Ozzy Osbourne to release 'Prince Of Darkness' Box Set February 8, 2005

LOS ANGELES (Epic Records) - OZZY OSBOURNE will christen 2005 with the release of his PRINCE OF DARKNESS box set February 8 on Epic Records. A testament to the iconic rocker's 25-year solo career, the four-CD, 52-song set chronicles OZZY's biggest hits and most memorable collaborations while including a separate disc with 10 newly recorded versions of his favorite songs by other artists, including: the Rolling Stones' "Sympathy For The Devil," Mountain's "Mississippi Queen" and Mott The Hoople's David Bowie-penned "All The Young Dudes."
The PRINCE OF DARKNESS will arrive in a weathered, collectable gothic book with new hallowed images of OZZY taken by famed British photographer/artist Sam Taylor Wood. It will be packaged with a 60-page booklet with a career overview and rare OZZY photos.

The first two PRINCE OF DARKNESS discs will encompass re-mastered versions of the Grammy Award-winning artist's most popular solo smashes, with "Crazy Train," "Mr. Crowley," "Diary Of A Madman," "Crazy Babies" and "No More Tears." In addition, the discs will resurrect epic live performances ("Bark At The Moon," "Flying High Again," "Suicide Solution") and rare demos ("Mama, I'm Coming Home," "I Don't Want To Change The World," "See You On The Other Side").

Titled Oddities and Duets, the third disc is comprised of some of OZZY's most unusual collaborations, such as "For Heaven's Sake" with the Wu-Tang Clan, "Born To Be Wild" with Miss Piggy, "Nowhere To Run (Vapor Trail)" with the Crystal Method, DMX, and 'Ol Dirty Bastard and the Bee Gees classic "Stayin' Alive" with Dweezil Zappa.

For the set's special fourth disc Under Covers, OZZY went into the studio recently to record covers of the songs he covets most, including: "In My Life" (the Beatles), "21st Century Schizoid Man" (King Crimson), and "For What It's Worth" (Buffalo Springfield). Keeping with his tradition of working with only the finest rock guitarists, OZZY was joined by Jerry Cantrell, Robert Randolph and Leslie West.

The PRINCE OF DARKNESS will arrive amidst a blizzard of OZZY activity. On October 25th MTV will unveil OZZY and SHARON OSBOURNE's new reality show 'BATTLE FOR OZZFEST,' which pits hungry young bands against one another for a shot at performing at the career-making OZZFEST. In January 2005, MTV will launch the final season of the hugely successful reality show 'THE OSBOURNES.'