Alan Sculley at The Vancouver Sun recently caught up with OZZY OSBOURNE. An excerpt from the story is available below:

Ozzy Osbourne Screams On, Untainted By Booze

It's probably an overstatement to say Ozzy Osbourne is a changed man these days.

But one thing that has made a major difference in his life is his decision to quit drinking several years ago. Osbourne has now made two CDs without being clouded by substances: his 2007 release, Black Rain, and his new release, Scream.

He's now embarking on his second tour without his former indulgences, and while he joked that time seems to move more slowly on the road without the partying, he's come to realize what a unique profession he is a part of.

"I mean, rock 'n' roll is getting stoned and getting (bleeping) drunk," said Osbourne, who performs in Vancouver on Nov. 14. "It's part of the job, you know. I suppose for an alcoholic or drug addict, it's the perfect job, you know.

"I don't think you can ever think of another job where you would turn up stoned," he said. "People would go, '(Bleeping) hell, you've got to do surgery today.' "

Of course, rock 'n' roll isn't brain surgery — or so the saying goes. And what Osbourne has discovered is that he can function and be creative without the help of alcohol and drugs. This is the exact opposite of what he believed for most of his career, which stretches back to 1968, when he joined Black Sabbath, the band that helped pioneer heavy metal in the 1970s on albums such as Paranoid and Sabotage.

"I was still under the impression that it was the drinking and drugs that got my creative juices flowing."

Go to this location for the complete story.

As previously reported, Ozzy recently announced a second leg of US dates which will get underway January 16th, 2011 in Omaha, NE. The six-week 2011 trek, part of the multi-platinum Rock & Roll Hall of Fame inductee’s in-progress 18-month world tour, will include a pair of intimate shows: January 26th at the Dodge Theater in Phoenix and February 1st at the Gibson Amphitheatre in Los Angeles.

Ozzy's longtime friend and musical collaborator, SLASH, will open all the concerts on this second leg. Tickets for the Live Nation-produced tour are now on sale. For the most up-to-date on sale information, please visit Ozzy.com.