“He was much quieter than I’d ever known him”: Geezer Butler thinks Ozzy Osbourne “knew he wasn’t long for this world” at final Black Sabbath concert
While fans didn’t know it at the time, Black Sabbath’s final show on 5 July would also prove to be the late Ozzy Osbourne’s final ever live performance – and Geezer Butler believes that the Prince Of Darkness knew the show was his last chance to say goodbye.
Speaking in the latest issue of Uncut, the Sabbath bassist explains that Ozzy seemed to sense his hourglass was running out. Ozzy was a notorious hellraiser throughout his life, chomping down bat heads and snorting lines of ants, but he was relatively quiet at the final show. “At the final show, he was much quieter than I’d ever known him,” he reflects. “Looking back now, I think he knew he wasn’t long for this world.”
READ MORE: “We’ve lost our brother”: Black Sabbath’s Tony Iommi, Geezer Butler and Bill Ward pay tribute to Ozzy Osbourne
Ozzy would eventually pass on 22 July – just over two weeks after Back To The Beginning took place. While Butler believes that the frontman knew his clock was ticking, Ozzy apparently didn’t seem to sense that “he’d leave [this world] so soon” after the performance. The Sabbath frontman had only just moved back to the UK after years in the US, and Butler explains how “Ozzy was looking forward to spending his days back in England”.
Elsewhere in his tribute to Ozzy, Butler reflects on how thankful he is to have been able to perform with his Sabbath bandmates one final time. “I am so grateful that we were able to play one final show together, the original four of us, back in our home town,” he says. “[Ozzy] held on so he could do that gig, to say farewell to the fans.”
“He was emotional, it was so important to him to say goodbye after illness had prevented him from touring for the past six or seven years,” he continues. “He wanted to see his fans one final time, play with his own band and with Sabbath one last time.”
Butler closes off with a heartfelt farewell: “Ozzy was larger than life and his legacy will live forever… He may have been The Prince Of Darkness, but for me he was a family-loving, soft-hearted, and the best friend anyone could ever have.”
Sabbath’s Tony Iommi has also gone on record stating that he believes Ozzy knew that Back To The Beginning would be his grand send-off. “I think he really just held out to do that show,” he told ITV News last month. “Me and Geezer were talking about it last night – we think he held out to do it. Just after [the show], he’d done it and said goodbye to the fans. And that was the end of it, really.”
“He’s built up for it for a while now,” Iommi continued. “He’d been training and trying to do what he can, so he could do this gig… 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.”
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Source: www.guitar-bass.net
