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Ozzy Osbourne's last photos at Black Sabbath's farewell show revealed 2 weeks before his death

Ozzy Osbourne's last photos at Black Sabbath's farewell show revealed 2 weeks before his death

New York Post3 days ago
Ozzy Osbourne went out doing what he loved most.
The Prince of Darkness, who died Tuesday at age 76, was photographed publicly for the last time at his Black Sabbath farewell concert in Birmingham, England on July 5.
The rocker took the stage in front of the 42,000-person crowd at Villa Park for what turned out to be his last performance in his lifetime.
11 Ozzy Osbourne performing at the Black Sabbath farewell concert on July 5.
Ozzy Osbourne/Instagram
Ozzy, who was battling Parkinson's disease, sat on stage in a black leather chair. He wore a leather overcoat and gold armband bearing his name.
The heavy metal icon performed a five-song set by himself, before he was joined by his former bandmates Tony Iommi, Bill Ward and Geezer Butler for four of the group's songs.
11 Ozzy Osbourne performing at Villa Park for the last time with Black Sabbath.
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11 Ozzy Osbourne's farewell concert with Black Sabbath on July 5.
REUTERS
'Are you ready?' Osbourne asked the audience. 'Let the madness begin!'
The 'Back to the Beginning' concert, which was hosted by Jason Momoa, also featured performances by Metallica, Guns N' Roses, Slayer, Tool, Pantera, Gojira, Alice in Chains, Halestorm, Lamb of God, Anthrax, Mastodon and Rival Sons.
11 Ozzy Osbourne during Black Sabbath's 'Back to the Beginning' concert.
Greg Draven/X
Ozzy and his wife Sharon, 72, also witnessed their daughter Kelly, 40, get engaged to her boyfriend Sid Wilson backstage at the farewell concert. Ozzy jokingly interjected, 'F–k off, you're not marrying my daughter,' in the middle of the proposal.
11 Ozzy Osbourne backstage at his Black Sabbath farewell concert.
Ozzy Osbourne/Instagram
11 Ozzy Osbourne with other rockers at the Black Sabbath farewell concert.
Ozzy Osbourne/Instagram
11 Sharon Osbourne with her husband at his final show.
Ozzy Osbourne/Instagram
The day before his death, Ozzy shared his final Instagram post which was a touching tribute to Black Sabbath.
The post featured an image of a poster that was hanging outside of Ozzy's dressing room door from the band's final show. The poster showed Ozzy and his three bandmates with the words, 'Back to the Beginning.'
11 Ozzy Osbourne's final Instagram photo.
Ozzy Osbourne/Instagram
Black Sabbath, which was formed by the foursome in Birmingham in 1968, posted a tribute to Ozzy after news of his death broke Tuesday.
'Ozzy Forever,' the group wrote alongside a photo of Ozzy during the farewell concert.
Ozzy's beloved family confirmed his passing in a statement to The Post.
'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,' they said. '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.'
11 Ozzy and Sharon Osbourne on stage at the 62nd Annual Grammy Awards on Jan. 26, 2020.
Getty Images for The Recording Academy
Ozzy's daughter Jessica, 45, and his adopted son Elliot, 59, both from his marriage to first wife Thelma Riley, were left out of the family tribute.
The 'Crazy Train' singer was married to Sharon for 40 years. They shared Aimee, 41, Kelly, 40, and Jack, 39. The family, aside from Aimee, starred in the MTV reality series 'The Osbournes' from 2002 to 2005.
Ozzy's health slowly deteriorated after he confirmed in 2020 that he had Parkinson's, which left him confined to a wheelchair.
11 Ozzy Osbourne with Black Sabbath on their tour in 2017.
Watto / BACKGRID
He canceled his 2023 tour three months before it was scheduled to kick off after undergoing extensive spinal surgery. He declared that his touring career was officially over, which he called 'one of the hardest things' that he ever had to share with his fans.
Later that year, Ozzy said he has 'at best 10 years left' to live.
11 Ozzy Osbourne performs in Budapest in 2016.
AP
Less than two weeks before his death, Ozzy announced an upcoming memoir about his life scheduled to be released Oct. 7 by Hachette Book Group.
The book's synopsis says it includes stories about Ozzy's time in Black Sabbath, his marriage to Sharon, his health issues and more.
'Look, if it ends tomorrow, I can't complain. I've been all around the world. Seen a lot of things. I've done good … and I've done bad,' he said in a press release about the book.
'But right now,' Ozzy added, 'I'm not ready to go anywhere.'
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Oasis dedicate song to Ozzy Osbourne as they begin series of gigs in London

