Tony Iommi has recalled his final conversation with Ozzy Osbourne, which took place the night before the music icon died.
The guitarist reflected on the grief he’d experienced for his former Black Sabbath bandmate during a recent interview on the Loudwire Nights podcast.
He spoke about the huge ‘Back To The Beginning’ event at Birmingham’s Villa Park, where both Sabbath and Ozzy staged their last-ever shows. The performances were held just over two weeks before the Prince Of Darkness passed away in July 2025, aged 76.
“He was really happy with it, that we could do it, you know,” Iommi said of the historic concert (via Music Radar).
The musician went on to discuss his last chat with Osbourne. “In fact, I spoke to him the night before he passed,” he remembered. “He said to me, ‘I really feel tired and really worn out’. I said, ‘Well, you’re bound to really, it’s been a lot of stress and pressure and stuff like that’. And the next thing, the next day, [he’s] gone.”
Iommi opened up about how he still struggles to believe that Osbourne is no longer around, saying: “It still feels like he’s there.”
He admitted that he found some elements of the ‘Back To The Beginning’ show hard, because of the frontman’s ill health. “It was difficult because seeing Ozzy sitting in a throne is not the way I see him,” Iommi explained.
“Always [when] we’ve been on stage, he’s been running around, and he’d run up to Geezer [Butler] and pull a face jokingly and come over to me and pull a face or the drummer or whatever. We always had a little laugh on stage and enjoy when he’d run about.”
Iommi continued: “But at ‘Back To The Beginning’, of course, he’s in a throne, and I couldn’t see him, which felt very unusual. I stood back by Bill [Ward]. But it was a great moment, and I’m really glad we could get the opportunity to do it, because I mean, God, we didn’t know he was going to go that quick. - Read the full story on NME
