Long before the hit TV show or the rise of Ozzfest, years before he'd pulled a "Who's Next" on the Alamo or chomped the heads off any unsuspecting winged creatures, Ozzy Osbourne had secured his place in music history as the singer for the most important heavy metal group the world will know, Black Sabbath.

		OZZFEST Where: Post-Gazette Pavilion. When: 9 a.m. Saturday Tickets: $30.25 to $100.25; 412-323-1919. Related article Metal band loses the paint and finds more hooks on 'lost and found' Ozzfest lineup: SECOND STAGE 9:20 a.m.: Trivium 9:45 a.m.: The Black Dahlia Murder 10:10 a.m.: The Haunted 10:35 a.m.: Bury Your Dead 11 a.m.: Wicked Wisdom 11:25 a.m.: Gizmachi 11:50 a.m.: Soilwork 12:15 p.m.: It Dies Today 12:40 p.m.: Arch Enemy 1:05 p.m.: A Dozen Furies 1:40 p.m.: Mastodon 2:15 p.m.: As I Lay Dying 2:50 p.m.: Killswitch Engage 3:45 p.m.: Rob Zombie MAIN STAGE 4:35 p.m.: In Flames 5:05 p.m.: Black Label Society 5:55 p.m.: Shadows Fall 6:45 p.m.: Mudvayne 8:05 p.m.: Iron Maiden 9:30 p.m.: Black Sabbath

Even now, as Ozzy celebrates the 10th anniversary of what's become the hottest touring festival in music history, after several multi-platinum albums as a solo act and years of Sabbath-snubbing by the Anti-Metal Hall of Fame, the singer says he's constantly reminded that his legend rests primarily on those first few classic albums he cut at the helm of this year's Ozzfest headliners, Black Sabbath.

They formed on the mean streets of Birmingham, England, as The Polka Tulk Blues Company in 1967 and, after having changed their name to Earth, would arrive at the heaviest, scariest, sludgiest sound in rock 'n' roll in an effort at lighting a fire under unresponsive patrons of the Star Club in Hamburg, Germany (where one of Ozzy's favorite bands, the Beatles, had taken a markedly different approach to reviving an audience).

As Ozzy, a charming eccentric who slings the f-word as freely as Vice President Dick Cheney on the Senate floor, recalls, "When we first started writing music, we had no [bleeping] idea at that time that in the '80s, '90s, now 2005, that kids would look upon that as the [bleeping] Holy Grail. I still don't understand when people come up to me and go 'I'm not worthy' or whatever. I'm just baffled by it. And I'm not complaining at all, but when people tell me, 'Man, you were our biggest influence' and I go 'Which part?,' it's always the Black Sabbath thing. I mean, I was solo longer than Black Sabbath. I was 20 years solo and I was with Sabbath for 12 or something."

If you're talking original run.

They've reunited several times since Sabbath showed Ozzy the door back in '79, beginning with Live Aid, which reunited the singer with fellow original members Geezer Butler, Bill Ward and Tony Iommi in 1985. And they did it again to mark the end of Ozzy's so-called "farewell" tour in '92. In '98, "Reunion" hit the streets. Recorded live in Birmingham after a summer spent headlining Ozzfest, the album was certified platinum in the States while bringing in Black Sabbath's first and only Grammy for a new live recording of "Iron Man," practically 30 years after the song first lumbered into view on "Paranoid."

"Reunion" also featured two new studio recordings, but while Ozzy says he'd like to do a full-length studio recording with the band, that recording would have to be perfect.

"The truth of the matter is, we have tried on a couple of occasions, but when we originally wrote, we never tried," Ozzy says. "We just jammed, and it worked. It would take no time at all for us four to go in and make an album. What I'm trying to say here is, if it's not up to the same standard as when I left, why put out an album? I could do any [bleeping] thing and call it Black Sabbath. There's enough of them kind of albums out already, with the people who replaced me and Bill and Geezer along the way. In my opinion, it's gotta be better than anything we've ever done before. I'd love to do a 'Vol. 4' or 'Sabbath Bloody Sabbath' or 'Paranoid' or whatever. If it's meant to be, it's meant to be. But I refuse to do an album just for the sake of calling it 'Black Sabbath' with Tony Iommi, Bill Ward, Geezer Butler and myself and the album not being any [bleeping] good."

