Metallica’s Rob Trujillo on Ozzy Osbourne’s “Very Beautiful” Private Funeral: “There Were a Lot of Tears”

Metallica’s Rob Trujillo was among the select few who attended Ozzy Osbourne’s small private funeral held on July 31st at the Osbourne’s Birminghamshire estate.

Before joining Metallica, Trujillo played bass in Ozzy’s solo band in the late 1990s, co-writing material on the 2001 album Down to Earth. The bassist was joined by numerous musical colleagues of Ozzy’s at the July 31st service, including the three surviving members of Black Sabbath — Tony Iommi, Geezer Butler, and Bill Ward — as well as Slipknot’s Corey Taylor, Zakk Wylde, Marilyn Manson, and more.

Trujillo opened up about the funeral and his recollections of the day in a new interview on SiriusXM’s “Trunk Nation with Eddie Trunk.”

“It was a small group of people, but it was very, very beautiful,” he told Trunk [as transcribed by Blabbermouth]. “And in the end, the speeches were actually… I mean, it was very sad, but at the same time some of the speeches were — as you could imagine — pretty funny. And there were a lot of tears… Geezer broke down into tears. He had a hard time, obviously, speaking, and then he came back up and he delivered an amazing eulogy.”

Trujillo continued, “It had been raining at the beginning of the service… and then as it sort of progressed through the service, the weather would change and different things would happen. When Kelly [Osbourne] was singing, her lyrics flew — the wind blew her lyrics away. It was almost like Ozzy was having fun with her. And then when Geezer spoke, actually spoke, the sun came out. I’m not kidding. The sun actually came out, and then it was beautiful from that moment on — a very magical moment.”

Trujillo went on to say that the funeral felt like “closure.”

“People [were] sharing stories,” he added. “And all of a sudden, there was laughter, and ‘I remember this’, ‘I remember that’. There were so many stories. … And I’m glad that we went — my wife Chloe and I went — and shared that and were able to have that moment with the family and everything. So it was very beautiful. And again, heartfelt words from so many people and kind of reconnecting with different musicians and bandmates, crew members, all that.”

As previously reported, a procession through Birmingham preceded the private service the day prior, with thousands of fans gathering along the streets to pay their final respects to the Prince of Darkness. It was later revealed that Ozzy’s official cause of death was an out of hospital heart attack.