OZZY OSBOURNE: I Never Fired ZAKK WYLDE

Carol Anne Szel of Goldmine magazine recently conducted an interview with legendary heavy metal singer Ozzy Osbourne. A few excerpts from the chat follow below.

On his new solo album, "Scream":

"I've never spent that much time on any record I've ever made. We started it about a year and a half ago. I mean, we didn't do it for a year and a half every day. We'd go in. Do a bit. Then do something else and go back to it."

"In the past we'd find a place to go and start to play with my band and just jam when we feel like jamming. But on this one, (with producer) Kevin Churko, we laid the foundations and my band played against the foundations. So I kind of lose a spiritual charge kind of thing, when you build it the way they do it now. I'm not disappointed. I'm really pleased with the way it turned out. But to me, I like to get the band thing, you know, rather than put the band on afterwards."

"It's an Ozzy album, but he (Churko) worked the buttons and pushed the knobs and got the sounds. With Kevin, I was under the impression that you can't get a heavy sound on digital. But that's bullshit because the stuff on this album is very, very heavy."

On the topic of music and the direction the industry is taking:

"Well, that's a good question, because I'm fucked if I know. There are times when I walk around with my head in my rear end."

"I was out on Sunset (Strip) a while ago with [wife/manager] Sharon, where there's a bookshelf, where I always get the British newspapers. And I said, 'Let's go to Tower Records and see if they've got the new Sheryl Crow record.' So I go in, and it's empty at, like, 3 o'clock, 4 o'clock in the afternoon. I said, 'Do you have the Sheryl Crow?' And he said, 'Yeah I've got lots of them; how many do you want?' I didn't understand what he was trying to get at. Then the following week, it was gone. That's what's happening. Everyone's gone from reality to unreality in the respect that they all want to sit in their fucking houses now on their computers. So everybody has gone inward into their cave, if you like. We have to go to the fuckin' JC Penney and all that shit and to coffee shops now to buy music, which is kind of sad. It's probably a similar thing when silent movies went over to talkie movies. All of the sudden, it kind of disappeared."

On what musicians today have to go through:

"I was also shocked to find out what young bands have to do now when they get signed to a record company. They take part of their publishing, their concessions, their gig money. It's, like, ridiculous. At the same time I've been so lucky to have my career. I've had such good fortune. I'm just plodding on, you know. People say, 'Are you retiring?' But the thing is, I'm not getting any younger. And if the crowd starts to thin, diminish, then I'll see it as a sign that it's time to hang up my microphone. I don't want to go from arenas to bars, you know?"

On the reason for his longevity:

"I don't know. I don't particularly want to know. But I'm glad. I was thinking if somebody like JOURNEY, or somebody like that … I mean, they used to fill football stadiums. Some bands end up playing in small clubs. I can't do that."

On the departure of guitarist Zakk Wylde:

"It's not changed that much, apart from the fact that I thought I was beginning to sound like, um … what's his band called? Zakk's band. My brain, it just started on the left side. BLACK LABEL SOCIETY. I started to sound like BLACK LABEL SOCIETY."

"I don't want anyone to think for one minute that I fired him. I never fired him. He never left. There was nothing to leave. Because all he was doing was his gig and mine. It kind of got to us crashing into each other. But I had to let go, because it's me rather than him."

On new guitarist Gus G.:

"Just give Gus a chance, 'cause there was a time when Zakk was a new guy. Jake E. Lee was a new guy. Randy Rhoads was a new guy. Give him a chance; just check him out. Don't expect Zakk, because he ain't Zakk."

On his son Jack's upcoming documentary on Ozzy:

"I said 'Jack, don't just do things that make me look like a fuckin' saint. I'm not a saint.' Because, you know, you see some guy on the biography channel or something, and they'll say how wonderful he is. Well, even Jesus Christ wasn't always wonderful. Isn't there one time when he goes 'Fuck, I don't feel like giving a speech on this mountain?'"

Read the entire interview from Goldmine magazine.