Ozzy Osbourne Describes Final Concert in Posthumous Memoir: “It Didn't Feel Like a Funeral”

Prior to his passing on July 22nd, Ozzy Osbourne completed writing the final entries in his new memoir, Last Rites, which is set to be released this Tuesday, October 7th (pre-order here). In a newly shared excerpt, the metal icon reflected on his performance at the “Back to the Beginning” concert, saying, “It didn’t feel like a funeral. It felt like a celebration.”

Ozzy performed his final concert as both as solo artist and as frontman of Black Sabbath on July 5th at Villa Park in his hometown of Birmingham, England, as part of a daylong event that also featured sets by Metallica, Guns N’ Roses, Slayer, Tool, and many more acts.

Sadly, the metal legend died 17 days later at his home in Buckinghamshire, England. In between the concert and his passing. Ozzy wrote about the performance for his memoir, as excerpted by The Times, and he ominously referenced his impending death on more than one occasion.

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“Well … I made it,” wrote Ozzy. “Back to England. Back to Birmingham. Back to the beginning, as my final gig was called. For a while I was convinced my last trip home would be in a pine f***ing box.”

After detailing all his health struggles over the past several years, Ozzy mentioned that he had another health scare right before the show:

“Three days after we finally got to England I was back in hospital. My blood pressure kept me there for eight days, during which I had nothing to do but worry. Because the show kept getting bigger. As all these huge names were announced — Guns N’ Roses, Metallica, Steven Tyler from Aerosmith — I was like, holy f***, it’s gonna be like metal’s answer to Live Aid. Lying in bed at night I’d be like, I can’t go, I can’t do this. I kept saying to Sharon, we’d better get a video made ’cos there’ll be an empty stage. She just looked at me like I was mad. She knows me better than I do. She knew I was just scared.”

He then reflected on the show itself, writing the following:

“I choked up when I started ‘Mama, I’m Coming Home.’ I mean, it’s Sharon’s song, y’know? One of her favourites. Lemmy [the late founder of Motörhead] wrote it with the two of us in mind. That alone was enough to bring tears to my eyes. But the feeling I had was about more than that. It was my last hurrah. I’d made it to the stage after six traumatic years, after losing the ability to walk or do anything on my own. It was just the whole thing, all of it coming together.

I just couldn’t hold in my emotions any more. Out in the crowd, everyone was holding up the lights on their phones. Someone said in the papers it was like I was attending my own wake, which would be a very metal thing to do. But it didn’t feel like a funeral. It felt like a celebration. There was so much love in that stadium, coming at me in waves. I had tears streaming down my face, but I felt so uplifted. The crowd noticed I was struggling, and they started singing back the words. I’ve been so lucky to have had so many wonderful fans. God bless you all.”

As mentioned, Ozzy’s posthumous memoir, Last Rites, arrives this Tuesday, and is available to order from Amazon. On that same night, Paramount+ will premiere the documentary Ozzy: No Escape From Now, detailing the last several years of the legendary singer’s life.