OZZY OSBOURNE Confirms One More BLACK SABBATH Album And Tour - "I Hope BILL WARD Can Get His Stuff Together To Do This"
October 23, 2014, 10 years ago
Esquire.com recently spoke with Ozzy Osbourne about his plans for next year, and he reflected on his troubled past, expressed his desire to have Bill Ward return as Sabbath's drummer, and shared his feelings about Miss Piggy. An excerpt follows:
Esquire: So you've gotten back with Black Sabbath again and you're doing Ozzfiesta, but putting the solo career on hold?
Ozzy: "I'm not one of these guys to do my solo stuff one night and Black Sabbath the next. I can't do that, you know. It's too much to handle. So with the Black Sabbath thing, the record company wants us to do one more record, and we've decided to do one more tour, and at the end of the tour we just disband and I go back to doing my solo stuff. And that's why I released Memoirs Of A Madman, to let people out there know I'm still functioning as a solo artist."
Esquire: And you will go back to recording as a solo artist in the future?
Ozzy: "Absolutely! What I'm really happy about is, if this is Black Sabbath's last hurrah, then we'll have ended it on an up note rather than when I left in 1979 and everybody was fucked up on one thing or another and I was marked out as being the worst, you know. It ended on a bad note, so... The only thing sad about it is I hope Bill Ward can get his stuff together to do this because... one of the biggest things I'm proud of in my life was that Black Sabbath wasn't a band that was created by some business mogul in London or New York. That we were four guys who had a great idea and it worked from record one, and we still... Would you believe that it took 45 years to get our first number-one album in America? It was amazing to me."
Esquire: And you deserve all the accolades that came with 13. Do you think that you'll repeat that success on this next album?
Ozzy: "You know what? We never thought it could with the last one. But you know, Rick Rubin, who produced it, for years he would see me and say, "Don't forget, if you ever get back with Black Sabbath, I want to produce the album." And when we did that album, he said, "Just forget the word 'heavy metal.' Just remember the first album." I go "What the hell's he on about, the first album?" 'Cause the first album, for us, well for me, was like a live album."
Esquire: What was the process like for the first 1970 album?
Ozzy: "We'd never recorded in a recording studio before. We pulled up, took our gear in, played. Twelve hours it was done. Lo and behold, January comes around, the record comes out, and it's like a major hit. From that moment on my life forever changed. And so I'm really proud of the way it happened because it was no hype. Black Sabbath wasn't like the Bon Jovis of the time. We were just a bunch of guys that were against the grain of society. And we sung about things that people thought back then. But now everyone knows the drugs and war and all that shit, you know?"
Esquire: Have you started writing songs for the new Black Sabbath album?
Ozzy: "No. Although I texted [guitarist] Tony [Iommi] the other day. I said, "It would be a great idea if you could send me some musical ideas so I can try and work some melodies around so we don't have to go searching for the song structure." So I'm not starting from a cold block, you know?"
Read the complete interview at Esquire.com.
Ozzy can add a few more #1’s to his career. His Memoirs Of A Madman DVD (Epic Records/Legacy Recordings), entered the Nielsen Soundscan charts at #1 in the US, while also landing at the top of the charts in Sweden, Finland, and Canada. The DVD offers fans of the multi-platinum recording artist, Rock & Roll Hall Of Fame inductee and three-time Grammy winning singer and songwriter hours of entertainment from Ozzy's distinguished solo career.
Memoirs Of A Madman (CD) serves as a career spanning audio release, featuring 17 of Ozzy’s greatest hit singles compiled in one place for the first time in his career and is available in a single CD, two-LP set and two-LP picture disc set configurations.
The Memoirs Of A Madman (DVD) is a definitive visual two-disc DVD set which includes classic music videos, along with unreleased and out-of-print live performances, plus interviews from his solo career. Both sets offer fans of the multi-platinum recording artist, Rock & Roll Hall of Fame inductee and three-time Grammy winning singer and songwriter hours of entertainment from Ozzy’s distinguished solo career.
