 'One of the greatest heroes of all time said it in 1969: 'Give peace a chance.' Let's all try for it in 1991.' A typical Oz statement, full of contradictions (he was only a year past getting arrested for attacking his wife in a drunken stupor) but also that innate Ozzy sincerity. John Lennon had a similar cocktail in his personality, but he was also armored with complex layers of defensive wit and irony that Ozzy simply didn't have in his system. 'Give peace a chance' remained an aspirational ideal for Ozzy, the guy who kept doing the peace sign in public long after it went out of style for rock stars. 'We were the last hippie band,' he told RS in 2002. 'We were into peace.' After bombing out of Sabbath, he could have symbolized everything complacent, decadent, and dull about old-school rock. Yet he was never a joke. Like Geddy Lee, his opposite in so many other ways, he was cherished as an evolutionary mishap who symbolized his own kind of uncompromised integrity. One of the highlights of seeing my first Replacements show, a dingy all-aged matinee in the summer of 1986, was seeing Paul Westerberg and the boys lock into 'Iron Man,' one of the few songs they came close to finishing. Later that year, the Beastie Boys opened Licensed to Ill with the sampled 'Sweet Leaf' riff of 'Rhymin and Stealin,' dragging Sabbath into the Eighties the same way Run-D.M.C. did for Aerosmith. One of his best Eighties moments: Ozzy's classic egg-frying scene in Decline of Western Civilization Part II. He's the rock star at home, puttering around the kitchen in a leopard-print robe, a Real Housewife of Darkness, looking more like Rue McLanahan in The Golden Girls then any rock star you could name. He fixes breakfast, ineptly frying eggs and bacon while trying to pour himself a glass of orange juice on the counter. He gets about half of it into the actual glass. He also discusses his latest attempt to get sober. Director: 'Do you feel better now?' Ozzy: 'No.' He became even more iconic in the Nineties. Beck gave him a classic shout-out on MTV's 120 Minutes, in his famous February 1994 sit-down with Thurston Moore and Mike D — perhaps the most Nineties moment of television ever aired. Beck wore a thrift-store hockey shirt that proclaimed 'Stop! Tell Me I'm Ozzy Because I Am.' He'd written 'Ozzy' on a piece of masking tape and stuck it over whatever the original word was. He also made his plea in 'Ozzy' on his album Stereopathetic Soulmanure. (Sample lyric: 'Ozzy, Ozzy, Ozzy/What does it mean?/The fire is green.') By now, Ozzy was a fact of life that songwriters couldn't resist evoking as a way to set the table. 'It's reigning triple sec in Tchula/And the radio plays 'Crazy Train,'' David Berman drawled in the 1996 Silver Jews classic 'Black and Brown Blues,' with Ozzy as an unelectable symbol of ur-American burnout ordinariness. The Hold Steady's Craig Finn sang 'Playing records in a rented room/Hotter Than Hell into Bark at the Moon' in 2012, just as his songwriting heir MJ Lenderman sang a dozen years later, 'I've never seen the 'Mona Lisa'/I've never really left my room/I've been up too late playing Guitar Hero/Playing 'Bark at the Moon.'' He went on to help invent reality TV with The Osbournes, the blockbuster MTV hit that turned him into a sitcom dad. It starred a real-life family who could only communicate with a camera crew present, constantly cutting a promo in every interaction, with dialogue full of bleeped profanity. It's fitting since reality TV became the social menace as feared and dreaded as metal used to be. But my favorite Ozzy memory will always be seeing him on the Retirement Sucks tour in 1996, at Meriweather Post Pavilion in Maryland, a love-fest where Ozzy basked in the adoration of the audience, which he craved, but nowhere near as much as the audience did. Nobody really cared that Ozzy needed a teleprompter, which was a shocking innovation at the time; everybody within six miles of the venue knew all the words to 'Iron Man,' down to the security guards, but absolutely nobody was mad that Ozzy was the only one there who didn't. 'Is anyone smoking that sweet leaf?' he asked. 'When I said I quit, I fucking lied!' It was an overwhelming feeling of warmth and joy just to be in the same room with Ozzy, as it always was. And as long as his music lives on — which it will — being in the same room as Ozzy is always the place to be. Best of Rolling Stone Sly and the Family Stone: 20 Essential Songs The 50 Greatest Eminem Songs All 274 of Taylor Swift's Songs, Ranked Solve the daily Crossword

