(Cover) - EN Showbiz - Ozzy Osbourne thought his music career was finished when he was sacked from Black Sabbath.

The veteran rocker has been in the music business for more than 40 years and is best known as the front man of heavy metal band Black Sabbath.

The 62-year-old musician was fired from the group in 1979 after it was claimed he was unreliable and had excessive substance abuse issues.

Ozzy, with the help of wife and manager Sharon, subsequently launched a successful solo career, something that at the time he didn't believe was possible.

"But I'd lost interest in the band I was just this sad, drunken, stoned guy. So when I got fired I thought, Oh well, that's it, it's over.' I certainly didn't think I was going to have another career," he confessed in an interview with Kerrang! magazine.

Ozzy admits his substance abuse got out of control, as he claims did that of band members Tony Iommi, Geezer Butler and Bill Ward. The long-haired rocker believes he was painted in the worst light, which he doesn't think was fair.

"I must confess, at the time I'd lost the spark. We were all so heavily involved in drugs and alcohol that we weren't a band anymore," he revealed. "It's interesting because in interviews with [the other three band members] it makes it look like I was the drunk and they were all angels. But we were all as bad as each other." (C) Cover Media