“Two weeks before the show, they said he could die. But he wanted to do it so bad”: Sharon Osbourne on Ozzy’s insistence to perform one last time at Back to the Beginning
Held in July 2025, Back to the Beginning marked Black Sabbath’s last-ever show, with a who’s who of metal’s elite – including, to name a few, Metallica, Slayer, Pantera, Gojira and Lamb of God – gathering at Birmingham’s Villa Park for the heavy metal founders’ swansong.
The event culminated in a short but showstopping set from Black Sabbath, with a frail, throne-bound Ozzy Osbourne performing War Pigs, N.I.B., Iron Man and Paranoid alongside guitarist Tony Iommi, bassist Geezer Butler and drummer Bill Ward one last time to a crowd of tens of thousands of heavy metal disciples.
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Ozzy – then 76 – had been battling a number of health conditions for years, including Parkinson’s, which caused worsening mobility in the later years of his life.
And as his widow and longtime manager Sharon Osbourne explains in a new interview of the Dumb Blonde celebrity podcast, her husband “knew” he didn’t have long to live as preparations reached their peak ahead of Back to the Beginning.
“Two weeks before the show, they said he could probably die, and he did,” Sharon says [via Blabbermouth]. “But he wanted to do it so bad. He needed it. And it’s, like, ‘Whether I die in two weeks or I die in six months, I’m still dying. And I wanna go my way.’ And he did. He went like a rock star.”
Sharon says that the love and tributes to Ozzy Osbourne and his illustrious career at Back to the Beginning were “bittersweet” because they “knew” Ozzy didn’t have much time left.
“Ozzy had sepsis earlier on last year,” she continues. “And very few people ever walk away from that without losing a limb or their life… And as soon as he got sepsis, the kids and I, we knew it was time. And then when we went to England, he went into hospital for a week. And when he came out, they said, ‘You know, Ozzy, this could kill you.’ And he said, ‘I’m doing my show.’ He went out like a king.”
Sharon goes on: “The thing is when you’ve lived your life that way, and it was like, ‘Okay, six months more to go out the way I wanna go out.’ It’s like saying, when you get really old and somebody’s still smoking and they’re, like, 78 years of age, and you’re like, ‘Just let him smoke. Leave him alone. He’s 78. Leave him alone.’
“[Ozzy] went the way he wanted to go. He knew. He knew.”
Sharon also reflects on the moments surrounding Ozzy’s death: “It was so quick. And thank God. I knew when they were trying to revive him, I knew. I’m, like, ‘Don’t. Don’t do it. Leave him.’ “He was done. But again, he went out like a rock star.”
In terms of how she is coping in the wake of Ozzy’s death at the age of 76, Sharon says: “I’m getting there. It’s hard. Jesus, it’s hard, but I’m getting there. I’m gonna keep working and I’m gonna keep doing what I do in my life. And that’s it.”
The post “Two weeks before the show, they said he could die. But he wanted to do it so bad”: Sharon Osbourne on Ozzy’s insistence to perform one last time at Back to the Beginning appeared first on Guitar.com | All Things Guitar.
Source: www.guitar-bass.net
