
The Black Sabbath reunion was a truly heavy metal farewell for Ozzy Osbourne
Like the 42,000 fans who packed Villa Park in Birmingham to see his Black Sabbath reunion on 5 July, I knew this was a goodbye - but had no idea the farewell would come so soon.
Osbourne sang from a throne, encrusted with skulls, of course.
But despite the seated performance, his voice carried across Villa Park and he was more than capable of giving the crowd a few flickers of the Prince of Darkness - rising up on to the stage as the ominous O Fortuna soundtracked a montage of footage from his career.
"Let the madness begin!" he cried as he started the show. Singing fan favourites including Mr Crowley and Crazy Train, and Iron Man and Paranoid with Black Sabbath, he conducted the crowd to sing "louder, louder", and "go f****** crazy".
On stage earlier on, there were performances throughout the day from the likes of Metallica, Guns N' Roses, Slayer, Yungblud and Aerosmith's Steven Tyler.
"Without Sabbath, there would be no Metallica," frontman James Hetfield put it simply during their performance. It was a sentiment echoed by many other artists on stage.
In the crowd, the love and gratitude was also palpable.
Ben Sutton, 24, from Chester, told us beforehand: "I feel like it's important - we're of the younger generation - for us to see some of the heritage and history of the genre we love, metal in general. It's such an honour to say goodbye to him."
Steve Townson, from Lincolnshire, said: "I saw him the first time round and the fact that he's still going is incredible, isn't it? I was there at the start, I'm happy to be here at the end."
But perhaps Anthrax's Scott Ian summed it up best. "We're not here to say goodbye. We're just here to say thank you."
It's the kind of show that for many others might well have been organised with the bands he loved following his death.
But Ozzy's determination to perform one final time, despite his health problems - and with his wife Sharon behind him every step of the way, making sure it happened - meant he got to star and conduct his own tribute.
A truly heavy metal farewell.
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Daily Mirror
11 minutes ago
- Daily Mirror
Zak Starkey reveals biggest regret after turning down huge Ozzy Osbourne request
Drummer Zak Starkey has revealed he is still suffering with regret after turning Ozzy Osbourne down as he shared a personal message he received from Sharon Osbourne Zak Starkey has revealed his one lasting regret as he spoke out following the death of Ozzy Osbourne. The Black Sabbath icon died earlier this week, aged 76, with tributes pouring in from the world of music and beyond. Ozzy's beloved family announced the sad news on Tuesday, as they shared how the Prince of Darkness was 'surrounded by love' at the time of his death. Since then, Ozzy's friends, family, fans and fellow musicians have spoke out about the loss of the rock legend. Zak, who is The Beatles icon Ringo Starr's son, was among those taking to social media to share tributes to Ozzy. The drummer, who has played with the likes of The Who and Oasis, posted an email he had received from Ozzy's wife and manager Sharon Osbourne. She had reached out to Zak ahead of Black Sabbath's tour in 2013 and asked if he would join the band. Sharon's message read: "Zak, Black Sabbath is headlining Download on June 10 and then Lollapalooza in August. "The guys need a drummer for their album, which will be recorded in September with Rick Rubin producing. We would probably need you for 2-3 weeks for the album. Also, they need a drummer to play at Lollapalooza which is on August 3 in Chicago.' Sharon added a touch of humour as she joked: 'Also, Ozzy wants to have sex with you while he is singing 'Iron Man'. Big Kiss, Sharon." However, Zak revealed he turned down the offer due to other commitments with The Who. He performed with the band at the 2012 Olympics closing ceremony in London as well as their Quadrophenia and More tour, which spanned across 2012 and 2013. Opening up on how he feels about turning down Ozzy, Zak shared: "Regrets I've had a few – this is one – (not the sex part!). Ozzy will always be one of the greatest, natural, brilliant singers of all time. "I send much love and strength to his family at this sad, sad time. If u aren't familiar with the 'Never Say Die' record – get into it – it's so far out.' Ozzy played his epic farewell show in his hometown of Birmingham just over two weeks before his death. He was joined by huge stars across rock at his Back to the Beginning concert where he took to the stage as a solo artists and with Black Sabbath for one last time. It saw him raise "a ton of money" for charity as Guns N' Roses, KoRn, Tool, Slayer, Pantera, Metallica, Alice In Chains, Gojira, Anthrax and Aerosmith's Steven Tyler all performed. Ozzy's death was announced by his devastated family, with a statement telling fans: "It is with more sadness than mere words can convey that we have to report that our beloved Ozzy Osbourne has passed away this morning. "He was with his family and surrounded by love. We ask everyone to respect our family privacy at this time. Sharon, Jack, Kelly, Aimee and Louis."


