Judas Priest and Rob Halford have dedicated ‘Giants In The Sky’ to the late Black Sabbath legend Ozzy Osbourne.
The death of the heavy metal pioneer and iconic Black Sabbath frontman was announced on Tuesday (July 22). His family said in a statement that the 76-year-old music icon was “surrounded by love” at the time of his passing.
It came shortly after he took to the stage for the huge ‘Back To The Beginning’ gig in Birmingham on July 5 – marking his final show both as a solo artist and with Black Sabbath. While a cause of death has not been revealed, Ozzy had notably been dealing with a myriad of health issues for numerous years, including being diagnosed with Parkinson’s Disease in 2019.
Yesterday (July 23), Judas Priest performed at the Scarborough Open Air Theatre in England, just a day after Ozzy’s tragic passing was announced. 13 songs into their set, Priest and frontman Rob Halford took a moment to honour Ozzy Osbourne.
“Look, it’s been tough the last 24 hours right? It’s been tough. But would want us to be doing this, he would want us to be together, he would want us to be having a good time, which is what we’re doing right now. We love you, Ozzy!,” Halford said.
“This next song is all about him and all of the other greats that we’ve lost. Their music lives forever. They used to be down here on the earth plain, now they’re on the sky plain as we call it. This is ‘Giants In The Sky’!”
Watch Rob Halford’s speech below.
This isn’t the first time Rob Halford and Judas Priest have shared their admiration for Ozzy and the rest of the Black Sabbath gang. While Judas Priest weren’t able to participate in the mammoth ‘Back To The Beginning’ farewell concert earlier this month due to scheduling issues, they shared a nifty cover of Black Sabbath’s ‘War Pigs’ ahead of the show.
Speaking on their unfortunate absence from ‘Back To The Beginning’ earlier this year, Halford shared that Judas Priest weren’t aware of the gig until it was too late. On the same night as the Villa Park show, Judas Priest played a gig with Scorpions in Hannover, celebrating the German hard rock bands’ 60th anniversary. This, Halford explained, was locked in before news of the Black Sabbath event was shared.
Halford also revealed that Sharon Osbourne had offered to fly the band out on a private jet for a quick appearance but they decided not the take the risk due to the chances of technical issues.
While no current member of Judas Priest were able to attend Sabbath’s final show, K.K. Downing – who was the guitarist for the band from their formation up until 2011 – was at the show and represented “the spirit of the band”.
In 2023, Halford picked Black Sabbath’s legendary self-titled debut album as one of the five albums he’d be fine listening to in perpetuity if he were stranded on an island: “The original Black Sabbath album that I think is the motivator for all great things in heavy metal.”
In 2020, the Judas Priest frontman once again picked the same album as one of his 10 favourite albums of all time: “They were local guys from the same neighborhood, the same neck of the woods as Priest. We literally grew up together, inventing this great music that we love and cherish so much called heavy-metal music. I chose the ‘Black Sabbath’ album just because, like so many bands, your first one or two records really establish who you are as a band… With ‘Black Sabbath’, here was the first example of what heavy-metal music should sound like, just the texture, the tone, the structure of all of the material, Ozzy’s very unique voice.”
As well as seeing the last performance from Osbourne, Tony Iommi, Bill Ward and Geezer Butler all together, that massive show also boasted a star-studded line-up, including Guns N’ Roses, KoRn, Tool, Slayer, Pantera, Metallica, Alice In Chains, Gojira and more. It soon went on to become the highest-grossing charity concert of all time, bringing in money for numerous good causes.
Following news of Ozzy’s passing, countless tributes have since poured in from across the music world, including messages from his former bandmates Iommi, Ward and Butler.
The likes of Ghost, Alice Cooper, and Gojira have paid their respects to Osbourne too, while fans have been sharing footage and memories from the legendary artist’s final performances.
Other tributes have come from the likes of Elton John, Yungblud, Billie Joe Armstrong of Green Day, Jack White and many more.
