Tony Iommi said he believed Ozzy Osbourne had clung to life to play his farewell show.
The Black Sabbath singer died on July 22 at age 76, after the band’s Back to the Beginning event earlier in the month. He’d been fighting ill health for several years.
In an interview with the UK’s ITV network, Iommi – clearly emotional – said it had still been a shock to him when Osbourne passed.
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“I only had a text from him the day before,” the guitarist explained. “It just seemed unreal – surreal. … In the night, I started thinking, ‘God, am I dreaming all this?’”
He added that Osbourne had “not looked well through the rehearsals,” and continued, “I think he really just held out to do that show. … Me and Geezer were talking about it last night … we think he held out to do it. And just after that, he’s done it and said goodbye to the fans.
“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.”
Watch Tony Iommi’s ITV Interview
Turning to rehearsals for the final show, Iommi said, “We didn’t want him there every day … 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.”
Ozzy Osbourne’s Last Text to Tony Iommi
He speculated that the performance was frustrating for Osbourne, who had to perform from a throne. “He wanted to stand up – you could see he was trying to get up,” the guitarist said.
After the show, the band members, including drummer Bill Ward, went to their separate dressing rooms. “And then [Osbourne] came over; he came around before he was leaving on a wheelchair. They brought him in to say goodbye and have a little chat for a bit. And he seemed all right – he enjoyed it, and he said, ‘Oh, it went all right, didn’t it?’ I said, ‘Yeah, it did.’”
Iommi revealed that Osbourne had texted him hours before his death, “saying he’s tired and he’s really got no energy.” He continued, “And I thought, ‘Oh, dear … ’”
Confirming the show was “the end of the band, and we’ll never do it again,” he asserted: “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.”
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Gallery Credit: Nick DeRiso
