Metal
Ozzy Osbourne amazed Sharon Osbourne with Villa Park gig
Sharon Osbourne has recalled the days leading up to Ozzy Osbourne's final gig.
Sharon Osbourne was amazed that Ozzy Osbourne was able to perform his final gig at Villa Park.
The Black Sabbath frontman performed his last-ever show at Villa Park in Birmingham on July 5, 2025, and Sharon was astonished that he managed to get through the concert in spite of his declining health.
Sharon, 74 - who married Ozzy in 1982 - explained to the BBC: "He was sat in his dressing room, watching everybody on a screen performing, and he was like, 'I just can't believe they're all here'.
"It's amazing what support and love and determination can do for you, because [before the show] he was somebody that couldn't breathe. He had a lung condition. He had a heart condition. He had terrible, terrible agony from his spine. He had blood clots and he had Parkinson's.
"Some days just to even talk was an effort, let alone sing. And I don't know how he did it, but he did it. And you saw it in his eyes, in his face. It just made him feel like he was alive again."
Sharon recalled how Ozzy - who passed away on July 22, 2025, aged 76 - was discussing touring again, just days before he died.
She shared: "He was raring to go. He was like, 'I can do this, and the fans don't mind if I'm sat down'."
Following the concert, Sammy Hagar credited Black Sabbath for starting the "metal era".
The former Van Halen frontman described the star-studded concert - which featured appearances from the likes of Metallica, Guns N' Roses, Yungblud, the Rolling Stones' Ronnie Wood and Steven Tyler of Aerosmith - as the "greatest metal event of all time".
Sammy, 79, told BBC News: "Black Sabbath really kind of started all this, the metal era. Everyone looks at them like the kings, and if the kings are going to go out then we're going to go honour them.
"Everyone that was asked to do this, shoot, you drop everything and do this. This is going to go down in history as the greatest metal event of all time."