Lita Ford Remembers Ozzy Osbourne: ‘In Ozzy's Name, Keep Rocking'
Lita Ford Remembers Ozzy Osbourne: ‘In Ozzy's Name, Keep Rocking'

Yahoo

time5 days ago

  • Entertainment
  • Yahoo

Lita Ford Remembers Ozzy Osbourne: ‘In Ozzy's Name, Keep Rocking'

'Can you believe I'm in Ozzy's hometown tonight?' It's a quarter to ten, and Lita Ford, 66, is backstage at K.K. Downing's club in Birmingham, zipped into leather, the air thick with anticipation and sweat. Ford is about to deliver what will be the most wrenching live performance of 'Close My Eyes Forever' — her aching 1989 power ballad with Ozzy Osbourne that became Osbourne's first and only Top 10 hit. 'It's going to be really emotional,' she says. 'I didn't tear up until I turned around and looked at the beautiful stage set we have in Ozzy's honor, and everything sort of kicked in. I keep thinking — how did we end up here? How did Ozzy end up passing away? And here we are in Birmingham — Birmingham! — where it all began.' More from Rolling Stone Ozzy Osbourne Documentary 'No Escape From Now' Still Set for Release This Fall Drake Honors Ozzy Osbourne at Birmingham Concert Ozzy Osbourne's Top Ten Beatles Songs That kind of eerie alignment is how the song came into the world in the first place. It was 1987. Ford was 29, figuring out her post-Runaways identity; Osbourne was 39, adrift in addiction. But one wine-soaked night at Record One Studios in Los Angeles, the two rockers went into a cramped room with a keyboard and an amp, and by morning, had written something bruised, delicate, and timeless. Ford spoke to Rolling Stone about that night, what Black Sabbath meant to her, and the Easter dinner that ended with Osbourne holding a carving knife as everyone realized, a bit too late, that this was not a great idea. Tonight feels like a night to remember where we came from, where Ozzy came from, where we all came from, and the music that lives through our souls. I know the audience is going to get pretty choked up when they hear 'Close My Eyes.' Ozzy has been such a huge part of my life in so many ways, starting from when I was just a little girl. I grew up listening to Black Sabbath. I used to walk through the house and play their riffs on guitar. My first concert ever was Black Sabbath in 1972 — I was just a teenager. My parents didn't always like everybody, but they always tolerated Black Sabbath and supported me. My mother would always ask me, 'Oh, Lita, play some Black Sabbath!' So I'd go off and play 'War Pigs' or something, and she loved it. She was a big fan, and both my parents loved Ozzy and Sharon. One time they came over for Easter dinner. Picture this: a small middle-class neighborhood, and they pull up in a limousine. Of course, Ozzy gets out with Sharon, and the neighbors were losing their minds. Sharon comes in and sits down in the middle of my bed — I still lived at home, had been there since before The Runaways days in 1975. She was tiny, had lost a bunch of weight, and she sat cross-legged and looked at me. 