The tracklisting is as follows:
"Crazy Train""Mr. Crowley"
"Flying High Again"
"Over The Mountain"
"Bark At The Moon"
"The Ultimate Sin"
"Miracle Man"
"No More Tears" (edit)
"Mama, I’m Coming Home"
"Road To Nowhere"
"Perry Mason"
"I Just Want You"
"Gets Me Through"
"Dreamer"
"I Don’t Wanna Stop"
"Life Won’t Wait"
"Let Me Hear You Scream"
Details on the Memoirs Of A Madman 2 DVD are as follows:
DVD One features more than two dozen of Ozzy’s classic and unforgettable music videos from across his discography, including a bonus alternate version of “Mama, I’m Coming Home” and making-of footage from the videos “Let Me Hear You Scream” and “Life Won’t Wait”.
DVD Two features live performances and interview clips spanning Ozzy’s solo journey, much of which makes its debut on DVD. Some selections have appeared on long out-of-print VHS releases; others will be seen here for the first time, making this an essential package for fans old and new. Ozzy’s union of music and visuals could not be more perfect, and the Memoirs Of A Madman DVD showcases that to brilliant effect.
The Memoirs Of A Madman DVD tracklisting is as follows:
DVD 1 - The Music Videos:
"So Tired"
"The Ultimate Sin"
"Lightning Strikes"
"Crazy Train"
"Miracle Man"
"Crazy Babies"
"Breaking All The Rules"
"No More Tears"
"Mama, I’m Coming Home"
"Mr. Tinkertrain"
"Time After Time"
"Road To Nowhere"
"I Don’t Want To Change The World" (Live)
"Changes"
"Perry Mason"
"I Just Want You"
"See You On The Other Side"
"Back On Earth"
"Gets Me Through"
"Dreamer"
"In My Life"
"I Don’t Wanna Stop"
"Let Me Hear You Scream"
"Life Won’t Wait"
"Let It Die"
Bonus:
The Making of "Let Me Hear You Scream"
The Making of "Life Won’t Wait"
DVD 2:
Rochester, NY 1981
"Suicide Solution"
"Mr. Crowley"
"Crazy Train"
Ozzy’s Bunker - Albuquerque, NM 1982
MTV 1982 - New York, NY 1982
Ozzy’s Bunker - Entertainment USA 1984
Kansas City, MO 1986 (Jake E Lee, Phil Soussan, Randy Castillo)
"Bark At The Moon"
"Never Know Why"
Ozzy’s Bunker
"Thank God For The Bomb"
"Secret Loser"
Ozzy’s Bunker - Philadelphia, PA 1989 (Zakk Wylde, Geezer Butler, Randy Castillo)
"Tattooed Dancer"
"Miracle Man"
MTV 1989:
Marquee, UK 1991 (Zakk Wylde, Mike Inez, Randy Castillo)
Studio 1992 - San Diego, CA 1992 (Zakk Wylde, Mike Inez, Randy Castillo)
"I Don’t Want To Change The World"
"Road To Nowhere"
Japan 1992:
Ozzy’s Bunker
Studio 1992
MTV 1992
Studio 1992 - Ozzmosis Recording Session 1995
Ozzfest 1996 (Joe Holmes, Robert Trujillo, Mike Bordin)
Fame & Fortune
Tokyo, Japan 2001 (Zakk Wylde, Robert Trujillo, Mike Bordin)
Fame & Fortune
Ozzfest 2007 (Zakk Wylde, Blasko, Mike Bordin)
Black Rain Photo Shoot
Las Vegas, NV 2007 (Zakk Wylde, Blasko, Mike Bordin, Adam Wakeman)
Scream Recording Session 2010:
London, England 2010 (Gus G, Blasko, Tommy Clufetos, Adam Wakeman)
Bonus:
Philadelphia, PA 1989 (Zakk Wylde, Geezer Butler, Randy Castillo)
"Flying High Again"Tokyo, Japan 2001 (Zakk Wylde, Robert Trujillo, Mike Bordin)
Trailer:
Video teaser:
Clips of former Ozzy guitarist Zakk Wylde, bassist Blasko, and drummer Tommy Clufetos discussing the release can be viewed below:
