OZZY OSBOURNE On BILL WARD: ‘It Would Be Great To Have Him Back’
BLACK SABBATH singer Ozzy Osbourne held a press teleconference on July 10 with around two dozen writers to discuss the band's recently released comeback album, "13", and the upcoming North American tour. A few excerpts from the chat follow below.
On performing new songs alongside BLACK SABBATH classics on the current tour:
Ozzy: "We recently went to New Zealand, Australia, and Japan, and we did a couple of the new songs. We said they're all new. God, you'd think it had been released as a single or a first track off album, and so that… I remember when we played two shows in Auckland, New Zealand. The first night they didn't really respond much to it. The second night they're all singing the lyrics with me. I'm going, I can't even remember them that good. I mean, it's good for us as well to do new stuff, because you know, we're all tuned into 'Iron Man', 'War Pigs', 'Paranoid', and all of the old classics, but instead, it gives us as a band something refreshing to put into the show, and so I'm just glad that people have bought into the new songs."
On whether BLACK SABBATH made a conscious effort during the writing process for "13" to come up with vocal lines that Ozzy could reproduce live:
Ozzy: "Well, after keeping the people waiting for as long as we did, I certainly — I can still get the range, but I can't do it