BBC News
13 minutes ago
- BBC News
Tony Iommi on Ozzy Osbourne's death: 'It's like losing a brother'
Black Sabbath guitarist Tony Iommi has said the loss of his bandmate Ozzy Osbourne is "like losing a brother".The pair, who met at school in Aston, Birmingham, before being catapulted into the limelight with Black Sabbath and forging the heavy metal genre, were best friends for 57 family announced his death on Tuesday, just a few weeks after performing for the last time with Black Sabbath for their farewell show at Birmingham's Villa Park."It's been difficult, because it's just a shock really. I haven't been able to get myself organised properly since hearing this. It's been really strange," Iommi said. He added that Sabbath bandmate Geezer Butler had expressed a similar feeling when the pair spoke following Osbourne's death."He's much the same, just can't pull yourself together. It really has affected us bad," he said."I find it difficult at the moment to really accept that. I still think he's there, I still go to text him and stuff - [but] he's not there any more." The pair were rehearsing together just two weeks ago for the band's farewell gig for charity."We'd rehearse and then Ozzy came down - but we didn't want to do too much with Oz because he was under a lot of pressure," Iommi said."And he really wanted to do it, but at the same time we didn't want to push him into 'let's do that again'."But I'm glad we did it, and I'm glad we did it for Oz because it really did motivate him." Iommi said the gig gave his friend renewed direction in recent years and "something to work towards". "It was really worth doing for all of us, for the band to be together on our final thing, not knowing Ozzy was gonna pass away shortly afterwards, but just to get together again because we've been trying to get the original four back for years."The pair would often speak on the phone over the years, but Iommi laughed: "What Ozzy and I talk about - 'I've had this pain in my side, oh my arm's playing up, oh my foot'. It's been one of them. We always start off like that. "Then 'what's the weather like there?'" Since Osbourne's passing, Birmingham has been flooded with fans wanting to pay tribute to the heavy metal have flocked to sites such as the Black Sabbath bridge, the recently painted mural of the band on Navigation Street, and Birmingham Museum and Art Gallery where an official book of condolence has been in the city have asked what would be a fitting tribute to the man who has secured his place in music history, while always remaining proud of his roots and his beloved have called for a statue and others an annual day of said perhaps a statue was appropriate, but also believed there should be a statue of the full band."We've all been a team and we're gonna go at some point," he said."I think he'd be happy that everybody remembers him and everybody loves him and everybody's come out like they have." Follow BBC Birmingham on BBC Sounds, Facebook, X and Instagram.


The Guardian
an hour ago
- The Guardian
‘Laughing and out of breath, he thanked us for the snowball fight': fans on the magic of Ozzy Osbourne
I interviewed Ozzy in 1997, for Kerrang! magazine. We met in a hotel on the Champs-Élysées in Paris, where he proceeded to drink gallons of Diet Coke, and take the piss out of himself. He was the least pretentious rock star I ever met, and during my decade in the industry, I met hundreds. By the time I met Ozzy, I'd had enough of music journalism. I decided he should be my final interview because how do you beat that? I'd interviewed everyone I'd ever wanted to, including Nirvana, so it made sense to end my music journalism career by chatting with Ozzy. Ozzy was so self-effacing and hilarious. He told me about becoming partially deaf while working in a factory testing car horns, how he'd thought Spinal Tap was a documentary about Black Sabbath, and how the band named themselves after a horror movie for a joke. He was already shaking back then, and seemed very small and frail, but he had this gorgeous twinkling quality, which I certainly hadn't expected to encounter in the Prince of Darkness. And he clearly couldn't do a thing without Sharon, which he was more than happy to admit. Liz Evans, Tasmania, Australia My first ever gig was Ozzfest 2002 at Donington. I was so excited, I dyed my hair black and carried a wallet chain thick enough to tie up a ship. When I arrived, a guy in a top hat with a voice like the devil said I'd be 'lucky if I made it out alive'. I'd largely wanted to go because of System of a Down. But Ozzy was the show stealer. I'd become familiar with him due to the The Osbournes, then got into Black Sabbath. There was no other performer like him over the weekend. This – what I thought at the time – old guy had more energy than the younger bands put together. Needless to say, I was hooked on metal from that point onwards. Because of that festival so many bands got their big breaks. He not only invented metal with Sabbath but continued to support the genre the rest of his days. James, Cambridge I was a fairly obsessive heavy rock fan in my teens, and first saw Ozzy live when I was 16 at a one-day heavy metal festival at Port Vale's football ground in Stoke-on-Trent in 1981, alongside a few other bands including Motörhead. A couple of years later I was at university in