Gene Simmons 'chokes up' as he remembers Ozzy Osbourne after 'tragic' death
Gene Simmons"choked up" as he remembered Ozzy Osbourne after his "tragic" death.
The heavy metal icon passed away at the age of 76 on Tuesday (July 22), just weeks after a grand farewell concert with his Black Sabbath bandmates.
His family released a statement, saying: "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."
On Wednesday's (July 23) edition of BBC Breakfast, presenters Sally Nugent and Jon Kay reflected on Ozzy's career and legacy, before speaking to his friend, Gene Simmons, reports the Express.
"Such a sad day. When you listen to that music, when we see those pictures, what are you thinking about your friend, Ozzy?" Jon asked.
Speaking live from Los Angeles, the Kiss star said: "It's been such a sad day you know, it started this morning here in California with my phone ringing and the texts going off, and I thought it was just fake news.
"Ozzy dead?! I thought it was just psycho babble on TikTok, and soon enough I learned the tragic news.
"I know that right now millions of fans around the world are crying and shocked and can't believe it. My heart goes out to Sharon and the family and the fans. It's just beyond anything."
Gene then shared memories of first meeting Ozzy back in 1974 when they were both newcomers in the music industry.
"I ran into Ozzy and he was, I don't know how to say this, but an English gentleman... Off stage, [he was] sweet as can be, and on stage, a mad man," he explained, comparing Ozzy to Jekyll and Hyde.
Gene then unexpectedly paused the story as he found himself getting emotional during the interview.
"Sorry, got choked up. Sorry about that," he candidly said as he tried to compose himself, before continuing his reflections.
He went on: "Most of the fans will know Ozzy as the Prince of Darkness, and if you were lucky enough to meet Ozzy as a human being off stage, you'd be shocked because he treated people exactly the same way.
"No airs about him... It's fair to say that there was never an Ozzy Osbourne before Ozzy, and there never will be another Ozzy. In science, they call it a singularity. He's just a unique and lovable person."
Gene concluded: "I don't know what there is to say, but I would recommend all the fans turn off your TV sets, shut down your cell phones, go into your room, shut the door and put on some Black Sabbath."
Elsewhere on the show, Jon and Sally read out tributes from several music stars, including Sir Elton John, UB40's Ali Campbell and Rolling Stones star Ronnie Wood.
They also spoke to entertainment correspondent Colin Paterson, who was at the Black Sabbath bench in Birmingham, where dozens of flowers and tributes had been laid.
"I came down here last night and there were fans gathering, and what was telling, Sally, was so many of them were wearing the t-shirts from that farewell gig that took place just two weeks ago at Villa Park," he said.
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Metro
24 minutes ago
- Metro
Oasis honour late rocker Ozzy Osbourne with sweet Wembley show tribute
As Oasis brothers Liam Gallagher and Noel Gallagher kicked off their Wembley Stadium gigs tonight, they made sure to include a tribute to the late, great Ozzy Osbourne. Liam and Noel began their reunion tour at the start of July and have already played to hundreds of thousands of fans, marking their first tour together since disbanding in 2009. This evening, they returned to London as a group for the first time in over a decade, greeted by a sold-out crowd of cheering supporters who were lucky enough to win the Ticketmaster Hunger Games. There have been plenty of headline-grabbing moments from the once-feuding siblings on stage so far, most notably their entrance on night 1, as they proudly held hands and proved the guns have, indeed, fallen silent. But there have also been some emotional moments, like tonight's tribute to the Black Sabbath legend following his death. Towards the end of the gig, they remembered the musician via the song Rock 'n' Roll Star. Lead singer Liam told what he described as a 'f***ing beautiful' crowd: 'I wanna dedicate this one to Ozzy Osbourne, Rock 'n' Roll Star.' Then, after Live Forever, which is 'dedicated to the Oasis fans that can't be here but are here, if you know what I mean', photos of Osbourne appeared on the screens. As video footage of the sweet moment later surfaced on social media, fans were quick to honour 'legend' Osbourne themselves, declaring the tribute a 'class' act. The Black Sabbath star's death at the age of 76 was announced earlier this week. A statement issued by his wife Sharon and their children on Wednesday read: '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.' The Crazy Train superstar played his own final show with his bandmates just two weeks ago to a rowdy crowd at Birmingham's Villa Park. His health struggles were well-documented, as he was diagnosed with Parkinson's in 2020 and, in the years that followed, suffered