Ozzy Osbourne was “born nervous”.
The Prince of Darkness will bring the curtain down on his legendary career with the Back To The Beginning show at Birmingham’s Villa Park on July 5 – where he will reunite with his original Black Sabbath bandmates Tony Iommi, Geezer Butler and Bill Ward – and confessed that he would be feeling anxious even if was just a “regular gig”.
Ozzy told Mojo magazine: “Even if it was a regular gig, I would be a nervous wreck. I was born nervous.
“Right now, I’m feeling grateful and proud and I’m sure I’ll be feeling dozens more emotions on the day of the show.”
The gig is particularly poignant for Ozzy as he grew up near Aston Villa’s stadium and would often hang around the ground during matches.
The 76-year-old singer said: “Aston made me who I am. Being born there taught me so many things about life. It gave me ambition.
“I grew up close to Villa Park and when the Villa were playing home matches, me and my mates would go down to the ground and offer to mind people’s cars while the match was on, for a shilling.
“Eventually, we thought to offer to wash the cars for more money. The first car I washed was with a Brillo pad, so you can imagine the outcome. That was a clue that it was my time to move on to other things.”
The gig will mark the first time that Black Sabbath’s original line-up will have played together for 20 years but Ozzy insists that it will be the definitive end for the Paranoid rockers.
The heavy metal icon, who was diagnosed with Parkinson’s disease in 2019, said: “After this show, I’m going home, closing the door and will look back upon the great career I’ve had. But I’m done, done, done! You gotta know when to call it quits.”
Ozzy says that it is particularly special that Ward will be part of the performance after the drummer wasn’t involved in the making of Black Sabbath’s final EP The End, which was released back in 2016.
He said: “It’s very important that Bill is a part of this show. My career started with Bill, and I’d really like to finish with Bill by my side.”