In a new interview with John The Metal Mailman, former SEPULTURA and current SOULFLY frontman Max Cavalera spoke about legendary BLACK SABBATH singer Ozzy Osbourne, who died last month at the age of 76. Asked what his initial reaction was to Ozzy‘s passing, Max said (as transcribed by BLABBERMOUTH.NET): “I think half of me was sad, but the other half of me was, like, ‘Man, this guy, he had it all. He lived a full life.’ If you wanna talk about somebody that had a full life, that’s Ozzy. You couldn’t even plan a better way to go out like that. That’s crazy. You did your last show [just two weeks earlier], and that’s it, man. Fucking incredible.
“I had the honor to hang out with him a bunch of times, and it was cool and I will hold that memory in my heart forever,” Max continued. “It was one of my favorite times in the world, just hanging out with him and talking. And even at the beginning of SOULFLY, he kind of helped me make SOULFLY a reality, telling me to, like, ‘Fuck it. Go for it. Make your new band. Go after your dream,’-type shit. From Ozzy. If you would’ve told a young Max Cavalera, a teenager from Brazil, ‘Yeah, Ozzy‘s gonna help you make a new band,’ [I would have been], like, ‘Fuck you. You’re out of your mind.’
“Yeah, man, it sucks every time we lose a great one like that,” Cavalera added. “[Losing] Brent [Hinds of MASTODON] yesterday, rest in peace, too. Another great guy. I did a bunch of festivals with MASTODON, and Brent was always fun as hell, man. Life-of-the-party type of guy. [That was] very unexpected, man. Very, very kind of out-of-nowhere-type shit.
“The Ozzy thing hit hard from all the times I spent with him, from SEPULTURA opening up for the last SABBATH shows; it was only us and ALICE IN CHAINS. And then all the Ozzfests we did together; I think I did two. We hung out a lot. He came in our bus a couple times — always cool, always fun. And then we did a bunch of really cool shows. We did the BLACK SABBATH at… Man, that was a crazy lineup, BLACK SABBATH in London, at Hyde Park. It was MOTÖRHEAD, SOUNDGARDEN, FAITH NO MORE, BLACK SABBATH and SOULFLY. And I was thinking about that, like half of those bands are not here anymore. It’s crazy.
“I put a little thing on my Instagram for [Ozzy]. I grabbed my iPad by myself, sat under a tree and just get made a thing for him. And I thought, to me, that was the best way to speak my heart. Nobody even filming me, man — nobody holding a camera. Myself with my iPad — I just pressed ‘play’ myself. And it’s like if I’m talking to him; it’s like straight up. That’s what I posted on my Instagram. It was from the heart as it could get.
“But, yeah, [Ozzy is] forever gonna be remembered, man. [He was] one of the greats, for sure.”
Cavalera previously shared his memories of sbourne during an appearance on 12News, the NBC affiliate in Phoenix, Arizona. Asked what kind of guy Ozzy was, Max said:  ”Well, I first met him around ’96 with my old band [SEPULTURA]. And at that time he didn’t come out that much. And we were also — ’cause we’re such fans, we were all scared of him. But then after I broke up with my old band, I started my new band [SOULFLY]. That was at the same time that our son was killed here in Arizona… [Ozzy and Sharon] invited us to their house and we started hanging out more with them. When we did Ozzfest, our kids played together. They went to their house. But, yeah, like I say, I think the image of the wild guy and all that, the times I spent with him, I just thought he was really funny, man.”
Asked if he would describe Ozzy as “kind of a normal guy”, Max said: “I think so. ‘Cause we [would] mostly hang out in backstage and things like that. And there was one time where we were in Sweden, and he asked me, ‘Where are we?’ He had no idea where he was. And I just loved that about him. It was, like, this is so cool. This guy, he’s so rock and roll. He just goes. He doesn’t even know what country he’s [in].”
In a 2014 interview with Phoenix New Times, Max reflected on Ozzy and Sharon‘s kindness after Cavalera‘s stepson Dana passed away. “We were playing Donington [Monsters Of Rock festival] with [Ozzy] and [Ozzy and Sharon] flew us home in their private jet when Dana died,” he said. “It was a horrible thing. We were flying home because Gloria‘s son [Max‘s wife and manager] died, in Ozzy‘s plane. It was horrible. The whole time. It was so dark. I wanted to say something to Gloria and words couldn’t even come out of my mouth. Sharon talks about feeling like we needed a friend at that time and she was able to help us. They didn’t have to do anything. They were just playing a show with us, and yet they showed their true colors. Somebody else could have said, ‘I’m sorry for your loss,’ but they didn’t do that. They put us on their plane, gave us money and gave Gloria a crucifix. It was amazing. Then when I got kicked out of SEPULTURA, it was around January, we were invited to their [Sharon and Ozzy Osbourne] house for a dinner because Ozzy wanted to encourage me to go on. That’s how felt, like he should do something. I went to their house and sat down. Ozzy sat me down and said, ‘Fuck them. Fuck those guys. You need to get up off your ass and do something.’ It was awesome to hear that from him and I needed to hear that. He played me some BLACK SABBATH demos and it blew my mind. It was fucking awesome to hear that from him. I was tripping the whole time. I never even imagined I would do that. You know, like when I was a kid in Brazil, if you would have told me I would sit down with Ozzy, fucking BLACK SABBATH, I wouldn’t have believed it.”
Ozzy died on July 22 of a heart attack, his death certificate revealed. The certificate filed in London also said Osbourne suffered from coronary artery disease and Parkinson’s disease.
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 his wife bought in 1993 in Buckinghamshire, England. Only 110 of the singer’s friends and family members attended the service.