mobility issues, forcing him to stop touring. The Prince of Darkness' wholesome tribute isn't the only one to appear at an Oasis gig thus far, as the brothers also remembered Portuguese footballer Diogo Jota a few weeks ago after he died in a car crash aged 28. Elsewhere tonight, Oasis superfans in bucket hats and branded T-shirts covered the capital, having travelled from all over the world to see their favourite band. As with previous gigs, Liam and Noel walked out to the roaring reception hand-in-hand, opening with Hello and proceeding to belt out many of their classics, including Some Might Say and Morning Glory. The packed-out stadium was in full voice throughout, and at one point, Liam threw a tambourine into the jubilant crowd, while later positioning one on top of his head. Despite pledging to concentrate on his vocals rather than talking, telling those gathered, 'every time I open my mouth at these gigs I seem to get myself into a lot of trouble, so I'm just going to do the singing', Liam later engaged in some light football banter. The well-known Manchester City fan appeared to poke fun at Arsenal fans in the crowd, joking about their position in the Premier League. Hello Acquiesce Morning Glory Some Might Say Bring it on down Cigarettes & Alcohol Fade Away Supersonic Roll With It Talk Tonight (Noel sings) Half the World Away (Noel sings) Little by Little (Noel sings) D'You Know What I Mean Stand By Me Cast No Shadow Slide Away Whatever Live Forever Rock and Roll Star The Masterplan (Noel sings) Don't Look Back in Anger (Noel sings) Wonderwall Champagne Supernova Phone camera torches lit up the stadium as darkness fell and the show concluded, closing out with huge tunes Don't Look Back in Anger, Wonderwall, and Champagne Supernova. More Trending Friday's show—the eighth of the tour—followed a five-night run of homecoming gigs in Manchester's Heaton Park and the two opening shows in Cardiff earlier this month. Following the first part of their Wembley stint, the band will head up north to Edinburgh's Murrayfield Stadium, followed by Dublin's Croke Park. The group will then head to Japan, South Korea, South America, Australia, and North America later in the year. Got a story? If you've got a celebrity story, video or pictures get in touch with the entertainment team by emailing us celebtips@ calling 020 3615 2145 or by visiting our Submit Stuff page – we'd love to hear from you. MORE: EastEnders addresses Ozzy Osbourne and England's Lionesses in special scene MORE: Ozzy Osbourne's heartbreaking final wish for biopic on his life that won't be fulfilled MORE: Aldi permanently changes name of store in a move shoppers are calling 'biblical'
Daily Mail
25 minutes ago
- Daily Mail
Why Ozzy Osbourne's first wife has airbrushed the rock star from her life: 'Who'd want to be part of that mad family!'
As the patriarch of reality TV show The Osbournes – presiding in potty-mouthed dysfunction over the family antics – he won a new generation of fans, but no one ever really doubted Ozzy Osbourne loved his family, or that they loved him. That affection was reflected in the statement released to mark his death earlier this week, 17 days after the Black Sabbath frontman's farewell concert in his home city of Birmingham. '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,' came the announcement. 'He was with his family and surrounded by love.' What was perhaps striking about the statement was whom it was credited to: Sharon, Jack, Kelly, Aimee and Louis. Sharon, of course, is Ozzy's increasingly fragile, ever-colourful and ever-devoted wife; Jack, Kelly and Aimee are their children together. The name Louis, however, would have been unfamiliar to many. A musician, he was the rocker's son from his first marriage. Two names, however, were missing from the family statement – those of Ozzy's eldest daughter Jessica and his adopted son Elliot. For while Ozzy might have been a trailblazer for reality TV fatherhood, he did have another wife and family first. And save for Louis – who bears a striking resemblance to his father – his first family have maintained a silence in the wake of the 76-year-old's death. Louis, 50, who did make a brief appearance early on in The Osbournes, was, it would seem, at his dad's side at the family's Grade II-listed home on the outskirts of Chalfont St Giles in Buckinghamshire when he died. But what of his sister Jessica, 53, who lives just six miles down the road with her husband and their three children? As yet, she has made no public statement. Nor has there been any statement from New Zealand, where his adopted son Elliot Osbourne, 59, who works for a tech firm, lives with his wife. Elliot was five years old when Ozzy married his mother, nightclub hostess Thelma Riley, in 1971, marking an entry into fatherhood Ozzy himself called 'chaotic at best'. As for Thelma, as the Mail discovered this week, despite living in Birmingham since the end of her tumultuous marriage, she has kept her association with him a closely guarded secret. Indeed, on a peaceful street of terraced homes in Harborne, where she lived for more than two decades, it would seem even her neighbours hadn't known she was once married to one of the city's best-known sons. Photographs from the 1970s show Thelma Riley (born Thelma Rees but who was married briefly to Anthony Riley) as a striking young woman with tumbling brunette hair. Now 76, she is silvery blonde but no less striking. She earned an MBA from Oxford Brookes University in 1999 and co-founded a sales and marketing consultancy. A former neighbour Karen, who lived a few doors away until Thelma moved several years ago, remembers her being 'always beautifully dressed'. 