Ozzy Osbourne to move back to UK as "everything's f***ing ridiculous" in the US

Ozzy Osbourne has said that divisions in US society are what's behind his move back home to the UK. Speaking to The Observer, the Black Sabbath legend says that the relocation isn't promoted by his ill health, but by problems in The US.

“America has changed so drastically," says Ozzy. "It isn’t the United States of America at all. Nothing’s united about it. It’s a very weird place to live right now.

“Everything’s fucking ridiculous there. I’m fed up with people getting killed every day. God knows how many people have been shot in school shootings. And there was that mass shooting in Vegas at that concert… It’s fucking crazy."

Ozzy goes on to explain that when it's finally time for the Prince Of Darkness to retreat from the light, he'd rather be on home soil.

"I don’t want to be buried in fucking Forest Lawn,” he says of the Hollywood cemetery where the likes of Walt Disney, Michael Jackson, Sam Cooke, Sammy Davis Jr. and Nat King Cole are interred. “I’m English. I want to be back. But saying that, if my wife said we’ve got to go and live in Timbuktu, I’ll go. But, no, it’s just time for me to come home."

According to Architectural Digest, Ozzy and Sharon Osbourne's mansion in the Los Angeles neighbourhood of Hancock Park is currently on the market for $18 million.

Elsewhere in the Observer interview, Ozzy talks about his battles with Parkinson's, his surgeries, and his return to the stage at the closing ceremony of this year's Commonwealth Games, where he hooked up with Tony Iommi to perform the Black Sabbath classic Paranoid.

"I said to Sharon: ‘I can’t fucking perform’, Ozzy says. "She said: ‘Are you sure?’ And I thought about it, and I thought: ‘Fuck it, I’m gonna go for it.’ It’s one song – and I’ve sung it every fucking night for the last 55 years, so it’s not like I’m going to forget the fucking words!”

Ozzy Osbourne talks in detail about the making of his new Patient Number 9 album in the new issue of Classic Rock. It's in UK stores now, and is also available to buy online.

Online Editor at Louder/Classic Rock magazine since 2014. 40 years in music industry, online for 27. Also bylines for: Metal Hammer, Prog Magazine, The Word Magazine, The Guardian, The New Statesman, Saga, Music365. Former Head of Music at Xfm Radio, A&R at Fiction Records, early blogger, ex-roadie, published author. Once appeared in a Cure video dressed as a cowboy, and thinks any situation can be improved by the introduction of cats. Favourite Serbian trumpeter: Dejan Petrović.