Pat Boone, the famously clean-cut pop crooner, paid tribute to his friend and former next-door neighbor, the Prince of Darkness himself, Ozzy Osbourne.
“I am stunned. I can’t believe that my former next-door neighbor and good friend has passed suddenly,” Boone wrote on Facebook following the news of Osbourne’s death yesterday at the age of 76.
Osbourne and his family spent several years living next to Boone in Beverly Hills, striking up an unlikely friendship. Later, Boone’s jazzy big band cover of the Ozzy classic “Crazy Train” served as the theme song for the hit reality series, The Osbournes. (Yes, Boone recorded a whole album of metal covers, 1997’s In a Metal Mood: No More Mr. Nice Guy.)
“When he and Sharon and the kids lived next-door to me for a couple of years, we weren’t rock stars comparing careers – we were just friends and neighbors getting along just fine,” Boone wrote, adding: “Others may celebrate his incredible rocking style and hard rock music — but I’ll always remember his warm friendliness as my next-door neighbor. God bless you, Ozzy.”
In a previous interview with the Television Academy, Boone spoke more about getting to know Osbourne after they became neighbors. For instance, Boone recalled how Osbourne would tell him about being in Alcoholics Anonymous and how he would still say “the odd prayer,” to which Boone, an avowed Christian, replied: “Well it’s not odd to me, Ozzy!”
Boone also said that everyone tended to watch their language around him, but not Osbourne. And not only was Boone cheered to his version of “Crazy Train” on The Osbournes, he always appreciated when Ozzy would rave about how Boone was “the best bleep-bleep-bleep neighbor we ever had!”
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Boone continued with a laugh: “DJs would ask me about that and I’d say, ‘Yeah, because we were the only neighbors that never called the police!’ But we got along great. I really liked him.”
Many of Osbourne’s peers and admirers have shared tributes in the days since his death, including Alice Cooper, Metallica, and Osbourne’s Black Sabbath bandmates. Alongside Boone, one of the more unexpected tributes came from the official account of the Alamo memorial, which Osbourne infamously urinated on in 1982 (an act for which he later apologized).
