Black Sabbath bassist Geezer Butler has newly spoken at length of last week’s passing of his late bandmate Ozzy Osbourne. That tribute looks all the way back to the the first meeting between the two godfathers of heavy metal, while also touching on their live sendoff at the ‘Back To The Beginning‘ live extravaganza that took place on July 05th in Birmingham, UK.
That particular show was billed as the final live performances for both Ozzy in a solo capacity and with the original lineup of Black Sabbath. However, in the wake of Osbourne‘s July 22nd death, that set also proved to be one of Ozzy‘s final public appearances ever.
Butler‘s tribute was published over at The Times and found him stating that Ozzy‘s ‘Prince Of Darkness’ moniker was a bit of a misnomer, “To me, Ozzy wasn’t the Prince of Darkness — if anything he was the Prince of Laughter. He’d do anything for a laugh, a born entertainer.”
Butler also relayed the final moments he spent with Osbourne ahead of the aforementioned live sendoff and the shock of losing him just weeks afterwards:
“The rehearsals for that final show started a month before at a studio in the Oxfordshire countryside. Tony Iommi, Bill Ward and I ran through seven songs together. Of course, not having played together for 20 years, it took a couple of days to get rid of the rust.
Then it was time for Ozzy to join us. I knew he wasn’t in good health, but I wasn’t prepared to see how frail he was. He was helped into the rehearsal room by two helpers and a nurse and was using a cane — being Ozzy, the cane was black and studded with gold and precious stones.
He didn’t really say much beyond the usual greetings and when he sang, he sat in a chair. We ran through the songs but we could see it was exhausting him after six or seven songs. We had a bit of a chat, but he was really quiet compared with the Ozzy of old. After a couple more weeks we were ready for the show.”
Butler went on to say:
“Nobody knew he’d be gone from us little more than two weeks after the final show. But I am so grateful we got to play one last time together in front of his beloved fans. The love from the fans and all the bands, musicians, singers and solo artists that night was incredible. Everyone had come to pay homage to the Prince.”
