In a new interview with The Logan Show, former MEGADETH bassist David Ellefson spoke about legendary BLACK SABBATH singer Ozzy Osbourne who died late last month at the age of 76. He said (as transcribed by BLABBERMOUTH.NET): ”He certainly defied the odds, from the lifestyle that he had led earlier in his career. I think a lot of that had changed in recent years.”
Reflecting on the publicity surrounding the “Back To The Beginning” event, which marked Ozzy and BLACK SABBATH‘s final performance, Ellefson said: “Leading into the gig, obviously, was huge. The week of the show [was] amazing. The week after was amazing. And the news feeds were still full of content, everybody just feeling the love, the emotion of the event. And then [Ozzy] passes, [which] was just a whole other week of mourning. And then a couple days ago was the memorial and then, I guess yesterday, the funeral. So it’s been a month of just feelings all over.
“I think there’s a few things that we can all agree on,” Ellefson continued. “It’s so much better to celebrate someone’s life… ‘Cause look, Ozzy knew he was dying. We all knew the day was coming here. I think we all thought it was going to be some time off in the distance — not so soon. That was, of course, shocking. But to celebrate with him rather than just this heavy mourning after the fact. The fact that we got to celebrate with him — all of us, not just those of us who are at the show, but everybody around the world — it just showed the significance of what he meant to all of us. And then to be able to sort of turn the celebration into mourning, it was different than this shocking news that someone passes, which is usually what happens. Suddenly someone passes, and you’re, like, ‘Oh my gosh. I had no idea. We didn’t know.’ So I think the way that the Osbourne family, the way [Ozzy‘s wife and manager] Sharon, everybody did it was very cool of them to sort of give us this advance warning, that we could sort of all wrap our arms around Ozzy, the family, our community. And I think the thing that I saw was this wasn’t just rockers and metalheads. I mean, country, pop… I saw a letter from Kermit The Frog. I mean, come on. This thing crossed so many genres of life. Not even music, Sports people, everybody was weighing in on this. I saw something — even Texas, San Antonio, where he peed on the Alamo. Now they’re proud. ‘Ozzy peed here.’ They were obviously not promoting that, but they were proud that he’s part of the legacy of their state.
“I feel like there hasn’t been a significant event like this, of this level probably since the funeral and the passing of Queen Elizabeth,” David added. “That was probably the last worldwide monumental event of this magnitude — ironically from England. And I feel like there’s a new royal family: it’s the Osbournes. It’s kind of like Sharon‘s now the Queen of England. They needed a new one, and she’s the one. And it just goes to show the magnitude of this thing.
“Our world has been so divisive, especially since January. It has just been nothing but turmoil, divisiveness, pitting everybody against each other. And this last month, the irony that Ozzy Osbourne would be the one to bring us all together, and through his music, through his life, that they brought us all together rather than everything that’s been dividing us,” Ellefson concluded. “So, there’s just so many layers that you can unpack from all of this and just kind of the divine timing of it all that it’s incredible. It just moves you to emotions. You get goosebumps just thinking about it.”
On July 23, Ellefson spoke to Fox 10 Phoenix ‘s Ron Hoon and Syleste Rodriguez about where he was when he found out about Ozzy‘s death a day earlier. David said: “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.”
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).
A private funeral service for Ozzy was held on July 31 on the 250-acre grounds of the house the legendary BLACK SABBATH singer and Sharon bought in 1993 in Buckinghamshire, England. Only 110 of the singer’s friends and family members attended the service, including his SABBATH bandmates, Robert Trujillo (METALLICA),Rob Zombie, Zakk Wylde, Marilyn Manson and Corey Taylor (SLIPKNOT).
The day before the private funeral, thousands of fans gathered in the streets of Birmingham to pay tribute to Ozzy. His wife and manager Sharon, along with their children Aimée, Kelly and Jack, joined mourners for the emotional tribute.
According to The New York Times, Ozzy died of a heart attack. A death certificate filed at a registry in London and submitted by Osbourne‘s daughter Aimée Rose Osbourne also indicates that the legendary BLACK SABBATH singer had suffered from coronary artery disease and Parkinson’s disease. The certificate, which lists his occupation as “Songwriter, Performer and Rock Legend”, further states that Osbourne died of “(a) Out of hospital cardiac arrest (b) Acute myocardial infarction (c) Coronary artery disease and Parkinson’s disease with autonomic dysfunction (Joint Causes),” according to The New York Times. The document also says that the heart attack occurred “out of hospital.”
Ozzy died the morning of 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.
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 final concert saw him and his fellow original SABBATH bandmates Tony Iommi, Geezer Butler and Bill Ward perform four songs for more than 40,000 people in the stadium and 5.8 million more on a livestream. The festival served as a tribute to the legendary heavy metal act, including additional performances from such other groups as METALLICA, GUNS N’ ROSES, SLAYER, TOOL, PANTERA and ALICE IN CHAINS. Ozzy also played a five-song solo set while seated in a bat-adorned throne.
Osbourne leaves behind his wife, Sharon, and their children, Aimée, Kelly and Jack, as well his two older children, Jessica and Louis, from his first marriage to Thelma Riley, and grandchildren.
Photo credit: Maciej Pieloch (courtesy of Napalm Records)