'Do you like my belt?' she asked. I said, 'Yeah, it's awesome.' She smiled and said, 'I haven't worn this belt since I was 14.' She felt so good and was so happy. Meanwhile, Ozzy sat in the corner of the living room and chugged a bottle of wine. We gave him a glass, but he put it down, grabbed the bottle, and started to sink slowly into the sofa. After he finished the wine, my father asked if he wanted to carve the Easter lamb — my mother had roasted a leg of lamb. 'Yeah, I'll cut it,' he said. My father handed him the knife, and he got up and started cutting. Somehow it slipped off the table, went off the plate, and ended up underneath the table. My father stood there and laughed his ass off at Ozzy. He thought Ozzy was so entertaining and amusing — and he was. Then Ozzy looks up at my mom and says, 'I don't eat meat.' Ozzy was, by the way, always the best-dressed guy. He always had the best clothes, jewelry, and shoes. Sharon was a big part of that, but he just looked amazing all the time. Sometimes there's money — a lot of money — and looking amazing, and sometimes there's just getting yourself together without so much money. You've got to find those magic things and own them and wear them and be who you are. The night we wrote 'Close My Eyes Forever' came not too long after that. Sharon had come over to the studio to see me with a housewarming gift: a life-size duplicate of Koko, this massive gorilla. After she left, Ozzy stayed at the studio. There was a little room off to the corner of the control room with a keyboard and guitar, so we went in there and started playing. Ozzy started singing, I started playing the guitar parts, and it all came together overnight. By the time we came out of that little room, the sun was up. We were a little high, I have to admit. Sometimes that's what you've got to do — you just have to lose yourself to be creative. I mean, I pick my poison every once in a while when I need an attitude adjustment. Mine is whiskey. I love my whiskey. Artists as creative as Ozzy, who grew up in Black Sabbath, need something to take the edge off. Ozzy enjoyed drinking and doing drugs — he enjoyed it. He also became more creative when he drank and did drugs, though he might pass out afterwards. During the creative process, sometimes you just have to have a little bit of poison to write something like that. These songs are poisonous songs, and I think that's what everybody loves about them. That's why people can relate. That morning, we came out with this great song. I drove home with Koko strapped to the front seat of my Jeep. Ozzy went the opposite direction over Laurel Canyon — we put him in a taxi because I couldn't drive all the way over there and back. When he got home, Sharon was upset with us. She called and gave me a mouthful, and I'm sure Ozzy got one too. She was not happy. But hey, we got a Top 10 hit single out of it, so I'm going to be happy about that. 'Close My Eyes Forever' is something a lot of people play at funerals. A lot of people have love for that song because it's beautiful. In Ozzy's name, keep rocking. Great rock stars never truly die. Best of Rolling Stone Sly and the Family Stone: 20 Essential Songs The 50 Greatest Eminem Songs All 274 of Taylor Swift's Songs, Ranked Solve the daily Crossword