'I knew her name, but we never socialised.' But in 2017, following the final appearance of Ozzy's second wife Sharon on ITV's The X Factor, Karen joked with Thelma about her shared surname, asking if she was any relation. Karen recalls: 'I loved The X Factor and when I bumped into Thelma in the street after Sharon's final appearance I had a laugh with her. I didn't really know her but cheekily asked her if they were related and she looked horrified and said, 'No way, who would want to be part of that mad family!' 'Until this day I had no idea I was a neighbour of Ozzy Osbourne's first wife! She never let on and clearly didn't want to.' A short distance away, at a block of flats Thelma is understood to own and manage, one of her fellow directors tells the Mail that he too is shocked. John Fender, an economics professor, tells the Mail: 'I know Thelma, we are both directors of a company, but I had absolutely no idea. I am in a state of shock, she never mentioned it. She kept it very quiet. I am completely astonished. Osbourne is a fairly common name and I never put two and two together.' She was not always so guarded, though. The Mail spoke to one former colleague who says she burned 'red hot' with fury in the wake of her divorce. Thelma, who is thought to have had a brief third marriage, is now happy with a long-term partner, retired and living quietly on the outskirts of Birmingham. She is very much a part of her children's and grandchildren's lives. That she might want to draw a veil over the torment of her second marriage is not surprising. Ozzy himself spoke regretfully of his treatment of Thelma in his autobiography I Am Ozzy. From the 1960s to the 1980s, Birmingham's Rum Runner nightclub had legendary status. And one night in 1970, Ozzy and fellow Black Sabbath member Tony Iommi, rolled in. In the cloakroom was Thelma Riley. 'Who's that?' asked Ozzy, to be told Thelma was a 'lovely gal. Brainy too. But she's divorced and she's got a kid, so watch yerself'. Ozzy unsurprisingly ignored this instruction and, by his account, the night ended with him and Thelma kissing in the back seat of Tony's Ford Cortina. A year later they married at the Birmingham Register Office. 'A terrible mistake,' wrote Ozzy. Black Sabbath were touring; drugs, booze and groupies were beckoning and Thelma, now pregnant, was home alone. 'I would get this crazy restless feeling whenever I was at home, like I was going out of my mind,' wrote Ozzy. 'If I loved Thelma, I certainly didn't treat her like I did. If I've got any regrets about my life, that's one of them. 'I put that woman through hell. I should never have married her. She didn't deserve it; she wasn't a bad person, and she wasn't a bad wife. But I was a f****** nightmare.' Ozzy's worst excesses have been well documented. On the home front, he once took a shotgun to the 17 cats at the couple's home in Staffordshire. He left a stash of cannabis-laced cake in the kitchen that was accidentally given (by Thelma) to the local vicar. And he also shot all the chickens (purchased by Thelma) with a semi-automatic gun then doused the coop with gasoline and set it on fire, finishing off the sole survivor with a sword. In an interview with the Mail, he once admitted his abuse of Thelma was both mental and physical. 'You name it, I did it,' he said. 'I hit her big time and I was a complete idiot.' In the 2011 documentary God Bless Ozzy Osbourne, he revealed he could not remember when Louis and Jessica were born. Louis recalled: 'When he was around and he wasn't [drunk], he was a great father. But that was kind of seldom, really, I just have a lot of memories of him being drunk... It's not good for family life, really.' Jessica made a brief appearance in the documentary, saying: 'I don't remember being put to bed or having a bath by Dad or anything like that. I wouldn't say he was there for us.' Asked if Ozzy was a good dad, she replied: 'No.' Ozzy's divorce with Thelma was agonisingly drawn out – Sharon, his manager's daughter, was already on the scene, but there was a last-ditch holiday with Thelma and the children to Barbados in 1981. Ozzy said: 'We got there at five o'clock and I was legless by six.' The marriage ended the same year. Ozzy would later declare Thelma got the house