"A lot of my drinking friends died in their 40's-heart attacks,
one guy's liver exploded. There but for the grace of God go I. Their must be a
guiding star over me" [Ozzy 1996] The year 1991 would mark the beginning of
big changes in Ozzy's life. Ozzy gave sobriety another try, and came out
victorious. It was a combination of domestic situations, hangovers, and many
personal reasons which made him want to try again. He had wanted to quit
drinking every day but was unable to because he'd be feeling too bad from the
day before. He had been to many treatment centers (including multiple stays at
Betty Ford) before. This time he just woke up one day and decided that enough
was enough. Since successfully quitting, he has not had a drink to this day! Now
that he wasn't drinking, Ozzy took his health one step further. He bought a
Lifecycle (which he uses at least 90 minutes a day), starting dieting (he now
avoids eating red meat) and working out. The result was a better looking Ozzy,
both in physical aspects and his on stage performance. He would also begin to
see life in a different light, enjoying life's moments that he had previously
ignored because of being constantly drunk. There would be another change, this
time in his musical direction. Ozzy has said he used to write songs based on
what he thought his fans would like to hear. The album titles were dark. He had
never written or recorded an album sober before. During this alcohol free period
he recorded his next album, "No More Tears", which would be a change
from his previous dark album titles. Heaven" which would be an accurate
portrayal of the cover. The cover showed a tame looking Ozzy with wings, in a
cloudy serene background. The music itself was a pleasant mix of soft ballads
like "Mama I'm Coming Home" (one even your mother would enjoy), to
hard rocking songs like "Hellraiser". It is of interest to note that
Lemmy of Motorhead helped Ozzy write the lyrics to some of the songs (or in the
case of Mama, he wrote all the lyrics). The song "Road to Nowhere"
would describe his life in general, while "Mr. Tinkertrain" would talk
about child molestation issues. Being written in the first person, critics now
claimed Ozzy was promoting child molestation. He would also win a Grammy award
for the song, "I Don't Want to Change the World". This would also be a
first in that it was the first album they made demos of, thus deciding on which
songs to keep and which ones to make changes to. Samples of the untouched,
original songs are available on bootlegs as well. Ozzy surprised everyone by
calling the tour, "No More Tours". In interviews he said that he was
tired of touring and he wanted to spend more time with his family. He was also
suffering bouts of illnesses, canceling shows, and other injuries. The pressures
of touring got to him and he embarked on what was to be his "final
tour". The band now consisted of Zakk on guitar, Randy Castillo on drums
and Mike Inez on bass. During these final tours, some shows were taped and used
in an upcoming commercial video and audio compilation, "Live and Loud"
which was a double album. The CD package also included two stick-on tattoos.
There was much speculation about whether or not this would be the final tour, or
perhaps it was a ploy to get more money. On November 15 of 1992, Ozzy played at
Costa Mesa, California. This was one of the two nightly shows that would be the
last in his tour. Sharon and Ozzy decided it would be cool to invite the other
members of Black Sabbath for a reunion since this would be the end of it all.
All of the members of Black Sabbath agreed, but Ronnie Dio did not. After
playing his songs, the members of Black Sabbath came out and joined Ozzy in
playing four songs: Black Sabbath, Fairies Wear Boots, Iron Man and of course,
Paranoid. The video release of this final show only contains the Black Sabbath
song though. How did the audience react at seeing the original Sabbath members
back together since 1978? They went totally crazy of course. At the end of the
show a fireworks sparkler display went off which proclaimed, "I'll Be
Back". The purpose of having a final show and then saying you'll be back is
beyond me. Being his final tour, sales were high and other artists turned out to
see the madman before he retired, including Vince Neil, Rod Stewart and Nicholas
Cage. When it was all over, so was Ozzy's lifetime of performing.
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