Ozzy Osbourne Documentary ‘No Escape From Now' Still Set for Release This Fall
Ozzy Osbourne Documentary ‘No Escape From Now' Still Set for Release This Fall

Yahoo

time5 days ago

  • Entertainment
  • Yahoo

Ozzy Osbourne Documentary ‘No Escape From Now' Still Set for Release This Fall

An upcoming documentary about Ozzy Osbourne's health setbacks in recent years and his desire to stage a farewell concert will still arrive later this year despite the heavy metal legend's death Tuesday. No Escape From Now, described as 'a deeply personal portrait of the rock legend's harsh new realities and his battle to take the stage for one final performance,' will hit Paramount+ this autumn, a rep for the filmmakers confirmed to Rolling Stone. More from Rolling Stone Lita Ford Remembers Ozzy Osbourne: 'In Ozzy's Name, Keep Rocking' Drake Honors Ozzy Osbourne at Birmingham Concert Ozzy Osbourne's Top Ten Beatles Songs 'We are truly heartbroken to hear the news of Ozzy's passing,' Phil and Tania Alexander, the creative team behind No Escape From Now, said in a statement. 'Filming with him, Sharon, Aimee, Kelly and Jack for the last three and a half years will always be a cherished and remarkable experience – largely because we got to regularly witness Ozzy's indomitable spirit, his mischievous, irresistible grin and his masterful display of unique one-liners. We will always love you dear Oz. And we send love and strength to Sharon and her family.' In addition to its access to Osbourne, the film features appearances by Osbourne's wife and manager, Sharon, as well as several musicians who have played with him over the years: Black Sabbath guitarist Tony Iommi, Metallica bassist Robert Trujillo, guitarist Zakk Wylde, Guns N' Roses bassist Duff McKagan, and Red Hot Chili Peppers drummer Chad Smith. It will also feature commentary from Billy Idol, Idol's guitarist and Osbourne's close friend Billy Morrison, Tool singer Maynard James Keenan, and record producer Andrew Watt. No Escape From Now also filmed footage at Osbourne and Black Sabbath's Back to the Beginning farewell concert earlier this month, a rep for the film said. A rep declined to comment on what changes, if any, would be made to the film in light of Osbourne's death. 'The last six years have been full of some of the worst times I've been through,' Osbourne previously said of the documentary in a statement. 'There's been times when I thought my number was up. But making music and making two albums saved me. I'd have gone nuts without music. My fans have supported me for so many years, and I really want to thank them and say a proper goodbye to them. That is what the Villa Park show [in Birmingham] is about.' The documentary is one of a handful of projects Osbourne had in the works prior to his death at the age of 76, just weeks after his triumphant farewell show in Birmingham, England. The singer's now-posthumous memoir Last Rites, which also focuses on his health issues, is set to publish in October, while a concert film centered on Back to the Beginning will hit the big screen in 2026. Best of Rolling Stone Sly and the Family Stone: 20 Essential Songs The 50 Greatest Eminem Songs All 274 of Taylor Swift's Songs, Ranked Solve the daily Crossword

Drake Honors Ozzy Osbourne at Birmingham Concert
Drake Honors Ozzy Osbourne at Birmingham Concert

Yahoo

time5 days ago

  • Entertainment
  • Yahoo

Drake Honors Ozzy Osbourne at Birmingham Concert

Drake paid tribute to Ozzy Osbourne during his tour stop in the metal legend's hometown of Birmingham, England, on Wednesday evening. The rapper walked out to Black Sabbath's 'Iron Man,' the 1970 hit track about a time-traveling metal monster off Paranoid. Taking the stage, Drake addressed the thousands gathered at Utilita Arena Birmingham, as fan footage captured: 'Hey Birmingham! Rest in peace to the legendary Ozzy Osbourne.' More from Rolling Stone Ozzy Osbourne Documentary 'No Escape From Now' Still Set for Release This Fall Lita Ford Remembers Ozzy Osbourne: 'In Ozzy's Name, Keep Rocking' Ozzy Osbourne's Top Ten Beatles Songs Drake is currently on his U.K. co-headlining Some Special Shows 4 U tour with fellow Canadian musician PartyNextDoor. Earlier on Wednesday, the rapper reportedly poured one out for the Prince of Darkness at a local memorial with some tequila and told a New York Times reporter, 'I just came out to pay respects to someone who lived it to the fullest.' His homage follows the wave of tributes across the music industry as news of Ozzy Osbourne death spread. The beloved frontman died on Tuesday at the age of 76. Through his storied career, Osbourne collaborated and shared the stage with artists across genres from Slash, Elton John, Motörhead, and Madonna, as well as Busta Rhymes, Yungblud, and Post Malone. Duran Duran, who also hail from Osbourne's hometown, reacted to the loss on Instagram, sharing the musician's 1984 mugshot. 'What can you say about Ozzy? Whatever it is, it's in a Brummie accent,' they wrote. 'Hard to imagine a world without him, Ozzy brought so much joy, humour and raw power to the world, in a life of many chapters. Ozzy was a cat who had way more than nine lives.' Best of Rolling Stone Sly and the Family Stone: 20 Essential Songs The 50 Greatest Eminem Songs All 274 of Taylor Swift's Songs, Ranked Solve the daily Crossword

Ozzy Osbourne Shares Health Update Ahead of Final Concert: ‘I'll Do the Best I Can'
Ozzy Osbourne Shares Health Update Ahead of Final Concert: ‘I'll Do the Best I Can'

