Ozzy Osbourne’s Black Sabbath bandmate Tony Iommi believes singer “held out to do that show” as he recalls fond memories

Tony Iommi, British heavy metal band Black Sabbath’s co-founder and guitarist is of the opinion that his late bandmate Ozzy Osbourne waited to perform at the band’s farewell concert before passing away. Osbourne, who died on July 22, performed at Villa Park in Birmingham, UK, on July 5 with the original members, Iommi, Geezer Butler and Bill Ward.

During a conversation with ITV News, Iommi commented on the concert’s significance for Osbourne amid his health struggles, notably with Parkinson’s disease, and said,

“As I said before, he's not looked well for, through the rehearsals. And I think he really just held out to do that show. I really feel, and me and Geezer were talking about it last night, that he thinks, we think he held out to do it and just after that he's done it and said goodbye to the fans, you know, and that was the end of it really.”

Iommi also opened up about the magnitude of the performance for Osbourne, and noted,

“He's built up for it for a while now. He's been sort of training and trying to do what he can to, so he could do this gig, so he could do it. And that’s really what he wanted to do. I think he must have had something in his head that said, ‘Well, this is going to be it. The last thing I'm ever going to do.’ Whether he thought he was going to die or I don't know. But he really wanted to do it and he was determined to do it. And fair dues, he’d done it, you know.”

 

 

 

 

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A post shared by Ozzy Osbourne (@ozzyosbourne)

Tony Iommi reminisced about time with Ozzy Osbourne

In his interview with ITV News, Tony Iommi, who was in the same school as Ozzy Osbourne in Birmingham back when the bandmates were young, recalled how special the star rocker was. He said,

“God, I mean, we go back so many years. I mean, I knew Ozzy before everybody because we went to the same school and so yeah, I'd remember him as, he was always funny. Ozzy was Ozzy, there's never going to be another Ozzy.”

Recalling Osbourne’s crazy antics on stage, Iommi added,

“He did do some funny antics. And we did have a laugh on stage. As much as we're serious about the music, we’d always have this thing and Ozzy'd always come over to me and pull faces, you know, of course the audience couldn’t see that and he'd be pulling all these funny faces and I'd just crack up. Then he'd go over to Geezer and do the same. He's just that sort of person. He was, he was a showman.”

The Villa Park concert, which was titled ‘Back to the Beginning,’ featured Black Sabbath tracks such as Iron Man, Paranoid and Crazy Train, as per USA Today. Iommi opened up about the difficulties Osbourne faced during rehearsals for the show, and told ITV News,

“It's a lot for him to do that, under the problems he's got, you know, and we could see it in rehearsal. We didn’t want him there every day at rehearsal because it’s too much. He just, 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 and that's sort of what we did really.”

 

 

 

 

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Nevertheless, Iommi was glad that the band performed together one last time. He noted,

“And, but the gig was for him really and for us to say goodbye because also, Sabbath saying goodbye was the end of the band. We'll never do that again.”

Ozzy Osbourne’s other bandmates also mourned the vocalist’s passing

Ozzy Osbourne and Tony Iommi’s bandmate, Geezer Butler also fondly remembered the band’s last concert together, as he took to social media to pen a tribute to Osbourne. He wrote,

“Goodbye dear friend- thanks for all those years- we had some great fun. 4 kids from Aston- who’d have thought, eh? So glad we got to do it one last time, back in Aston.”

 

 

 

 

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A post shared by Geezer Butler (@geezerbutler)

Meanwhile, Bill Ward wrote of how Osbourne will be remembered by the drummer. Ward wrote on Instagram,

“Where will I find you now?  In the memories, our unspoken embraces, our missed phone calls, no, you’re forever in my heart…RIP Sincere regrets to all the fans. Never goodbye. Thank you forever.”

As per The Guardian, Black Sabbath’s last concert featured Osbourne seated on a bat-themed throne.