Tony Iommi thinks Ozzy Osbourne “held out” to play one last show with Black Sabbath.
The heavy metal legend passed away at the age of 76 on Tuesday (22.07.25) – just two weeks after he returned to the stage for the Back To The Beginning concert in his home city of Birmingham – and Tony is convinced that his bandmate knew he would be bowing out with the epic farewell gig.
The guitarist told ITV News: “I think he really just held out to do that show. I really feel – and me and Geezer (Butler) were talking about it last night – that we think he held out to do it, and just after that, he’s done it and said goodbye to the fans. And that was the end of it, really.
“I think he must have had something in his head that said, ‘Well, this is gonna be it, the last thing I’m ever gonna do.’ Whether he thought he was gonna die or what, I don’t know. But he really wanted to do it, and he was determined to do it. And fair dues, he’s done it.”
Despite Ozzy’s fragile health, Tony admits that the death of his bandmate still came as a “shock for us”.
The 77-year-old musician said: “When I heard, it couldn’t sink in. I thought, ‘It can’t be.’ I only had a text from him the day before. It just seemed unreal, surreal. And in the night, I started thinking about it: ‘God, am I dreaming all this?’ But as I said before, he’s not looked well through the rehearsals.”
Tony also reflected on a conversation he and Ozzy, who had been suffering from Parkinson’s disease for many years, had in the dressing room following the Back To The Beginning gig at Villa Park.
The rocker said: “He came around before he was leaving on a wheelchair that brought him in to say goodbye and have a little chat for a bit, and he seemed alright. He enjoyed it. And he said, ‘Oh, it went all right, didn’t it?’ I said, ‘Yeah, it did.'”
Iommi revealed that he and Black Sabbath bandmates Terence ‘Geezer’ Butler and Bill Ward didn’t want Ozzy to be at rehearsals every day for the gig as it would have been “too much” for him.
He said: “We didn’t want him there every day at rehearsal, because it’s too much. He just wouldn’t be able to stand it.
“So they’d bring him in and he’d sit down and sing a few songs, and then we’d talk some rubbish about old times or whatever, have a laugh, and then he’d go. And that’s sort of what we did, really.”