Yahoo

time09-05-2025

  • Entertainment
  • Yahoo

Ozzy Osbourne Shares Health Update Ahead of Final Concert: ‘I'll Do the Best I Can'

Ozzy Osbourne is doing everything he can to prepare for his final show with Black Sabbath in July. The musician, who is suffering from Parkinson's, told The Guardian in an extensive interview he will perform despite concerns about his heath. 'I'll be there, and I'll do the best I can,' he confirmed. More from Rolling Stone I'm 73. Heavy Metal Just Changed My Life Ozzy Osbourne Doc 'No Escape From Now' to Chronicle Run-Up to Farewell Concert Andrew Watt Defends Rolling Stones' Grammy Win, Previews Lady Gaga's 'Mayhem' The concert, called Back to the Beginning, is set for Villa Park in Birmingham on July 5. It features an all-star supporting lineup of metal bands, including Metallica, Tool, Slayer, and Anthrax, and boasts Tom Morello as its musical director. In the interview, Osbourne noted that the event was conceived by his wife Sharon Osbourne as a way to motivate him. 'You wake up the next morning and find that something else has gone wrong,' the musician recounted. 'You begin to think this is never going to end. Sharon could see that I was in Doom Town, and she says to me, 'I've got an idea.' It was something to give me a reason to get up in the morning. I thought: Oh, fucking hell, she's got an idea. Here we go.' The charity concert will feature the reunion of Black Sabbath's original lineup and is being hailed as Osbourne's final live show. The four original members — Osbourne, guitarist Tony Iommi, bassist Geezer Butler, and drummer Bill Ward — will come back together for the special event. Osbourne told The Guardian the relationship between the musicians is 'like a marriage: you have a row with the wife, but then you make up again.' Iommi added, 'I'm the one that said, 'I don't know if we should do it', because we did a farewell tour and I didn't want to get into that thing like all the other bands are doing, saying it's the last tour and then reappearing again. But I've been convinced, because we're doing it for a reason.' The band has been carefully considering how to stage the concert due to Osbourne's physical limitations. Butler noted, 'I'm already having palpitations. In fact, I had a nightmare last night. I dreamed everything went wrong on stage and we all turned to dust. It's important that we leave a great impression, since it's the final time that people will experience us live. So it has to be great on the night.' Osbourne confirmed that he won't be able to perform a full set. 'We're only playing a couple of songs each,' he said. '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.' The musician also explained that he's been doing extensive preparation to ensure he will be ready. 'I do weights, bike riding, I've got a guy living at my house who's working with me,' he said. 'It's tough – I've been laid up for such a long time. I've been lying on my back doing nothing and the first thing to go is your strength. It's like starting all over again. I've got a vocal coach coming round four days a week to keep my voice going. 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, but the point is I'll be there, and I'll do the best I can. So all I can do is turn up.' Osbourne acknowledged that while he would like to continue performing, this will be the official end of his live career. 'I'd love to say 'never say never', but after the last six years or so … it is time,' he said. 'I lived on the road for 50-odd years, and I've kind of got used to not picking up my bags and getting on the bus again. I don't smoke dope or do any of the rock star lifestyle any more. I'm kind of like a homebody. I never go out. I never hang out in bars – I don't drink. So what the fuck is out there for me? I hate going shopping with my wife. I feel like stabbing myself in the neck after half an hour. But it's time for me to spend some time with my grandkids, I don't want to die in a hotel room somewhere. I want to spend the rest of my life with my family.' Best of Rolling Stone The 50 Greatest Eminem Songs All 274 of Taylor Swift's Songs, Ranked The 500 Greatest Albums of All Time

DOWNLOAD THE APP

Get Started Now: Download the App

Ready to dive into a world of global content with local flavor? Download Daily8 app today from your preferred app store and start exploring.
app-storeplay-store