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That difficulty likely gave rise to one of music theory's most ominous warnings: mi contra fa diabolus est in musica, or 'mi against fa is the devil in music.' Referring to the Medieval system of music developed by Guido of Arezzo in the 11th century, 'mi against fa' refers to the dissonance between two tritone notes in overlapping compositions, with the 'devil' likely referencing its tendency to cause mistakes or generally meddle with choral delicacy. At a time when music was meant to reflect divine order, such instability struck a deeply discordant note. But uncomfortable tonal combinations weren't isolated to Western music. Many cultural styles—from the Middle East to Japan—had their own 'forbidden' tonal conventions, and different reasons for shunning them. Similarly to Western modes, certain Indian ragas omit certain combinations of notes—the varjya svaras—in their compositions, as certain notes are prone to unbalancing this intensely mood-driven music. Traditional Japanese music, such as gagaku, is often played in formal settings, employing tonal combinations that were sympathetic to the conventions of ma (negative space) and wa (unity), thereby avoiding discordant tones. By contrast, the Arabian maqam system embraces tonal combinations that Western ears might label dissonant. Its use of microtones and quarter-steps creates melodic tension and release through an entirely different framework of rules. So is the discomfort we feel from dissonance—like the tritone—truly universal? Maybe not. A 2016 study found that members of the Tsimane', an Indigenous community in Bolivia with limited exposure to Western culture, didn't find dissonant chords any less pleasant to listen to than their more pleasing counterparts. Isabella Czedik-Eysenberg of the University of Vienna believes this shows that 'while dissonant intervals such as the tritone have distinct psychoacoustic properties, the emotional and symbolic meanings attached to those–such as being associated with 'evil'–are likely culturally learned.' This 1970 publicity photo shows Black Sabbath early in their career, shortly before their sound helped shape the heavy metal genre. Photograph by MichaelBlack Sabbath's self-titled debut album, released in 1970, opens with the ominous tritone riff that helped define heavy metal's dark, dissonant sound. Photograph by MichaelWhy does the tritone sound so unsettling? One reason is auditory roughness—the jagged, irregular quality of a sound that our brains often associate with danger, says Czedik-Eysenberg 'Roughness is a particularly interesting audio quality—research indicates it can play a role in communicating danger [and is] a key feature in biologically salient alarm signals, such as human screams,' she notes. 'But auditory roughness also plays a very important part in the perception of extreme vocal techniques used in metal genres. Guttural and harsh vocal styles, for example, are often described by listeners as brutal, monstrous, or demonic.' But how we respond to sound isn't just biological—it's shaped by experience. 'Our responses to sound arise from the nervous system that broadly speaking we all have in common—but context is everything,' says Victoria Williamson, a music psychologist and co-founder of the sound wellness app Audicin. 'Some frequencies and sound textures are more difficult for the human inner ear and brain to process, a physiological clash that can trigger reactions from overstimulation to stress, disgust and even pain.' 'However,' Williamson adds, 'our psychological reaction to sound is predicated on what we have been exposed to during our lifetime and the associations we have created. That is 100 percent unique to each of us.' Back in 17th-century Europe, that exposure was changing. While medieval music prized harmony and order, the Baroque period embraced contrast and emotion. By the Classical era, it had appeared in works by Bach, Beethoven, and Wagner, among others, often to evoke drama or darkness. In Camille Saint-Saëns's Danse Macabre, the tritone famously opens the piece with a musical scythe swing. (Here's how Beethoven went from Napoleon's biggest fan to his worst critic.' Since then, the 'devil's interval' has appeared everywhere—from the theme of The Simpsons to the sirens that jolt us into high alert. And in 1970, Black Sabbath picked it up again, building the haunting foundation of heavy metal on its dissonant tension. 'Black Sabbath music will trigger the deep emotion centers of the brain like the amygdala, but rather than experience fear or discomfort the listener is drawn in. In theory it makes no sense,' says Victoria Williamson. 'The more this music drives the release of emotion and stress, the more it will trigger the reward and motivation centres of the brain like the ventral tegmental area, nucleus accumbens and the prefrontal cortex. Over the years the brain will get used to the dopamine rush it gets in the presence of this music. This can help explain why Black Sabbath fans have been so intensely loyal over the decades.'

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