Geezer Butler on Ozzy Osbourne’s final rehearsals with Black Sabbath: “I was just shocked to see him like that”
Geezer Butler has opened up about the rehearsals for the Back to the Beginning concert, the farewell show for Black Sabbath. Just 22 days later, Ozzy Osbourne passed away.
Appearing on his wife Gloria’s podcast, Gabbing with Girlfriends, the bassist responded to viewer-submitted questions. In discussing how he felt being approached to join the show, he mused, “I suppose I was just wondering how everybody would do.”
He continued, “I knew Ozzy wasn’t in the best of health. I knew Bill [Ward] hadn’t been well for a while. Tony [Iommi] was up for it, and I was up for it as long as everybody else was. And I said ‘yeah’ straight away, ‘I’ll do it.’ Especially as it was at Villa Park, [the home stadium of] my football team and one of the earliest places I ever went to and I was a little child.”
Osbourne suffered from Parkinson’s disease, which he was diagnosed with in 2003. This meant he had to perform while seated; he once shared of the pain, “You think you’re lifting your feet, but your foot doesn’t move. I feel like I’m walking around in lead boots.”
Butler described Ozzy’s involvement in the rehearsals in light of his worsening condition, sharing, “The only shocking bit was when Ozzy came in. I knew Ozzy was very ill, but I didn’t realise how ill he was.” Butler, Tony Iommi and Bill Ward rehearsed for two days, and Ozzy joined on the third.
The bassist added, “On the third day, Ozzy came in and he was helped in by two helpers. And I was just shocked to see him like that. And, of course, being Ozzy, he had to crack a few jokes and things. And they had like an armchair set aside so he could sit down to sing through the songs, ’cause he couldn’t stand up.”
He continued, “I think we rehearsed about six or seven songs and picked out four or five. We knew we could only do four or five ’cause of the time limit, and we picked out the four or five songs that sounded the best and which we were most comfortable with. And after that, we fell into the old Sabbath again. Ozzy could only do it once, could only rehearse, go through the songs one time and then he’d leave and we’d sort of carry on.”
Despite that difficulty, Butler has no regrets about the show, which raised millions for charities such as Cure Parkinson’s, Birmingham Children’s Hospital, and Acorn Children’s Hospice.
Butler said finally, “It was just great to be back together again after all these years. I mean, he’s probably my oldest friend. I’ve known him for 57 years, so it was great to get back together again.”
The story of Osbourne’s journey to perform with Black Sabbath one final time was recently documented in the BBC film, Ozzy and Sharon: Coming Home, as well as the posthumously released autobiography, Last Rites.
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