Sheffield, and saw him for a second time at the City Hall. Afterwards, a friend and I got tipped off about which hotel the band were staying in, so we gatecrashed the residents-only bar and ended up spending an hour or two in the company of Ozzy, Sharon, and the rest of the band. He was an absolute gentleman, happily putting up with a bunch of geeky 18-year-old fans asking him loads of questions, and he insisted on buying multiple rounds of drinks for everyone in the bar. Before we departed he also decided to sign our foreheads 'Ozzy was here' with a Sharpie, as per the photo – earning us a huge amount of credibility when we finally got back to our hall of residence. What an absolute legend of a man – definitely one of a kind. Nick Payne, St Albans As teenagers in the early 1980s we all used to go to venues early and hang around the loading areas and back-stage entrances, on the off-chance of picking up an autograph or seeing a rock star. We did so during the Blizzard of Ozz tour, which were his first UK appearances since being sacked from Sabbath. We got there very early, around 2pm, and turned the corner to find guitarist Randy Rhoads and Ozzy himself, sat quietly having a cup of tea. We gathered tentatively and joined him. Rhoads and Ozzy gave off an air of openness and gentle bonhomie. This wasn't the Prince of Darkness, but a slightly apprehensive man who was hoping that the fans would accept his new musical incarnation. He was humble, communicative and very patient. It was like sitting with a mate's older brother, shooting the breeze for 20 minutes. After he and Randy went back in to sound check, we all remained stunned for a few moments. We'd had a cup of tea with the Prince of Darkness, and it turned out he was a really nice bloke. It's a real shame that successive generations only know him as the sometimes incoherent, grumpy old man of the TV show, The Osbournes. As in his heyday, he was the funniest and most disarming of all of the 1980s rock gods. Van Norris, Hampshire I was lucky enough to see Black Sabbath at Download festival in 2012. Ozzy was already a huge legend but hadn't done a show in a while and we went genuinely thinking that it may be the last chance to see him. When he wobbled out on to the stage, clearly a bit frail, I was worried. Oh no, I thought, this is a cash grab and he's really not up to it anymore ... but then he opened his mouth, and wow. His voice was still all there – it was like listening to him in his heyday. I'm still agog at how good he was. And he was clearly enjoying himself immensely. We've lost a great. Coral Pearce-Mariner, Norfolk In February 1972, during the Master of Reality tour, my father was due to pick me and my mates up after the gig at De Montfort Hall in Leicester, but was delayed by the bad weather. We hung round the back stage door and eventually the band came out. We spoke to all of them but it was Ozzy and Bill who gave us the most time. Ozzy threw the first snowball at us. We then had an amazing snowball fight with Ozzy and Bill which seemed to go on for ages. Ozzy, laughing and out of breath, thanked us for the fight and left with Bill covered in snow. For four kids from a small rural town it was magical. The gig was incredible. Gazza, Leicester I saw Ozzy when I was 17, at one of the very first gigs they played as Black Sabbath, at a mini festival organised by the Midlands Arts Centre for Young People in Cannon Hill Park, Birmingham, on bank holiday Monday, 1 September 1969. They'd originally been billed as Earth, but by the time they went on stage, they had become Black Sabbath. Rumours abounded that they had played at a school dance at the Convent of the Holy Child Jesus school in Edgbaston, where they had performed with a huge inverted crucifix on the stage behind them, much to the outrage of the nuns who ran the school. Because we knew most of the security crew at the festival, we watched them from backstage. Though they didn't have top billing, it was clear even then that they were the best band on stage that day, and that Ozzy had incredible charisma. That autumn, before they became nationally famous, I remember they occasionally used to turn up in the coffee bar at the arts centre where I and my friends hung out. Did I ever dare to speak to the Prince of Darkness? I doubt it, but he might once have asked me for a light ... When their first album came out the following year, I decided to model my own look on the spooky proto-Goth lady, dressed all in black, on the front cover. To my mind, that's still their best album, and I have it still; it sums up for me the cusp between the 60s and the 70s, and the awkward but euphoric liminal space between my adolescence and adulthood. Jenni Mills, Wiltshire The importance and significance of both Ozzy and Sabbath only truly sunk into my brain during the Back to the Beginning gig on 5 July, which I saw on live stream. It was a wonderful day seeing so many of my favourite bands pay tribute. The nail was finally hit on the head seeing Ozzy at the end. Some members of the crowd were in tears to see him performing well despite his physical deterioration. I wasn't sad for him at all – he looked like he was having the time of his life. I've also seen plenty of Ozzy live and am blown away by his stage persona. Thanks for everything, oh Prince of Darkness! George Heron, Liverpool