On Wednesday, July 23, former MEGADETH bassist David Ellefson spoke to Fox 10 Phoenix ‘s Ron Hoon and Syleste Rodriguez about where he was when he found out about Ozzy Osbourne‘s death a day earlier. David said (as transcribed by BLABBERMOUTH.NET): “Well, it’s funny, I think that is a question that’s gonna be with all of us: where were you when you heard the news [about Ozzy dying]? So I was literally in the [Battery] studio [in London]. I was right downstairs. We were just taking a break ’cause we were working here yesterday as well. We’re doing some video and some promotional work here. I was downstairs on the couch. Our guitar player, Walter, comes down the stairs and he says, ‘Did you hear that Ozzy might have died?’ And he sends over the clip from Sky News. And I immediately hit [GUNS N’ ROSES guitarist] Slash, ’cause he and I are friends. We had just played together at the ‘Back To The Beginning’ event up in Birmingham, the final farewell show. I said, ‘Is this for real?’ He goes, ‘I don’t know. It looks pretty big.’ And sure enough, as it started to come out, Eric Singer from KISS had called our singer Jeff [Scott Soto] and [said] it’s confirmed, yes, it’s true. And it just very quickly became this just shocking news.”
David went on to reflect on the last time he saw Ozzy on July 5 when both he and Osbourne performed at the “Back To The Beginning” event in Birmingham, United Kingdom. He said: “Obviously, we were all wondering, ‘Is this gonna work?’ And of course it did. [Ozzy] performed, both with the Ozzy Osbourne band and with BLACK SABBATH. And after the show, there was a VIP area that [Ozzy‘s wife and manager] Sharon gave me and a few of us some tickets to go to, some passes. So we hung out there. And ironically, they bring Ozzy in. I see him, he waves me over. We have a minute to just talk, and he’s glowing. There’s this after-show glow you get right after performing, especially at a stadium gig like that. And he looked fantastic. He was sitting down, he was in his chair, but he looked like he was just the king of the ball, as he was. The funny thing was his daughter Kelly Osbourne was there, and right in front of me, front row of this event, her boyfriend proposes to her, which she’s put this on her social media. He gets down on his knee and gives her a ring and proposes marriage. And there’s Sharon and Ozzy, and I was, like, ‘Oh my God. It’s like being in the Osbournes‘ living room right now, watching this whole thing happen.’ It was just such a beautiful moment.”
Ellefson added: “The whole show was just fantastic. Anyone who sees obviously everything on social media or if you happened to see the livestream, it was heavy metal Live Aid. It had that special feeling about it, and it sounded so well with us.”
Addressing Ozzy‘s legacy and the fact that Osbourne was considered one of the inventors of heavy metal with his band BLACK SABBATH, David said: “Look, Ozzy was our Elvis [Presley]. And I remember, I was 13 years old. My mom was a big Elvis fan. I grew up on a farm in Minnesota, and I remember the day Elvis died, time stood still. The world stopped. And that’s what it felt like [on Tuesday, when Ozzy died] and even feels like today [one day after the fact]. It’s just like time has stood still.
“I think the beauty of it is the way the [‘Back To The Beginning’] event happened — obviously, we all knew the end was coming for Ozzy; the end was near, with his health condition. So rather than throwing a concert afterwards to remember him, it’s like we did the show in advance so we could all say goodbye to him,” David added. “He could say goodbye to all of us and all of his fans. And it’s kind of like we got to have the memorial and the wake and the celebration of life before he actually passed. And I think that was just such a remarkable thing, because now that he’s gone, we have great memories of him and having just seen him and performed for us, rather than going, ‘Gosh, I, I sure wish I could have seen him one last time.’ So I think that there, there is a little bit of kind of divine beauty in how it all has played out, actually.”
Ozzy died Tuesday morning (July 22),his family announced in a statement.
“It is with more sadness than mere words can convey that we have to report that our beloved Ozzy Osbourne has passed away this morning. He was with his family and surrounded by love. We ask everyone to respect our family privacy at this time,” the family said.
No cause of death was given, but Osbourne had battled a number of health issues over the past several years, including Parkinson’s disease and injuries he sustained from a late-night fall in 2019.
Ozzy‘s death came a little more than two weeks after he took the stage for his final performance with BLACK SABBATH at Villa Park in the band’s original hometown of Birmingham, United Kingdom. They performed four songs for more than 40,000 people in the stadium and 5.8 million more on a livestream. Ozzy also played a five-song solo set while seated in a bat-adorned throne.
At “Back To The Beginning”, Ellefson took part in the first of two hastily assembled supergroups which performed at the event. David played “The Ultimate Sin” (with Lzzy Hale, Nuno Bettencourt, Jake E. Lee, Mike Bordin and Adam Wakeman),“Shot In The Dark” (with David Draiman, Jake E. Lee, Mike Bordin and Adam Wakeman) and “Sweet Leaf” (with David Draiman, Nuno Bettencourt, Scott Ian, Mike Bordin and Adam Wakeman).
