Legendary crooner Pat Boone has paid tribute to his friend and former next-door neighbor Ozzy Osbourne, who died on Tuesday (July 22) at the age of 76.

The 90-years-old Boone, who has sold over 45 million records, took to his social media to write: “I am stunned. I can’t believe that my former next-door neighbor and good friend has passed suddenly.

“When he and Sharon and the kids lived next-door to me for a couple of years, we weren’t rock stars comparing careers — we were just friends and neighbors getting along just fine.

“I was amazed when Sharon picked my version of Ozzy‘s ‘Crazy Train’ as the opening theme of their hugely successful reality TV show.

“Others may celebrate his incredible rocking style and hard rock music — but I’ll always remember his warm friendliness as my next-door neighbor. God bless you, Ozzy.”

In a 2012 interview with Gadfly Online, Boone was asked how Osbourne was as a neighbor. He responded: “We were neighbors for three years, and he was really about as nice a neighbor as you could hope for. The only time there were any problems was when loud music was coming across Ozzy‘s wall. However, I now know that it was his kids, Kelly and Jack, and their friends, who were making all the ruckus. It wasn’t Ozzy or Sharon.

“I’ve visited in their home — they invited me over for tea — and I talked to Ozzy. We took pictures for Rolling Stone magazine. I was out in the back, supposedly helping Ozzy, as his next door neighbor, clean his pool, trim his roses and do some gardening. This, of course, was just for the photos. However, at one point we were standing in the kitchen and Ozzy said, ‘You know, I’ve been straight for seven months now. I go to AA every day.’ And then he said, ‘I even do the odd bit of praying now and then.’ I said, ‘Well, that’s not odd to me, Ozzy.’ So we developed a relationship. Later in their show, Ozzy said a number of times that Pat Boone was the best neighbor he’d ever had and he wished that I was still his neighbor. So, I guess the fact that I never complained about the loud music and we had some really nice pleasant visits made an impression. You can’t program that, and you can’t strategize it. You just simply roll with it.”

Boone covered “Crazy Train” on his 1997 release “In A Metal Mood – No More Mr. Nice Guy”.

As a neighbor, Boone previously said his “fondest memory … was riding bikes with Sharon through Beverly Hills on the sidewalks, and she’s towing Ozzy behind her in a wagon because [of his] balance problem.”

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.