Black Sabbath guitarist Tony Iommi has spoken out on the “incomprehensible” death of Ozzy Osbourne.
The heavy metal pioneer died on Tuesday (July 22) at the age of 76, with his family saying he was “surrounded by love”. His death shortly follows the giant ‘Back To The Beginning’ concert held at Villa Park in Birmingham, which saw Osbourne play one final Black Sabbath show with Iommi, bassist Geezer Butler and drummer Bill Ward for the first time since 2005.
Now, Tony Iommi has spoken out on the death of his longtime friend, telling ITV News that “it was a shock for us”. “When I heard yesterday, it couldn’t sink in,” he explained. “I thought, ‘It can’t be.’ I only had a text from him the day before. It just seemed unreal, surreal. And in the night, I started thinking about it: ‘God, am I dreaming all this?’ But as I said before, he’s not looked well through the rehearsals.
“I think he really just held out to do that show,” Iommi went on to add. “I really feel – and me and Geezer were talking about it last night – that we think he held out to do it, and just after that, he’s done it and said goodbye to the fans. And that was the end of it, really.
“I think he must have had something in his head that said, ‘Well, this is gonna be it, the last thing I’m ever gonna do.’ Whether he thought he was gonna die or what, I don’t know. But he really wanted to do it, and he was determined to do it. And fair dues, he’d done it.”
Iommi also reminisced on performing with Osbourne for the final Black Sabbath show – Osbourne’s first concert since 2018 due to his numerous health problems including Parkinson’s disease.
‘Back To The Beginning’ boasted a star-studded line-up, including the likes of Guns N’ Roses, KoRn, Tool, Slayer, Pantera, Metallica, Alice In Chains, Gojira, Anthrax, and Aerosmith’s Steven Tyler. The gig went on to become the highest-grossing charity concert of all time, raising a huge chunk of money for good causes.
The guitarist told ITV News that the pair briefly spoke in their dressing rooms following the momentous occasion, saying: “He came around before he was leaving on a wheelchair that brought him in to say goodbye and have a little chat for a bit, and he seemed alright. He enjoyed it. And he said, ‘Oh, it went all right, didn’t it?’ I said, ‘Yeah, it did.’
“But as I said before, when I had the text off him the day before yesterday saying he’s tired and he’s really got no energy. And I thought, ‘Oh, dear – because it’s a lot for him to do that under the problems he’s got,” Iommi continued. “And we could see it in rehearsal. We didn’t want him there every day at rehearsal, because it’s too much. He just wouldn’t be able to stand it.
“So they’d bring him in and he’d sit down and sing a few songs, and then we’d talk about some rubbish old times or whatever, have a laugh, and then he’d go. And that’s sort of what we did, really.
Iommi went on to say that the ‘Back To The Beginning’ show was “for him, really, and for us, to say goodbye, ’cause also Sabbath saying goodbye – it was the end of the band, and we’ll never do that again. And to have Bill drum with us as well after all these years, after 20 years of not playing with Bill. I can’t believe it’s 20 years, to be honest.
“I think he was moved and frustrated as well, ’cause he wanted to stand up,” the guitarist added. “You could see he was trying to get up. But yeah, it meant everything to him. This is what we built up for, for that big ending where he could see all the people and we could all see all the people, and close it in that way. But we didn’t expect to close it so quick with Ozz. We didn’t expect him to go that quick, really. Well, we didn’t expect him to go. So it’s been a shock.”
Tributes have been flooding in for the iconic musician since the news of his death. Iommi wrote that “there won’t ever be another like him”, while Bill Ward and Geezer Butler also paid tribute on their own separate posts.
Judas Priest’s Rob Halford would dedicate ‘Giants In The Sky’ to Ozzy Osbourne at his concert at the Scarborough Open Air Theatre, Wolfgang Van Halen would cover ‘Mama I’m Coming Home’ in honour of the late legend, and Coldplay would nod to Osbourne with their own version of ‘Changes’.
Ghost, Alice Cooper, Elton John, Yungblud, Billie Joe Armstrong of Green Day, Jack White, and Gojira have all written their own tributes for Osbourne – you can read them here.
Elsewhere, Ozzy Osbourne‘s final memoir, Last Rites, is set to be posthumously released later this year.
