Judas Priest‘s Rob Halford has recalled the heartbreaking moment he found out that Ozzy Osbourne had died.
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The heavy metal pioneer frontman died last month (July 22) at age 76. In a statement, his family shared that he was “surrounded by love” at the time of his passing. His death came just weeks after he played a final live show in his hometown, and raised “a ton” of money for charity along the way.
The farewell ‘Back To The Beginning’ show with Black Sabbath featured performances from a massive roster of rock and metal acts – though Judas Priest were notably missing. Ahead of the concert, Halford shared that the band had already committed to another show before they were informed that Sabbath’s final show had been confirmed, and that he was “gutted” that he couldn’t make the show.
Now, Halford has reflected on his reaction upon hearing that Osbourne had died just two weeks later. Speaking to Detroit radio station WRIF, Halford recalled: “Oh, man. I got a call the day [Ozzy’s death] happened. I just put the phone down in my hotel room in — I think I was in Leeds, in England, and I just curled up in a ball and bawled my eyes out for hours. I just couldn’t believe it. I still can’t believe it now. I’m still grieving, like so many people.”
“And then we had a show the next day. So, God, how do you process all of this tragedy, all of this love, because I’ve never seen such an outpouring of love. And we did the show and we came to the song that we’ll be playing when we come to see you guys — it’s called ‘Giants in the Sky,’ from the Invincible Shield album — and that song talks about people that we love in music that have moved on to this beautiful place. We reference Lemmy and Ronnie [James Dio] and Paul Di’Anno [of Iron Maiden] and Jill [Janus from] Huntress and Chris [Cornell] and all of these greats, Janis Joplin, Freddie Mercury. And then for that show we added Ozzy at the end.”
“It’s great that we are talking about him now and we should keep talking about him forever, like I always talk about Ronnie, I talk about Lemmy,” Halford continued. “These are all friends of mine. And we have to celebrate — we have to celebrate. That’s the way of helping you through the grief. You think about the memories, you think about the joy, you think about the good times, and that’s what we will always do with Ozzy.”
Since his passing, thousands of fans have taken to the streets of Birmingham to leave flowers and emotional tributes to the Black Sabbath icon, and thousands more lined the streets on July 31 for the funeral procession. Ozzy was laid to rest at a private ceremony in Buckinghamshire, which was attended by Elton John, members of Metallica and more.
Countless names have come forward to pay tribute to Ozzy, including Zak Starkey, Adam Sandler, Ghost’s Tobias Forge, Alice Cooper, Elton John, Yungblud, Billie Joe Armstrong, Jack White, Coldplay, Gojira and Jake E Lee. Touching messages have also been shared by his Sabbath bandmates Tony Iommi, Bill Ward and Geezer Butler.
A BBC documentary, Coming Home, was set to air on August 18 on iPlayer at 9pm, but was pulled from its programming at the last minute. The BBC have since explained their reason for doing so, saying it was in order to respect the wishes of Ozzy Osbourne‘s family.
“Our sympathies are with the Osbourne family at this difficult time,” the broadcaster said via BBC News. “We are respecting the family’s wishes to wait a bit longer before airing this very special film. The new [transmission] date will be confirmed shortly.”
Apart from the BBC documentary, there have also been reports that a biopic based on Ozzy and Sharon’s relationship is still in the works.
Ozzy’s death certificate lists his cause of death as a heart attack, while also mentioning that he was suffering from coronary heart disease and Parkinson’s. It also listed his occupation as “Songwriter, Performer and Rock Legend”.
