Why did Ozzy Osbourne decide to retire from touring in 2018?
No one quite knows how he’s lived to see the day, but Ozzy Osbourne is going at it for one final rodeo with Black Sabbath this summer, and heavy metal fans the world over will be clamouring for those precious tickets to see the Prince of Darkness grace the stage one last time alongside his old bandmate cronies.
However, we have to take the claims that the Back to Beginning mega metal concert in Birmingham’s Villa Park really will be the final farewell with a pinch of salt, as Osbourne has a track record of saying this multiple times before. Cast your minds back as relatively recently as 2018, and we found ourselves facing a largely similar situation with the old school rocker.
Back then, a mere seven years ago, Osbourne claimed it was the end of his touring career when he announced the final foray that was the ‘No More Tours II’ tour. But even that name in itself begged questioning. After all, there had already been a ‘No More Tours’ tour in 1992 when Osbourne had become sick of life on the road.
Clearly, it had been long enough – and let’s face it, he would have been pining for the attention – that whatever reasons Osbourne had held for refusing to tour had melted away in the years since the early 1990s. But then, in 2018, with time and age slowly creeping in as an ever-increasing factor, the Black Sabbath vocal pioneer again decided to call it a day.
What did Ozzy Osbourne say about ‘No More Tours’?
When launching the news of the new version of the tour on February 6th that year, Osbourne said the reason for his fresh commitment was because: “I’m looking at this final tour as being a huge celebration for my fans and anyone who has enjoyed my music over the past five decades,” he explained.
But how could he justify the now redundant statement that his previous ‘No More Tours’ tour was the end of the road then, never mind at this point? In a way, he wormed out of the question by reasoning: “It’s ‘No More Tours’, so I’m just not doing world tours anymore. I’m still going to be doing gigs, but I’m not going on tour for six months at a time anymore. I’d like to spend some time at home.”
All of this lines up on multiple fronts to show why the new Back to Beginning show is less than coincidental. Sharon Osbourne said in 2018 that she was “fucking frightened” of having her rockstar husband around the house more and that “I think I need to get another job.” Except, it seems now that instead of finding herself a new line of work, she’s thrust it on her man instead with his upcoming stadium soiree.
Even if Osbourne and Co do really pack it in after the July gig, it’s fair to say they’ve defined the legacy of sex and drugs and rock and roll forevermore, and so they do deserve to live out their twilight years on the quieter path. Not that you could ever imagine Ozzy Osbourne indulging in retirement in the conventional sense, but if his life of touring is anything to go by, you can be sure he’ll do it in style.
