Ozzy Osbourne

[|iR|Focalor]

"ONE LAST TIME... THE FINAL SHOW..."

Yeah well... we've all heard that one before. It's always "the last tour"... until the next one happens.

Ozzy Osbourne and Black Sabbath announce final show

At this point, do we even accurately remember when the FIRST TIME that the LAST TIME was supposed to happen? I can't remember if after Randy Rhoads died there was any talk of Ozzy hanging it up. But I do definitely remember that after No More Tears came out in 1991, that tour afterwards was supposed to be his "farewell tour" (the tour itself was called "No More Tours"), which resulted in the 1993 live album Live & Loud, which I thought was a fantastic live album. It really showed just how great of a guitar player Zakk Wylde really was. On the Live & Loud version of Shot in the Dark (originally from The Ultimate Sin, 1986, guitar: Jake E Lee), Zakk played it a tad bit different from Jake E Lee's version, and I always thought Zakk's choice of notes flowed smoother and sounded better.

But then in 1995, he comes out with Ozzmosis. Then the tour after THAT was supposed to be the final tour. Then in 1998 he releases his greatest hits album, Ozzman Cometh, which featured the track that became a hit, Back on Earth. I remember the video got a good amount of play on MTV - the video was a spoof of the old 1922 silent vampire film Nosferatu. The song was actually an unreleased track from the Ozzmosis album, and at the time Ozzman Cometh came out, Zakk Wylde had started his own thing as Black Label Society, so thats when guitarist Joe Holmes joined. I remember seeing Joe Holmes in a live performance Ozzy did on MTV to promote the Ozzman Cometh Greatest Hits album. At that point, Ozzy's voice was GONE. He sounded awful. And I guess they hadn't quite gotten to the point where live digital pitch correction was possible like nowdays, because it sounded BAD. I remember thinking, "God damn, I wish he would've retired, I really don't like remembering him this way."

After that... the 90's were over and I kinda lost interest in Ozzy and lost track of what he was doing. I was a super-duper Ozzy fan in the 90's, collecting all of his albums, listening to them ALL THE TIME. I just looked in my mp3 collection, and I do have the 4 albums that came after Ozzman Cometh (Down to Earth - 2001, Under Cover - 2005, Black Rain - 2007, Scream - 2010), but I honestly couldn't name one single song from any of those albums because I've almost NEVER listened to them.

Part of me wishes he really would've retired for good back in the late 90's. I get why he hasn't. For a musician, music is always there in your head, in your blood, and you can't just turn it off. You can try, but it's still there.

Ozzy ain't getting any younger. He isn't in the best health anymore. Is this "THE LAST" tour, or is this just "the last one... until the next one"... again? I say he'll be back. And this thread is here so that when he does come back, I can point to it and say "Told ya so."

[Puffs]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AgKATgblWZc