USA: New Ozzy Osbourne album could be out next February

Former Black Sabbath frontman Ozzy Osbourne is working on two new albums and the first one could be ready by February next year. Ozzy gave out some details on his new album, during an appearance at the Hard Rock Cafe in New York City's Times Square, where he unveiled Hard Rock's latest Signature Series T-shirt, designed by the "Ironman" himself. The two T-shirts unveiled featured a hand-painted stick figure, that according to Sharon, Ozzy's wife, has been a favourite of his "forever" and something that he tends to draw all over their house. Proceeds from the new Osbourne T-shirt will benefit the Sharon Osbourne Colon Cancer Program at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center, established by Sharon following her own experience with colon cancer. After unveiling the t-shirts, Ozzy and Sharon had a freewheeling conversation with Reuters on a whole range of topics -- from Ozzy's planned new album to how their reality television show might have impacted the lives of their children. Osbourne was cautious about when the new album would be ready, but his wife Sharon, who is also his manager, said "hopefully" it would released next February. The self-proclaimed "Prince of Darkness" said he was working on the two albums with guitarist Zakk Wylde, whose band Black Label Society is one of the main acts in Osbourne's annual hard-rock travelling festival, Ozzfest. "I don't want to release an album if it's not a great album," the 1970s heavy metal pioneer said, declining to give out too many details about the album, "I primarily write an album for myself and then if the world likes it, great. I'm just hoping that I can get a good couple of albums out." Osbourne, the "Godfather of Heavy Metal" who was inducted into the Rock'n'Roll Hall of Fame last year, said he was enjoying playing on the smaller second stage at Ozzfest this year because it allowed him to get closer to the audience. "I look at the audience sometimes and I go 'Do they ever grow up and get older?'" he said, expressing some surprise at his enduring popularity with a whole new generation of fans. "They come, they like it, and they bring their friends and it's really weird," he said, adding, "I'm not complaining." The long-haired singer from Birmingham enjoyed a huge popular revival in recent years as the pater familias of a chaotic family in the TV reality series "The Osbournes" on MTV, which chronicled the ups and downs of his family life, including his wife's battle with colon cancer. Two of the couple's teenage children featured on the show came under intense media scrutiny and both have had much publicized battles with alcohol abuse. But Sharon Osbourne said "The Osbournes" was still the best reality series ever made. She said that Ozzy single-handedly opened the door for all of the people who are doing reality TV now, adding "we were the first, we're the best." Sharon also said that when they started out with "The Osbournes", they thought they would be filming only for three weeks and they didn't realize how it was going to work out. "Nobody knew. It was, we were paving the way. Ozzy was a pioneer with it. We didn't know what was going to happen with it. And good things and bad things, we got out of it," she said. As to how the show might have impacted their children, Sharon added, "It affected the children but look at what happened to my children now -- they're two great, healthy, strong, independent people. They're living a successful life. So ultimately it turned out great for everyone. There's good and bad but let me tell you though, there was more good doing the show. It opened up a lot of doors for all of us." Now, the Osbournes' daughter Kelly is reportedly involved in other reality television shows in England.

ITN Source | August 4, 2006

Tags:. .teenage. .mtv. .figure. .benefit. .affected