Ozzy Osbourne on his final ever show: “If I drop down dead at the end, I’ll die a happy man”

As Ozzy Osbourne gears up for his final ever show with Black Sabbath in Birmingham this summer, we’re revisiting what the heavy metal icon had to tell us about the prospect when we spoke to him in 2023.

In what is being billed as “the greatest heavy metal show ever,” the first ever Sabbath line-up of Osbourne, Tony Iommi, Geezer Butler and Bill Ward will head to Villa Park stadium in their hometown of Birmingham on July 5 for a gig dubbed ‘Back To The Beginning’.

It will be Osbourne’s last live performance, and see him playing a short solo set before reuniting with his legendary metal band. Also playing will be the likes of Metallica, Slayer, Pantera, Gojira, Halestorm, Alice In Chains, Lamb Of God, Anthrax and Mastodon.

Osbourne has largely been forced to stop touring due to a combination of Parkinson’s and spinal injuries, which meant that the prospect of this show was up in the air until yesterday’s confirmation.

Speaking to Rolling Stone UK when he became our first ever Rolling Stone UK Icon, Osbourne explained how one final show would let him repay a lifetime’s debt of gratitude to the fans that transformed him into one of the biggest rock stars in the world.

“That’s one of the things I’ve been the most fucking pissed off at: I never got the chance to say goodbye or thank you,” he said. “Because my fans are what it’s all about. If I can just do a few gigs… They’ve been loyal to me for fucking years. They write to me, they know all about my dogs. It’s my extended family really, and they give us the lifestyle we have. For whatever reason, that’s my goal to work to. To do those shows.”

He added: “If I can’t continue doing shows on a regular basis, I just want to be well enough to do one show where I can say, ‘Hi guys, thanks so much for my life.’ That’s what I’m working towards, and if I drop down dead at the end of it, I’ll die a happy man.” 

In 2023, he also underwent a fourth bout of spinal surgery to remedy the damage inflicted by a fall in 2019 which dislodged the metal rods that were put into his body after a serious quad bike crash at his Buckinghamshire home in 2003.

“It’s really knocked me about,” he said. “The second surgery went drastically wrong and virtually left me crippled. I thought I’d be up and running after the second and third, but with the last one they put a fucking rod in my spine. They found a tumour in one of the vertebrae, so they had to dig all that out too. It’s pretty rough, man, and my balance is all fucked up.”

His wife Sharon added: “It’s been nearly five years of heartache, and at times I’ve just felt so helpless and so bad for Ozzy, to see him going through the pain.

“He’s gone through all these operations and the whole thing has felt like a nightmare. He hasn’t lost his sense of humour, but I look at my husband, and he’s here while everyone else is out on the road. This is the longest time he hasn’t ever worked for. Being at home for so long has been so foreign to him.”

Last May, bassist Geezer Butler said that he and Osbourne had “agreed” to play one more show at Birmingham’s Villa Park before he truly retires. It came after Osbourne said he would “jump at the chance” to play a final show with Sabbath and admitted he felt “sad” that drummer Bill Ward was not part of the group’s final show in 2017.

Tickets for ‘Back To The Beginning’ go on sale at 10am GMT on Friday February 14 2025. All profits from the gig will go to Cure Parkinson’s, Birmingham Children’s Hospital and Acorn Children’s Hospice, a Children’s Hospice supported by Aston Villa.