Zakk Wylde never imagined that his final performance with Ozzy Osbourne would be at the Back to the Beginning concert. On July 5, the Black Sabbath legend delivered what would be his last show ever at Villa Park in Birmingham, England, with his longtime guitarist by his side. Osbourne passed away just 17 days later at the age of 76.
Wylde, who had been working with Osbourne since the late 1980s, hoped that the farewell show would lead to more music from the rock icon.
"The running joke when I would text [Ozzy’s wife Sharon] was, well, look at this way, Mom, hopefully this thing will go great and then Oz will fire up the machine again," Wylde told Loudwire in a new interview. “She goes, 'Let's hope.'"
"I didn't think after we got done doing 'Mama' and 'Crazy Train' and everything like that that this is going to be the last time we're ever going to play or I'm ever going to see Sabbath again," Wylde added. "I just figured we're going to hook up again when Ozzy's doing another record. He'd say, 'Come on down and do your diddly diddly on it' or whatever, you know? I didn't think, this is going to be the last time we're going to be hanging out."
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The Back to the Beginning concert saw Osbourne reuniting onstage with his Black Sabbath bandmates Tony Iommi, Geezer Butler, and Bill Ward for the first time in 20 years. He also performed five songs from his solo career with Wylde as his guitarist. Osbourne, who had been battling Parkinson’s disease, was seated on a throne during the farewell show. However, Wylde envisioned future performances with an upgraded throne.
In an interview with Rolling Stone ahead of the show, the guitar legend predicted that concert promoters would capitalize on Osbourne once he pulled off Back to the Beginning.
“If Oz sounds great and everything like that, if he wants to continue carrying on singing on a throne, we’ll just make the throne, so it goes out over the audience,” Wylde said. “It shoots fire and water, and dragons come out of it. You know what I mean? And we’ll make the throne part of the show. It’d be amazing."
Wylde was convinced that Osbourne still had the energy to keep performing. “Why not? I really think it would be great. If they do this Sabbath thing and it sounds amazing, and Ozzy sings great, and the band sounds amazing, and the only difference is Oz is just sitting down … Why not, right? You know every promoter’s just got their fingers crossed on this one,” he said in early July.
A few weeks later, Wylde shared that he received a final text message from Osbourne after the Back to the Beginning show.
"Everybody and their mother were in the backstage dressing room, and I just wanted to give him a break," Wylde said. "I figured we'd see him later on – the next day or whatever. But no. The last text I got from Oz was saying, 'Zakky, sorry, it was like a madhouse back there. I didn't see you.' He goes, 'Thanks for everything.' It was just us talking, saying, 'I love you, buddy.' That was it."
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