LOS ANGELES:

Rocker Ozzy Osbourne will skip a scheduled appearance at Spike TV’s Video Game Awards to make time for Queen Elizabeth II. ‘The Prince of Darkness’ was invited to perform at the annual Royal Variety Performance in Cardiff, Wales, on November 21, said Osbourne’s spokes-man Lathum Nelson.

Osbourne, 56, will join an international slate of entertainers that includes Italian tenor Andrea Bocelli and New York’s Blue Man Group. His wife, Sharon, will also participate in the programme.

This is the second time Osbourne has been invited to participate in the Royal Variety Performance. A scheduling conflict preventing him from attending last year, Osbourne said in a statement. “I cannot turn down this incredible honour twice,” he said.

Osbourne, whose latest album Under Cover, was released on November 1, had been scheduled to appear at the Video Game Awards in Los Angeles on November 18.