Ozzy Osbourne once opened up to NME about the impact of losing Motörhead icon Lemmy, saying that his death “fucked me up bad”.
The Black Sabbath frontman and legendary soloist died yesterday (Tuesday July 22), aged 76. It came shortly after Osbourne played his final live shows at Sabbath’s huge ‘Back To The Beginning’ event in Birmingham earlier this month.
In a statement, his family wrote: “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.”
Tributes have since poured in from across the music world and beyond, with messages coming from his former bandmates Tony Iommi, Bill Ward and Geezer Butler. “So glad we got to do it one last time, back in Aston,” the latter wrote. “Love you.”
As fans mourn the Prince Of Darkness, NME is looking back on a 2020 interview in which Osbourne spoke about Lemmy’s death, aged 70, in 2015. This followed Osbourne telling us that his greatest achievement was “staying alive”.
“When Lemmy died it fucked me up bad”, he explained. “He was a good man. To look at Lemmy you’d think he had about two brain cells, but he was very knowledgeable.”
Osbourne continued: “I wish you could have seen his apartment – fucking hell! It was like the Imperial War Museum. I used to buy Nazi daggers for him when I was on the road and bring them back for him. He must have had 10,000 fucking German daggers.”
Lemmy’s passing was particularly hard for Osbourne because the pair had been brothers in arms for so long. “I’ll never forget that when I did my first solo tour in America, Motörhead opened up for me,” he recalled to NME.
“We had a few days off so I went round to Sharon’s father’s house and Lemmy came with us. Eventually it was time to go back on tour, but I’d been doing coke all fucking week. I come out into the yard and Lemmy comes out and his face is fucking whiter than a ghost.
“He looks at me and he goes: ‘Fuck me man, I hope I don’t look as bad as you.’ If Lemmy Kilmister says that to you, you must be fucking bad. I just went: ‘Cancel the gigs.’”
Motörhead had joined Osbourne for shows in Brazil and Argentina less than a year before Lemmy’s death.
“I couldn’t believe how thin he was,” Osbourne remembered. “He was a fucking bag of bones. I could see he was very ill, but he kept it to himself.”
He added: “I phoned him on the day he died. Sharon and I were gonna go down to his apartment and see him. I phoned up his apartment and I don’t know who the fuck it was answered it, but I wanted them to say it was okay to come down. On the third or fourth phone call, they said: ‘He’s gone.’”
Osbourne went on: “Then I went to his fucking memorial – fucking hell! It looked like something out of Spinal Tap. They had trays of fucking Jack Daniel’s on the way into the church.
“Mind you, there were a few great speakers. Dave Grohl was fucking great. They asked me to speak, but I ain’t no good at making speeches. I didn’t want to make a fool of myself. He had a good send off.”
Meanwhile, Ghost dedicated their sold-out concert at Madison Square Garden in New York to Osbourne last night. “For being the Prince of Darkness, he sure gave us a lot of light,” said frontman Tobias Forge.
Forge also performed at the ‘Back To The Beginning’ show, playing Osbourne’s hit ‘Bark At The Moon’. Ahead of the concert, Forge spoke to NME about Ghost’s new album ‘Skeletá’, and about the “tremendous influence” of Ozzy and Black Sabbath.
Osbourne had undergone multiple surgeries and experienced numerous health problems, including Parkinson’s disease, in recent years.
English (US) · 