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… And on the seventh day, the Ozzman rested.
Just not on this seventh day.
No, this Sunday, Ozzy Osbourne and his Black Sabbath bandmates, Tony Iommi and Geezer Butler, will be playing in Utah for the final time, as their retirement tour — appropriately if predictably dubbed "The End" — makes a stop at Usana Amphitheatre in West Valley City.
In a wide-ranging Q&A done with media members before the tour's start earlier this year, Osbourne and Butler said the combined euphoria over the success of their most recent studio album (2013's "13") and acknowledgment of the problematic nature of their age and health (Iommi had recently undergone cancer treatments) convinced them all it was time for the band to call it a day.
"We really wanted to end it on a high note. With the album '13' going No. 1 — which was our first No. 1 album ever in the United States, both me solo and me Black Sabbath — we thought it would be a nice way to end this right now," Osbourne said. "… I mean, you can't do it forever. If you're not careful, you'd become, 'Oh, it's them again,' you know. It just felt right for me."
Butler, Sabbath's bassist and primary lyricist, took a circumspect and logical view of the curtain finally falling upon what is arguably heavy metal's greatest act.
"I realized on the '13' tour that we couldn't do it for much longer. So the natural thing to do is to all agree on one last tour," he said. "And once we agreed on one last tour, that was it. … We all agreed that there won't be any more Sabbath after this. It's like a natural progression kind of thing; a natural end to the band."
Of course, "a natural end to the band" seems a positively unnatural concept for a group long thought associated with dark, supernatural forces.
"People that hear our name, hear the name 'Black Sabbath,' they automatically assume that it's about Satanism and all this kind of crap," Butler lamented.
Well there goes that.
Should you need your mystical, dark-magic bubble further burst, just ask the alleged devil-worshipers how they spend their downtime between tour stops together.
Ritual sacrifices? Biting the heads off bats, perhaps?
"We have nice cups of tea together now," Butler offered.
"And cookies," added Osbourne. "Believe me, I never thought that they'd be calling me and say, 'Let's have tea.' That's crazy, you know. What's happened to rock and roll?"
It got old, apparently.
A natural side effect of that, though, is to start considering the issue of legacy. Osbourne contends the idea of evaluating his and Sabbath's impact on rock and roll and heavy metal is, for him, not only a relatively recent phenomenon, but also a nearly unfathomable idea.
"When I used to go to the Ozzfest, fans would come to me and go, 'I love Sabbath.' And you don't realize the impact you have," he said. "I suppose that's a good thing. … It took me a while to get my head around the fact that people actually love what we do, what you did as kids, because you don't think that."
The singer was similarly reflective about his second chance with the band, noting that when he was fired from Sabbath in the 1970s for his substance abuse, it was virtually unthinkable that, four decades later, he'd be joining Butler and Iommi for a metaphorical curtain call.
"I mean, Black Sabbath has been through the mill over the years. To come back and be friends with my buddies who I started up with all those years ago, it's a closure for me to have a chapter of my life which I can say, 'Well we came, we saw, we had a good time, and now it's over,' " Osbourne said. "And so it's like any relationship. I'm glad we ended up having more or less whatever has gone on between us over the years. We've got rid of all that. And we are friends again. I mean, it's good that, at the end of my days on this planet, I can say, 'Well, we ended OK,' you know."
Whether longtime Sabbath drummer Bill Ward shares that glass-half-full assessment is dubious. He has not been part of the tour for reasons that vary depending upon who's giving them — Ozzy, Iommi and Butler say Ward's health could not withstand the rigors of touring, while the drummer has said the issue is really the other three offering him an insulting and untenable contract. Regardless, Osbourne's solo-band drummer, Tommy Clufetos, is manning the kit, and Ward maintains he will not be making any surprise appearances, even for Sabbath's final performance Feb. 4 in their native Birmingham, England.
He is done. And before long, so too will be the others.
This Sunday will yield a show heavy on tracks from Sabbath's first three albums, as will all others on the tour.
As for what comes after "The End," well again, the answer is different depending on who's answering.
"I haven't thought about it," replied the perpetually straightforward Butler. "I'm just taking it one day at a time."
Well then, what say you, Ozzy?
"I'm not going to sit with my slippers on and going, 'I'm retired,' " Osbourne said. "We're just going to go in different directions, I suppose."
You see? The Ozzman is still not resting.
Twitter: @esotericwalden —
It's 'The End' with Black Sabbath
With Rival Sons
When • Sunday night; doors at 6 p.m., show at 7:30
Where • Usana Amphitheatre, 5125 S. 6400 West, West Valley City
Tickets • $26.25-$149.50; Smith's Tix, Usana box office