It's not that Ozzy doubts his own ability to come up with an album's worth of solid new material. The problem is, his writing style has changed a bit since "Paranoid." Or "Never Say Die," his final album with the group.

"I mean, Black Sabbath is a completely different animal than the Black Sabbath without me or an Ozzy Osbourne album," Ozzy says. "When we did those two songs for the reunion album, the review so rightly said 'One sounds like an Ozzy track and one sounds like a Sabbath-meets-Ozzy track,' because I've developed, I've changed. I'm not just the singer in the band anymore. I've grown a lot, without knowing I've grown a lot. I've never put an album out where I've gone, 'Now, that is perfect.' And usually, what I would call the filler tracks, I guarantee that someone will come up to me and go 'Why don't you ever play so-and-so or so-and-so live?' And I just think, 'You [bleeping] like that?"

Asked to name a favorite Sabbath album, Ozzy says, "I have a favorite Sabbath moment. The first album was great. The second album was even better. Up until 'Sabbath Bloody Sabbath,' it was cool. But we were ripped off by the management, all this legal [expletive], we didn't have a clue what we were [bleeping] doing or whatever. We were a band working to pay our lawyers' fees. And it kind of got sad at that point. I left at one point then rejoined, then they booted me out. We were all [messed] up on dope and all that [expletive]. But the one thing I'm really happy about is that at the end of the day we all got back together, and we're all really more friendly than we have ever been."

But even so, he says, he'd love to get another solo band together. It's a matter of finding a lead guitarist to replace Zakk Wylde, who's playing Ozzfest with his own band, Black Label Society.

"The problem I'm having," Ozzy says, "is finding a [bleeping] guitar player, 'cause Zakk's off and running. I mean, I'm sure if I asked him, he'd drop everything and come with me, 'cause Zakk and his family and my family, we're like a family. So I really am looking for the next guitar player, but I don't know how to do it. I don't know where to go."

You'd think it would be relatively easy for a guy in Ozzy's shoes to find an amazing guitarist. But as Ozzy says, "When I've auditioned players, I have to sit in a [bleeping] room, and half of them just want to meet me, so you get rid of them, and then the other half, that can play, after 80, 90 [bleeping] guitar players, you don't know what the [expletive] you're listening to in the end. And then you pick the guy and you find out he's a [bleeping] Buddhist monk who's not working on Wednesdays or if it's raining or if his wife looks at him with one eye. Or he's a [bleeping] Jesus freak and he didn't really want to play. He just wants to convert you. But I'm sure it will happen eventually.... I hope."

In the meantime, he's writing a musical.

No, really.

"I'm finishing up some music," he says, "for a musical that I've been working on with a friend of mine for the last 10 years. I think I can afford, at this time in my life, to do some experimental [expletive], you know? Like a Broadway show. Not like [bleeping] 'Fiddler on the Roof' or anything. The one I'm doing is about Rasputin, the mad monk."

While there is a certain element of metal to some of the music, he says, "There's also some stuff where you'd go 'Ozzy Osbourne doing this?' I've seen a few musicals, and one thing I've noticed is they're not really musicals. A musical to me is [bleeping] 'South Pacific'.... Back in the '50s or '60s, when they did a musical, there was a song every five minutes or something. Now it's [bleeping] one song and it's all guys dressed as [bleeping] cats crawling all over the stage or something."

As for Ozzfest, Ozzy says he'd like to take the next year off to concentrate on other things but knows he can't.

"It wouldn't be a bad idea for somebody else to finish the job," he says, "But then it wouldn't be Ozzfest, would it? So [bleep] it, I've gotta get on with it. But hey, man, I've got a good life."

He often brings the conversation back around to just how good that life has been, with good things often falling right in Ozzy's lap. Take "The Osbournes," for instance -- or, as he would say, that [bleeping] TV show.

"I just don't understand it," Ozzy says. "I don't go 'Oh, today I'm gonna pick up a reality show, and it's going to be the biggest thing since sliced bread.' I haven't got a clue. It's as if it's all been meant to be that way. I keep saying to Sharon 'How long is this [bleeping] thing gonna last?' And she'll go 'We'll know.' Every year, it gets bigger. We played Hartford last night. [Bleeping] maximum capacity crowd. It was like a [bleeping] sauna up on stage, but it was [bleeping] great."

