Ozzy Osbourne [ tickets ] is looking at another a full year of touring, new albums, and maybe even some awards in 2002. The venerable metal god has a host of Far East dates in the near term, with supposed plans for a live album to be released by Epic in the summer.

The tour also looks to stretch into Alaska and Canada, and to wind up with another round of stateside summer Ozzfest dates.

In the meantime, Osbourne’s latest solo album, "Down to Earth," has sold well past gold, Black Sabbath has been nominated for a Grammy for Best Metal Performance for "The Wizard" from the album "Ozzfest 2001: The Second Millennium," and the metal community is still buzzing from the Black Sabbath reunion shows of the last Ozzfest.

"[When] the rumor got out that Black Sabbath was going to be playing on the last [Ozzfest] show, it was kind of like a snowball effect, again, that I was going to be jamming with them," Osbourne said. "So I was kind of pushed into a situation that I was kind of unsure about. I mean, there’s no rehearsal, absolutely no rehearsal, I just got on and just did it."

One person who definitely appreciated the reunion is Osbourne’s primary guitar player since 1987, Zakk Wylde.

"I started playing guitar when I was 14, ninth grade, right when I started high school," Wylde explained in his gruff Jersey accent. "I wanted to just keep playing [football], wanted to become the next Jack Lambert, but just couldn’t keep the f---ing weight on. So I took up guitar. And Sabbath, man, Sabbath was absolutely the s---."

With Osbourne, it’s difficult at times to tell where the Sabbath world ends and the solo world begins. "I’ve got to confess that if there hadn’t been a Sabbath, there wouldn’t have been an Ozzy Osbourne," Osbourne said. "And if there wasn’t an Ozzy Osbourne, I don’t suppose there would have been a Sabbath."

The 2002 edition of the Ozzfest will keep Osbourne’s solo band intact with guitarist Wylde, bassist Robert Trujillo and ex-Faith No More drummer Mike Bordin.

Besides performing on "Down to Earth," Wylde has been busy preparing material for his latest Black Label Society album, "1919 Eternal," due out in March on Spitfire. Much of the material on the Black Label Society album was actually written for "Down to Earth," Wylde said.

"When [Osbourne] was doing ‘Down to Earth,’ he said, ‘Zakk, I don’t want to have to go through the whole writing process. I’ve got all these songs I want to do, can you come in and just play your ass off?’ So I went down there, drank some f---ing beer, and played. We had a blast making the record. And then [Osbourne's wife and manager] Sharon said, ‘If you can, just write a couple extra tracks for the record.’

"So I’d be down in rehearsal, pumping riffs and songs out every f---ing day. And Oz was like, ‘That song is like beyond-stupid heavy, I don’t want to use that one.’ It came down to the point where Ozzy said, ‘Well, I want to use the songs I got, and that’s that.’ I was like, ‘No problem, man.’ It’s f---ing his record at the end of the day. ‘Whatever you want to f---ing do, I’m here for you.’ So with all those songs lying around that Ozzy’s not going to use, f---- it, they’re Black Label tunes now, you know? I’m going to make a new album, you know what I mean?"

Even though bandmembers and tours change, the debauchery somehow never seems to. When prompted for a printable story, Ozzy chimes in.

"I wake up in a club [at a hotel where Ozzy and wife Sharon were staying]," Osbourne recounts. "I’ve got this great big bottle of cold sake--a gallon of it--[and] I don’t know how I got to this bar. And there was this f---ing giant Japanese chick sittin’ next to me, I didn’t even know who she was. I go back to [Ozzy and Sharon’s hotel room, with said woman], the door opens, Sharon punches me in the eye--no, punches her in the eye, takes a picture from off the wall, smashes it over my head, we go flying through the door. And I’m thinking, ‘How the f--- did this happen?’"

At the end of the day, no matter what heights the bar tab reaches, whatever ends up on the work calendar, Ozzy sums it up with a sigh, "I’m just a guy trying to give a people a good night out. I’m like a conductor of madness, but a fun madness, not a violent madness. I just feel very blessed. I mean, I would pay to see them. People keep saying, ‘When is the end coming? When is it coming?’ They’re still out there, and I’m thinking, ‘When the f--- is it?’ You know?

"It seems like yesterday we were walking down so-and-so street and saying to each other, ‘I wonder if we’ll ever make it.’ And here we are 30 years later. I swear to you, it’s gone by like a flash."