Ozzy Osbourne is firm: This is really, truly and definitively the final tour for Black Sabbath.
“There is not going to be another Black Sabbath tour. It really is ’The End,’” Mr. Osbourne said in a statement provided to The Washington Times ahead of the band’s performance Sunday at Jiffy Lube Live in Bristow, Virginia, as part of the so-named tour.
It’s a well-deserved final chapter for the English band, which formed in Birmingham in 1968 with guitarist Tony Iommi, bassist Geezer Butler, drummer Bill Ward and, of course, a singer by the given name of John Michael Osbourne.
Mr. Osbourne stepped away from the band in 1979, to be replaced by late vocalist Ronnie James Dio. Mr. Osbourne recorded and performed solo until 1997, when he rejoined the group.
The current lineup is minus Mr. Ward, who reportedly is sitting out due to health issues.
“It’s good to be back with the guys again,” Mr. Osbourne said. “When everything is right, there is nothing like the feeling of a great gig.”
Mr. Osbourne is as infamous for his stage antics and notorious bouts with alcohol and drugs as he is famous for the band’s rock ’n’ catalog that includes “Paranoid,” “Iron Man” and “Crazy Train.” Mr. Osbourne infamously bit the head off a live bat during a performance in the 1970s and was banned from the city of San Antonio for a decade after drunkenly urinating on Alamo memorial in the early ’80s.
However, these days, he is proud of being clean and sober.
“I don’t do drugs anymore, I don’t smoke tobacco anymore, I don’t drink booze anymore,” he said.
The band’s live performance has not suffered.
“We always try and put on a good rock ’n’ roll show. We just play,” he said.
With the help of wife and manager Sharon, he has been able to stay on the wagon. The couple has three children together. The couple starred in its own reality series in the early aughts, “The Osbournes,” along with children Jack and Kelly.
Father and son are currently starring in “Ozzy and Jack’s World Detour” on The History Channel.
Time has its way even with rock stars, and Mr. Osbourne said it was entropy that led to the decision to call this the band’s final curtain call. Mr. Iommi was diagnosed with lymphoma in 2012, which made touring the globe one final time that much more necessary.
“The scare came when Tony was first diagnosed, and I think we all realized that we aren’t getting any younger,” Mr. Osbourne, 67, said.
The music, he said, is what keeps him going — and feeling young.
“Music has been the best thing that’s ever happened to me in my life,” Mr. Osbourne said, adding that music was his balm during some rather difficult young days. “I didn’t do well in school, I’m incredibly dyslexic, I have all these psychological things wrong with me, and so music is the one thing that is free from my soul, and I love doing it when its going right.”
Black Sabbath’s music has influenced dozens of musicians on both sides of the Atlantic. The most curious imitator has been a McDonald’s-themed “tribute band” called Mac Sabbath, whose members perform in the costumes of the burger chain’s famous characters.
“I’ve heard of them, but up until now, I never heard them playing,” Mr. Osbourne said.
After performing in the District Sunday, Black Sabbath will continue on its world tour through the remainder of 2016 and into 2017. Mr. Osbourne and his bandmates will officially bow out after performing at home in Birmingham, England, in February.
Mr. Osbourne plans to continue recording solo after The End tour reaches its conclusion.
“It’s good to end on a high note because Black Sabbath has been through the mill for many years,” Mr. Osbourne said. “It gets up and then it gets crashed down by something happening.
“It’s a lot of fun. It’s what I do. Come along and have fun.”
• Eric Althoff can be reached at twt@washingtontimes.com.
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