Ozzfest was Sharon's idea. After all, she is his manager.

"The way it started," he says, "was she tried to get me on Lollapalooza in '94 or something, and they said 'Ozzy's like a dinosaur. He's kind of over.' And yet, their version of diversity is Tony Bennett to Nine Inch Nails and all this. And Sharon just said very politely, '[Bleep] you. We'll do our own festival.' And I said 'Whoa, Sharon, hold on a minute. Don't go too crazy here. Let's just feel our way. See if it's gonna work.' So I think she put five or seven shows out. I said 'Don't go book the [bleeping] planet and end up with one [bleeping] drunk in Pittsburgh. Or London.' And it's grown and grown. I honestly don't understand how it's done it. ... I'm the guy that goes 'Oh [bleep] it, it's [bleeping] 10 years. There ain't gonna be anyone there.' But luckily, or whatever, it's getting bigger and [bleeping] bigger. It's the biggest [bleeping] thing for the summer now. I'm not trying to sound like a [bleeping] smirky [bleeper] now. I'm not one of these guys that takes it for granted. If I go on stage and my voice blows out, I'm really unhappy, because I can't give the show that I wanted to for the audience."

It's all about the audience for Ozzy, who sees himself in his working-class following.

"I do respect and love everyone that comes to see me," he says, "because I'm very fortunate to be in the position at the age of 56 to have an audience anyway. And they haven't all got great jobs that pay high salaries. A lot of these kids have to save pennies and nickels and dimes every year to buy a ticket, and I don't forget that. I've met so many people on my side of the fence with the attitude of 'I'm cool, man. You're so [bleeping] blessed to have me on the stage.' That's not Ozzy. I come from the streets. I know what it's like to want something, and I have never forgotten that. I'm just one of them that's lasted the realm of time."

As for the thought of retiring someday, well, it has been 14 years since Ozzy meant to say goodbye with "No More Tours." And there's no sign of another farewell tour in his immediate future.

"When I'm out here, I want to be home," he says. "And when I'm home, I want to be out here. So I'm one of these contrary [bleeping] rock n' rollers. Then I really stop and think to myself how [bleeping] lucky I am. I was just watching this thing on VH1 about these [bleeping] ... do you remember that band in the '80s, did that song 'Be My Cherry Pie?'"

Would that be Warrant?

"One of them [bleeping] bands," he says. "But this guy's got all bloated and he's got on one of these ridiculous 'who can get thin first' shows and I'm thinking 'I'm so [bleeping] lucky to be doing what I'm doing and still be cool. A lot of bands along the way are either dead or pumping [bleeping] gas."

He's philosophical that way, having learned, he says, "that whatever I did yesterday, I can't change today. And I don't know what's gonna happen tomorrow. I know where I am right now, and I know what I'm doing right now, but tomorrow the [bleeping] world could end or I could win the lottery and any [bleeping] thing."

As charmed as Ozzy's life has been in many ways, he's had his share of trials and tribulations, too. In discussing his mainstream breakthrough as the only TV dad more likely than Tony Soprano to swear at his kids, he says, "But don't forget, along the way, as high as I got was as low as we got. My kids all ended up doing dope. I was [messed] up. My wife got cancer. She gets over the cancer, I go home to my house in England and [bleeping] kill myself on a [bleeping] motorcycle. They had to bring me back."

But things are looking up these days. He's sober now, for example, and proud to report that he's given up not only drinking and drugging but cigarettes as well.

"I work a 12-step program," Ozzy says. "I'm 15 months without a drink or a recreational drug."

Asked how being sober has affected his performing style, he says, "I've got more [bleeping] energy, and I know what I'm doing more than I used to. I mean, I don't want to go too much on the sobriety thing because it's a personal thing. But believe me, if I thought by getting [messed] up, I would be a better man for it, I wouldn't be [bleeping] sober on the [bleeping] phone right now. I'd be drinking. I just wanted to at least remember what I did yesterday and not have to apologize to anybody, you know?"