Black Sabbath singer Ozzy Osbourne died of a heart attack aged 76 on July 22
Judas Priest frontman Rob Halford said he was rocked by Ozzy Osbourne’s death last month, admitting he “just curled up in a ball and bawled my eyes out for hours” after receiving the devastating news.
“I just couldn’t believe it,” Halford said in an interview with Detroit radio station WRIF’s Talkin’ Rock with Meltdown. “I still can’t believe it now. I’m still grieving, like so many people.”
Osbourne died of a heart attack aged 76 on July 22. Fans filled the streets of the Black Sabbath singer’s hometown of Birmingham for his funeral on July 30, chanting his name and playing the heavy metal band’s music in the streets.
Halford said the day after Osbourne’s death, Judas Priest was booked to play a show. Wanting to pay tribute to the icon who had a “larger-than-life personality,” Halford said they played ‘Giants in the Sky’ from the band’s Invincible Shield album.
“That song talks about people that we love in music that have moved on to this beautiful place,” Halford explained. “And then for that show, we added Ozzy at the end.”
Unable to make Osbourne’s farewell show in early July, Halford said he couldn’t quite remember the last conversation he had with the rocker. “We used to text occasionally,” he said. “It’s been a while since we’ve been in touch. But again, I just have the wonderful memories of the two opportunities I was able to sing for him with Sabbath. And then this recent opportunity to cover ‘War Pigs’, which we still play at the start of our show, which is one of the greatest metal songs ever written. So that connection will never be severed in that respect.”
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Osbourne’s cause of death was revealed earlier this month. A death certificate confirmed he died of a heart attack “out of hospital,” and listed “coronary artery disease and Parkinson’s disease” as joint causes.
On Monday, a BBC documentary following Osbourne in his final years was pulled hours before its scheduled premiere. A BBC spokesperson told Rolling Stone: “The film has moved in the schedules and we’ll confirm new tx [transmission] details in due course.
