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Ozzy Osbourne says he still wants to play live

“I’m f*cking not dying…” After cancelling his No More Tours II, The Prince Of Darkness says he still wants to play live.

Ozzy Osbourne says he still wants to play live
Words:
Nick Ruskell
Photo:
Ross Halfin

Ozzy has said he still wants to play live if he can, correcting assumptions that the cancellation of his already much-delayed No More Tours II jaunt meant that he was done.

Speaking on the Ozzy's Boneyard show on SiriusXM, The Prince Of Darkness expanded on the cancellation of the tour because of his health, saying that if he felt up to it, he'd get back onstage. He also impressed that rumours of an impending demise had been greatly exaggerated, saying, “The fucking press drive you nuts. I mean, I looked in a magazine, ‘Ozzy’s on his last legs.’ I’m fucking not dying.”

Addressing whether he'd play live again, Ozzy said, “If I can ever get back to where I can tour again, fine. But right now, if you said to me, ‘Can you go on the road in a month?’ I couldn’t say yes. I mean, if I could tour, I’d tour. But right now I can’t book tours because, right now, I don’t think I could pull them off.

“If I get the okay today, if the doctor said to me today, ‘Oh, you can tour,’ it would take another six months to get it together, you know?" he continued. “The only thing I’ve got that keeps me going is making records. But I can’t do that forever. I gotta get out there.”

The cancelled dates were originally scheduled for 2020, and pushed back due to a mix of his own health and COVID. Speaking to Kerrang! last summer around the release of his Patient Number 9 album, The Double-O admitted things were hard, but that he remains a man who always needs to be doing something.

“The day that that Ozzy Osbourne sits back, you’ll be able to hear the coffin lid being nailed down!” he told us. “My granddaughter Pearl actually said to her dad, Jack, recently, ‘Daddy, how does granddad write these songs?!’ He replied, ‘I don’t know, but he keeps doing it!’

“And I ain’t stopping. I don’t drink. I don’t smoke. I don’t do drugs. This is what I do, man. It’s the only thing I’ve ever had success at. It’s the only thing I want to do. It’s the only thing I’m here for. People might be dropping like flies, but I ain’t dead yet – and I don’t want to die. There’s a fire in my heart that keeps me going on!”

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