OZZY OSBOURNE Doesn't Rule Out Future BLACK SABBATH Activity

July 6, 2006

Ozzy Osbourne recently spoke to Paul Saitowitz of The Press-Enterprise about his participation in the 11th rendition of Ozzfest, the traveling metal circus helmed by his wife, Sharon. And though this is the first time he will not be included on all dates, hanging it up is the furthest thing from his mind.

"No way, man, this is not a retirement thing at all," Osbourne said over the phone minutes before joining his band for a pre-festival rehearsal. "I've never really taken time off before, and touring in the summer gives me trouble with allergies, so I thought I'd relax a bit."

Instead of making fans wait 12 hours to catch him at the end of the night, this time around the "Prince of Darkness" will take the stage by day. He'll be out there with the sweaty, tattooed, screaming metal-core outfits — ATREYU, UNEARTH — playing on the second stage before the sun goes down.

"It's going to be crazy but that's what I'm all about, brother," Osbourne said. "I want to give people the chance to see me and my band up close ... the crazier the better, as long as no one gets hurt and people behave themselves."

According to Ozzy, Ozzfest fans will see a lot of his classic solo material and sadly just one BLACK SABBATH effort. Osbourne fronted BLACK SABBATH from its inception until he left to go solo in 1979, then reunited with them in the early '90s. The group has headlined three Ozzfests.

"I'm only playing one SABBATH song and I'm not saying what it is, but I'm also not saying that you've seen the last of SABBATH," he said. "We may get together again, but for now it's the solo stuff, which is a completely different animal."

Comments Disclaimer And Information

BLABBERMOUTH.NET uses the Facebook Comments plugin to let people comment on content on the site using their Facebook account. The comments reside on Facebook servers and are not stored on BLABBERMOUTH.NET. To comment on a BLABBERMOUTH.NET story or review, you must be logged in to an active personal account on Facebook. Once you're logged in, you will be able to comment. User comments or postings do not reflect the viewpoint of BLABBERMOUTH.NET and BLABBERMOUTH.NET does not endorse, or guarantee the accuracy of, any user comment. To report spam or any abusive, obscene, defamatory, racist, homophobic or threatening comments, or anything that may violate any applicable laws, use the "Report to Facebook" and "Mark as spam" links that appear next to the comments themselves. To do so, click the downward arrow on the top-right corner of the Facebook comment (the arrow is invisible until you roll over it) and select the appropriate action. You can also send an e-mail to blabbermouthinbox(@)gmail.com with pertinent details. BLABBERMOUTH.NET reserves the right to "hide" comments that may be considered offensive, illegal or inappropriate and to "ban" users that violate the site's Terms Of Service. Hidden comments will still appear to the user and to the user's Facebook friends. If a new comment is published from a "banned" user or contains a blacklisted word, this comment will automatically have limited visibility (the "banned" user's comments will only be visible to the user and the user's Facebook friends).