and 'every last penny I had in the bank'. He also paid for the kids' private school. But he left scars. His relationship with Elliot, who moved from Scotland to New Zealand around five years ago, appears to have always been strained. Ozzy wrote: 'I spent the whole time when I was home screaming at him or whacking him around the ear hole. And it's not like he ever did anything bad to deserve it. I wish I could have been better with him.' The year after the divorce he married Sharon. Their first child Aimee was born in 1983, followed by Kelly in 1984 and Jack in 1985. Kelly and Jack along with their mother were catapulted into the public consciousness, courtesy of MTV's The Osbournes which aired from 2002 to 2005. Aimee chose to remain away from the cameras. Louis once had an apartment in the garden of his father's Beverly Hills home and has always spoken with pride of his dad. He followed, to an extent, in his father's footsteps. He dropped out of university to take a job in a record shop, before getting his big break as a DJ in Ibiza in 1998. Even while a fledgling artist, he was determined to make it on his own, prohibiting use of his father's name, and is now a respected DJ, producer and broadcaster. As Ozzy told the Mail in 2014. 'I was a bad father, an abusive husband and I had an ego the size of India. I spent decades of my life being an absolute idiot. I've got so many regrets I can't even remember half of them. But wives and kids are right at the top.' After so many years of Ozzy's chaotic neglect, how many of his 'first' family will attend any memorials to the late rock star remains to be seen.
The Sun
25 minutes ago
- The Sun
Oasis pay poignant tribute to Ozzy Osbourne as ‘Rock N Roll Star' appears on screen at Wembley in emotional song
OASIS have paid an emotional tribute to Ozzy Osbourne at their first gig in London for more than a decade. The band lit up a screen at Wembley Stadium with an image of the rock legend towards the end of the performance of their track Live Forever. 2 2 The Gallagher brothers made a triumphant return to the capital - performing for the first time in London since 2009 - as they continued on their world tour. As the band made their way through staple tracks, an image of a younger Ozzy made its way onto main screen as the crowd began to cheer. After finishing the song Live Forever, Liam announced to the crowd that he wanted to dedicate the next track - Rock 'N' Roll Star - to the late singer. Ozzy passed away at the age of 76 on Tuesday, just 17 days after performing his final gig in Birmingham. Turning to the packed Wembley crowd, Liam said: "I wanna dedicate this one to Ozzy Osbourne, Rock 'N' Roll Star." Oasis performed an electric set at Wembley on Friday night, the first of five gigs over the next 10 days in the capital. They will also perform two shows at the venue in September. Liam told tens of thousands of fans of his pride as the band graced the stage at the iconic stadium 16 years after their last appearance there. Just three songs into their much-anticipated appearance, he declared the crowd was 'f****** beautiful', having bowed to the sea of raised arms before him. Oasis superfans in bucket hats and branded T-shirts had packed the Tube en route to the gig from earlier in the day, with international accents denoting the band's worldwide popularity. Inside Ozzy Osbourne's final days after historic last show 'took huge toll' on his health As with previous gigs, Liam and Noel walked onstage hand in hand, opened with Hello and proceeded to belt out many of their classics including Some Might Say and Morning Glory. The packed-out stadium was in full voice throughout and at one point Liam threw a tambourine into the jubilant crowd, while later positioning one on top of his head. Despite pledging to concentrate on his vocals rather than talking – telling those gathered 'every time I open my mouth at these gigs I seem to get myself into a lot of trouble so I'm just going to do the singing' – Liam later engaged in some light football banter. The well-known Manchester City fan appeared to poke fun at Arsenal fans in the crowd, joking about their position in the Premier league last season. Phone camera torches also lit up the stadium as darkness fell. Friday's show – the eighth of the tour – followed a five-night run of homecoming gigs in Manchester's Heaton Park and the two opening shows in Cardiff earlier this month. After they complete their first stint at Wembley, the band will head up north to Edinburgh's Murrayfield Stadium before travelling to Croke Park in Dublin. This comes after the band released a new live track from their reunion tour in a treat for fans who couldn't nab a ticket. They immortalised their iconic gigs at Heaton Park by issuing an official release of their live rendition of iconic track Cigarettes and Alcohol. Recorded on the first night of their stint at the park, Cigarettes and Alcohol has become a staple favourite on the brothers' set list.
