Zakk Wylde says that Black Sabbath's farewell Back To The Beginning gig in Birmingham will be "special for everybody", but hopes that it won't be Ozzy Osbourne's final time on stage.
Talking about the Birmingham band's homecoming show, which is set to feature performances from Metallica, Slayer, Mastodon, Alice In Chains, Tool, Guns N' Roses and many more, plus one-off super-groups featuring the likes of Tom Morello, Sammy Hagar, Wolfgang Van Halen, Billy Corgan, Fred Durst and more, Wylde told Riff X's Metal XS show (as reported by Blabbermouth), "Considering all the bands that are on that thing and everybody's gonna be playing Sabbath songs, it's gonna be pretty mindblowing. It's gonna be pretty awesome. And then to see Ozz get up there and do a song with 'em and then watch Sabbath play. I think for all the bands that are gonna be there, 'cause if it wasn't for Sabbath none of us would exist. You know what I mean? So I think it's gonna be special for everybody."
The guitarist also expressed his hope - "you always gotta stay on the bright side of life" - that the show on July 5, which is also intended as Ozzy Osbourne's farewell bow as a solo artist, will not actually be his very final show.
"Hopefully we'll just do this, and then Ozz will go, 'Let's just fire up the machine again and we'll do another tour.' You know what I mean?" he says. "With Ozz and his throne that just flies over the stadium or whatever - shoots out buckets of water and does everything like that. So, yeah, if Ozz has a great time, whatever, and it's just, like, 'I wanna go out on the road again,' it's like, Good. Let's do it again."
"I mean, what else is he gonna do?" Wylde continues. "It's like Keith Richards said. He [was asked], 'When are you going to retire?' He goes, 'Retire from what?' If you like reading a book and having a cup of coffee, it's, like, why am I retiring from this? I enjoy it. I play music. I mean, what am I retiring from? It's something I enjoy, something I love doing. So hopefully that's what happens."
Osbourne's producer, collaborator and sometime guitarist Andrew Watt says that the Prince of Darkness has been hitting the gym as the countdown to July's Back To The Beginning show continues.
Speaking to US broadcaster Howard Stern on Stern's SiriusXM, Watt discussed working with Ozzy, and says that the singer's voice is "as good as it's ever been."
"He's okay," Watt stated. "His body is not doing what doing what he wants it to do all the time, but I talked to him a couple of days ago, and he's starting to get in the gym again a little, to get himself ready for this last concert. He is the real life Iron Man. And nothing has happened to his voice, his voice is as good as it's ever been."
Watch Zakk Wylde chose his five favourite guitar riffs of all time exclusively for Metal Hammer, below.
