Judas Priest singer Rob Halford revealed in May that he was “gutted” to miss Ozzy Osbourne‘s final show with Black Sabbath at July’s Back to the Beginning concert. Halford, who, like Ozzy, is from Birmingham, England, was, unfortunately, double-booked on July 5, slated to play a 60th anniversary show with the Scorpions in Hanover, Germany that day.
Now, following Osbourne’s death on July 22 at age 76 from a heart attack, Halford is opening up about his grief following the loss of the fellow Metal icon who meant so much to him. In an interview with Talkin’ Rock with Meltdown, Halford, 73, described getting a call on the day Osbourne passed and just losing it. “I just put the phone down in my hotel room… and I just curled up in a ball and bawled my eyes out for hours,” he said.
“I just couldn’t believe it. I still can’t believe it now,” Halford added. “I’m still grieving like so many people.” Halford said Priest had a show the next day and he described struggling to process “all this tragedy, all this love, because I’ve never seen such an outpouring of love.” But just like other times when the band had to perform after losing one of their beloved musical compatriots, the show went on and Priest played a tune called “Giants in the Sky” from the band’s 2024 Invincible Shield album about legends that have moved on from this world. The song features the now apropos refrain, “Homage to the legends/ Till the bitter end/ Leaving such a legacy my friends/ Giants in the sky/ You won’t ever die.”
During that show, Halford said he referenced Motorhead’s Lemmy Kilmister, Ronnie James Dio, Janis Joplin, Freddie Mercury and, for that night, Ozzy. “I said to everybody, this is so much to try and comprehend and so tough. But Ozzy would say ‘Let’s party. Let’s rock and roll. Let’s live it up, let’s enjoy.’ That was in his heart, his soul and his spirit. Whenever we did shows together he would always say to me, ‘Did you have a good time?,’” Halford explained.
Halford recalled Osbourne’s generosity and caring nature, as well as his musical feats with Sabbath and as a solo act. “He was the embodiment of kindness in that respect,” he said. The leather and studs rocker suggested that we should keep talking about and celebrating Ozzy and his legacy, to get through the grief by thinking about the joy and good times. And, in Priest’s case, by continuing to perform Sabbath’s “War Pigs” at the top of their shows.
Osbourne died 17 days after playing his final show, where he played a solo set and a reunion gig with the original Sabbath lineup at Birmingham’s Villa Park alongside fellow metal legends including Guns N’ Roses, Tool, Metallica, Gojira and many more.
Watch Halford discuss his grief over Osbourne’s death below.
