Ozzy Osbourne has been rocking this earth with a 50 year career that spans both the game changing sound of Black Sabbath and his eccentric solo career. No More Tours 2 celebrates this massive career as it is the last grand tour for the Ozzman. Osborne is also well known for starting the career of one of the greatest guitarists of all time, Zakk Wylde. Opting to bring Wylde with him on this last hurrah goes to signify the staple that is the catalogue of music performed and composed by Osbourne and Wylde. Ozzy Osborne debuted as the singer of Black Sabbath in 1970 when the band dropped their first album. After tension arose with the band, Ozzy decided to have what would be an illustrious solo career. Unfortunately after the first two solo albums, Blizzard of Ozz and Diary of a Madman, Ozzy guitarist Randy Rhoades died in a plane crash leaving the Crazy Train and company derailed. Ozzy would turn to Ratt guitarist Jack E. Lee for the next two albums, Bark at the Moon and The Ultimate Sin. After the two Lee albums, Osbourne felt he needed a new guitarist and practically picked up Zakk Wylde off the streets at an audition. For a near consistent 20 years, Wylde and Osbourne wrote, recorded, and performed together. They would part ways after the Black Rain album and tour as to Osbourne in regards to the sound of his band, “began to sound too much like Black Label Society”. Black Label Society being Wylde’s other band that he performs vocals and guitar for. During the ten year gap, Osbourne released a new album with guitarist Gus G, as well as reuniting with Black Sabbath for a new album and tour, and then a farewell tour with Black Sabbath. After the farewell tour for Black Sabbath, Osbourne announced he would be reuniting with Zakk Wylde for a new tour. It would later be announced that this would be Ozzy’s last world tour as he plans to slow down in his winter years. It was a wet Friday night September 28th at the Cynthia Woods Mitchell Pavilion at the Woodlands just north of Houston. Opening act Stone Sour would take the stage putting on a good show to get the crowd warmed up. Stone Sour is fronted by Slipknot singer Corey Taylor as his second band (or first band depending on how you look at it, Taylor founded Stone Sour before joining Slipknot for which Slipknot had wider success) has a more tamed, alternative sound. Corey Taylor shows his great showmanship here as he is all over the stage having fun as best as he can. Stone Sour kept it safe, as they should, playing their hits for those in the crowd who have possibly never heard of them. Playing the likes of Absolute Zero, Through Glass, Song #3, Bother, and so on. No doubt Corey Taylor and Stone Sour have a lot more fun with themselves than the serious, foreboding sound and stage presence of Slipknot. Stone Sour put on a great show and fulfilled their role as opening band to Ozzy Osbourne. Before the last song, Taylor gave a great long winded thank you to Ozzy as the man who inspired his career. Before Ozzy and company came on stage, a video was played of all kinds of various clips of Osbourne from different appearances from his live performances, music videos, TV appearances, and movie appearances. This homage of course to his great 50 year career. It was then that the band came out and opened with Bark at the Moon, a great song to start the night with. Overall a great song selection throughout the evening. The Ozzman I do not deny can still sing. He has proven that in his recent studio releases as well as his tours with Black Sabbath. One thing is certain, he is not quite the showman that he used to be. He can command the crowd and have fun with everyone, but doesn’t leave the mic stand all too often. At this point, I completely understand. Ozzy was very much the same way the two times I saw him with Black Sabbath prior to this show. Age is just a number as long as you can perform well. Ozzy performed well, he just was not as great a showman. Now this is where Zakk Wylde comes in. Zakk Wylde being the massive guitarist and Viking wannabe that he is, lost in his long locks of hair head banging while wearing a kilt, carries the show with his stage presence. The man is a great guitarist, up there with all those that precede him. Only real flaw with the show is how long the “intermission” went. No, there was no actual intermission, but it was for Ozzy himself. I picked up on this strategy Ozzy uses when I saw Black Sabbath. In Sabbath, halfway through the show, all the 60-something founding members leave off stage to let their 30-something drummer bang out a solo for around fifteen minutes so that the more seasoned guys get a break. I understand and have no problem with this as long as I can experience the band perform, especially when the solo is phenomenal. Ozzy did more or less the same thing during this show on his farewell tour, but instead used the Wylde Man to perform his solo. I am always down and ready to witness Zakk Wylde shred his heart out, which he did during this performance, and amongst the crowd, and behind his back, and with his teeth. My issue during this “intermission” is that it did for a minute seem to go on for a while, as it went back and forth between Wylde and drummer Tommy Clufetos. Wylde shredded hard, but I was disappointed when he did a medley of Ozzy songs during the solo. Loved the fact that he played them, but hearing the melodies of Miracle Man, Crazy Babies, and Perry Mason made me wish Ozzy would come out to perform them. In the end, I realize the medley was for the best as they couldn’t fit all these songs in the set list and all the songs in the medley were composed by Wylde, songs he will probably never perform to crowds like this again. Great show nonetheless, I would recommend the show to anyone and would go again. The set composed of some of his greatest hits including those of his Black Sabbath catalogue. The show closed with Ozzy egging on the crowd to chant one more song in which Osbourne closed with the Black Sabbath song Paranoid. I remember one time reading an interview with Ozzy about how much he loves the song Paranoid and considers that his favorite anthem of all time, a song he will perform at every show he does. A very fitting end to the show with a song that defined his career. I believe the stars aligned for me with this show as it was the third time I had seen Zakk Wylde and Ozzy Osbourne perform, but the first time I have seen them together. I saw Ozzy with Black Sabbath twice and have seen Black Label Society twice before. The first time I saw BLS was my first show ever when they opened for Judas Priest at the exact same venue this show was at. I enjoyed Ozzy on his farewell tour. As of this moment, he had to cancel his remaining U.S. tour dates due to a hand infection and plans to reschedule those dates. I wish him a speedy recovery and a great rest of the tour. (Writer’s Note: I wrote this article both while listening to the album Bark at the Moon and having The Exorcist playing in the background. The Exorcist being Ozzy and Zakk’s favorite horror film. Happy Halloween!) Written by: Jed Ullrich