While Ozzy Osbourne officially announced his retirement from touring last year, rumours have persisted that the Prince Of Darkness will play more live shows before all is said and done - not least courtesy of Ozzy himself, who told Metal Hammer in 2023: "I’m getting myself fit...I want to do one more album and then go back on the road.”
Now, Ozzy's wife and manager Sharon has revealed that plans are in place for Ozzy to play two emotional, final farewell shows in his hometown of Birmingham at some point in the future. Speaking on the London stop-off of her Cut The Crap spoken word tour at the Fortune Theatre last night (Monday, January 22), Sharon reiterated that Ozzy will never again tour full-time, but that he will perform again to say goodbye to his fans.
“He won’t tour again but we are planning on doing two more shows to say goodbye as he feels like ‘I have never said goodbye to my fans and I want to say goodbye properly’," Sharon stated, as reported by Rolling Stone.
“We will do it in Aston Villa where Ozzy is from," Sharon continued, possibly suggesting that Ozzy could be lined up to play the midlands football club's Villa Park home stadium. "His voice is still absolutely perfect. And all the time he has been off he still does his singing lessons so his voice is perfect. And he can joke, yeah."
Sharon also confirmed that Ozzy still loves being involved in music as much as ever, noting: “He has all these melodies in his head. Even if you don’t like his music you can’t not like Ozzy, he just draws you in.’"
Ozzy is believed to be releasing a new album at some point this year, continuing what has been a prolific streak for the former Black Sabbath frontman, who released thirteenth solo album Patient Number 9 in 2022 and its predecessor, Ordinary Man, in 2020. Both those albums were produced by Andrew Watt, who will also be helming Osbourne's upcoming - and possibly final - studio record.
Osbourne - who was originally scheduled to be playing October's epic Power Trip festival in California before being forced to pull out - confirmed his retirement from touring in an emotional statement shared in January 2023.
"Never would I have imagined that my touring days would have ended this way," lamented the Double O. "My team is currently coming up with ideas for where I will be able to perform without having to travel from city to city and country to country."
Hopefully, those ideas are soon going to be put into action, and Ozzy will be able to have the career send-off he deserves.
