“I’d be like, I have to say a couple of prayers to John Paul II, Mother Teresa, and the big guy”: Zakk Wylde was scared Ozzy Osbourne wouldn’t get through Black Sabbath’s final concert
Zakk Wylde has been reflecting on the final Black Sabbath show that took place in July, and has shared his awe at how Ozzy Osbourne managed to pull through despite his health struggles.
The band’s final gig took place at Villa Park in Birmingham, UK earlier this summer, and formed part of one giant celebration of all things metal, all while raising money for charity. Osbourne sadly passed away just a matter of weeks later, and his loss was felt deeply across the world by both fans and fellow artists.
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Wylde, who joined Osbourne’s solo band in 1987, previously shared how challenging the final gig was to pull off. While his main concern was ensuring that Osbourne himself was doing okay, he also said that pretty much everything was pulled off on the fly.
Further looking back at the big day and his time spent playing for Osbourne in a new interview with Rock Feed, Wylde says the Prince of Darkness somehow always managed to tough out his shows.
“[With] Ozz, you’re talking about fortitude and persistence and just refusing… I mean, I even wrote to him after the show. I was like, ‘Ozz, so proud of you, man.’ He never quit. Like, never quit. I can’t tell you how many times his voice would be banged up,” he explains (via Ultimate Guitar).
“I’d be like, ‘I have to say a couple of prayers to John Paul II, Mother Teresa, and the big guy’, several times during the show… But he’d always end up pulling through these gigs. I mean, I’d always stare at him in amazement and just go, ‘That’s my hero, man,’ all the time.”
Another player who has since looked back on their last interaction with Osbourne is Nuno Bettencourt. Though now known for his stellar guitar work in Extreme, Bettencourt was offered a job with Osbourne in the 1990s, but turned it down as he was busy with his own band. He’d also previously auditioned to play for him as a teenager, but didn’t get selected.
“The last words we said to each other when we took the big group photo, I grabbed his hand, saying, ‘Thank you for everything, and thank you, Ozzy, for what you mean to me,’” Bettencourt told Page Six at the VMAs.
“He pulls me in by the hand. He goes, ‘You were the only guitar player who said no to me.’ But he laughed! He goes, ‘I love you and thank you for being here.’”
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Source: www.guitar-bass.net
