When Ozzy Osbourne appeared on stage earlier this month, for what would be his final ever show, it marked the most majestic of rock ‘n’ roll send-offs for the Prince of Darkness.
‘I don’t know what to say, man, I’ve been laid up for like six years,’ the emotional musician told the 42,000 fans gathered at Villa Park in Birmingham, as he sat on a winged, black throne. ‘You have no idea how I feel – thank you from the bottom of my heart.’
It was a poignant farewell from the Black Sabbath frontman, who died on Tuesday at the age of 76. All the more poignant because, as the Daily Mail can reveal, his health issues were so serious loved ones feared he wouldn’t even survive the concert.
As well as Parkinson’s disease, which Ozzy was diagnosed with in 2019, he also had problems with his back, neck, neuropathy – pain or numbness caused by nerve damage – and even his internal organs.
‘He was in so much pain, he had some very bad days,’ a heartbroken friend told the Mail through tears yesterday. ‘He knew for a while that he was on borrowed time really. He was so ill that, in that rock and roll tradition, he could have died on stage.’
Instead, he passed away 17 days later, at Welders House, the beautiful Buckinghamshire estate he and wife Sharon bought for an undisclosed sum in 1993, with four of his children – Louis, Aimee, Jack and Kelly – by his side.
Friends believe heartbroken Sharon may now bury Ozzy in the gardens of the 350-acre estate in an intimate family funeral, as she is ‘too frail’ to go through a larger, public service.
Doctors had previously warned that Birmingham-born Ozzy was not well enough to travel back to the UK from Los Angeles, where he and Sharon had lived for around 30 years.
In the end Ozzy, who had been relying on a wheelchair since February, made it back to Buckinghamshire only last month and spent his time ‘training’ so that he would be well enough to perform five songs at Black Sabbath’s farewell show.
Describing his final days, my insider says: ‘There was no infection that we knew of. We all knew that he was going. In the end, he died peacefully at home with all the family with him.
‘It’s a lovely house and Sharon wanted to bring him back from LA. I don’t know if she will feel strong enough to have a big memorial for all the people who want to say goodbye to him. We think she may want to bury him privately at home, in the garden.’
This is what Sandra Cash, the widow of rock guitarist Jeff Beck, did for her husband when he died suddenly of bacterial meningitis in January 2023.
