| You
can tell by looking at many of the song titles on BLACK RAIN—OZZY OSBOURNE’s
first album with new studio material in six years—that the rock legend took a
good look at his own life and the world around him. He also salutes his fans—among the most
devoted in the world—with such songs as “Here For You” and “Lay Your World On
Me.”
Due
out May 22 on Epic Records, BLACK RAIN
finds the two-time Grammy Award winner and Rock and Roll Hall of Fame inductee
as vital, creative and evocative as ever.
You also get the clear sense that he’s operating at the peak of powers,
as a singer and songwriter. OZZY fans can log onto www.ozzy.com
to hear samples of tracks from the album.
OZZY co-produced the album with Kevin Churko
and recorded it with his touring band: Zakk Wylde
(guitar), Mike Bordin (drums) and Blasko (bass). OZZY says that he felt a
new freedom while recording the album at his home studio in Los
Angeles. The result: songs that are not only hard-hitting but adventurously
arranged and sonically fresh. Explains OZZY, “It’s a well-put together album. I think it’s evident that it hasn’t been
just slapped out and put down. I took
my time on the album and Zakk [Wylde] plays some amazing stuff as always.”
OZZY feels BLACK RAIN
is the true follow-up to his classic No More Tears, the 1991 album that
also challenged the expectations of what an OZZY OSBOURNE album should sound
like.
Some of the songs on BLACK RAIN are ominous in their
emotional tone--they examine a world teeming with greed, war, deception, bad
drugs (“11 Silver,” about crystal meth) and environmental havoc. OZZY also zooms in on the overriding
sense of fear and dread that define our times--perpetrated, he feels, by news
programs that make “entertainment” out of terrible news events.
Says OZZY: “I just thought there’s so
much fucking bad news, the only way I can release it is to put it in a
song.” On the other hand, the new
track “Civilize The Universe” offers a sense of hope, as OZZY sings: “I’m
alive/Watching better turn to worse/One more time/Try to civilize the
universe.”
OZZY will support BLACK
RAIN with a world tour beginning in Moscow on May 27 which continues
through July 6. Then starting July
12 in Seattle, he’ll headline the 12th annual OZZFEST tour throughout
America (www.ozzfest.com).
The pioneer and trendsetter has pulled the plug on ticket
prices in America and given the power back to the fans, calling this summer’s
OZZFEST "FreeFest.” That’s right, this
year’s OZZFEST is entirely free for fans, an unprecedented move for an artist
and tour of this stature.
OZZY is being honored in May on VH-1’s
“Rock Honors” telecast. He will
perform three songs on the broadcast including a track from BLACK RAIN. Premiering on
Thursday, May 24 at 9:00 PM ET/PT, “VH1 Rock Honors,” will be taped at the
Mandalay Bay Events Center in Las Vegas on Saturday, May 12.
OZZY’s popularity, creativity and reach
are immeasurable, with recent inductions into both the U.K. Music Hall of Fame (as a solo artist and as a member of Black
Sabbath) in November 2005 and as a member of Black Sabbath in the U.S.
Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in March 2006.
He’s won two Grammy Awards and one Emmy Award, and has a star on
Hollywood Boulevard’s “Walk of Fame.” |
Evan Lamberg
