Jack Osbourne on His Father’s Passing: “He Got to Say Goodbye in Such a Profound Way”
The loss of a parent is something we all have to go through in life. Regardless of your relationship with your mother or father, their passing is an important moment of time — a veritable passing of the torch from one generation to the other. Yet very few people will have the experience that Ozzy Osbourne‘s kids had when he passed away on July 22. Their grief was a very public one, but it was shared in some way with millions upon millions around the world.
Roughly six weeks after the world lost a cultural icon with the death of Ozzy Osbourne, the metal vocalist’s son Jack sat down to reflect. In a podcast on his personal YouTube channel, Jack spoke about his father in life, what went down when the news broke of his passing, and what having a dad like Ozzy meant to him.
“I left [the United Kingdom] on the 13th of July. I came home [to Los Angeles], and, yeah, my dad was great. He was in a good mood. He was happy. [On July 22] I woke up in Los Angeles to a knock on my house door at around 3:45 in the morning. Someone who’s worked for my family for probably 30 years now was knocking on my door, and when I looked through my window and I saw it was him, I just knew something bad had happened. And I was informed that my father had passed.
“I immediately — I don’t know — [I felt] just pain, just sadness and pain and just so many thoughts. You go through this of feeling sad and frustrated and angry and this part of you that’s, like, ‘I have to get there right now. I have to.’ But there was a level of like, okay, he’s not not suffering anymore. He’s not struggling.’ And that is something.
“I wish he was still here, I wish he was still with us all, but he was having a rough go. And I think people saw that at the [‘Back To The Beginning’] show [on July 5]. But no one expected it to happen as quickly as it did. And when it did, it was not anything that was on our radar.”
In the weeks leading up to Ozzy’s passing, apparently people began circulating that the rock star had intended on seeking assisted suicide in Switzerland. Though Jack said his father was deliberate about eveyrthing in his life, he categorically dismissed those rumors, stating that they were “untrue and ridiculous.”
“My dad was so happy after the ‘Back to the Beginning’ show. He wanted to spend more time in England, with my kids, and just enjoy life.”
Speaking of the ‘Back to the Beginning’ show, which saw both Ozzy and his old band Black Sabbath take their final bows in their hometown of Birmingham, U.K., Jack said his father was over the moon that he got to play the show. Thousands gathered at the gig on July 5 to watch in person, while many more tuned in through a special streaming event online to watch many major metal acts pay tribute.
When it came time for Ozzy to perform songs from both his solo career and as a member of Black Sabbath, he sang while seated on a throne the whole time. That was a stark reminder to many that remember his more energetic stage presence that his long-term battle with Parkinsons disease and other ailments were catching up to him.
Despite the difficulties, Jack said his father’s final show was the best send off anyone could have asked for.
“There’s almost a perfection to it. He got to say goodbye in such a profound way. He got to thank his fans. He got to see old friends. He got to perform. So much was accomplished before the full stop.”
There’s so much more in Jack’s video that we could talk about, but you really ought to watch the whole thing. It’s simply a man trying to parse his grief and share some real stories of his larger than life father, now that he was no longer with us.
“It’s been a hard six weeks as a family. The price we pay for loving someone so much is grief. And I’m okay with that. Ozzy Osbourne does not end because he passed away on July 22nd. He’s exploding through the universe, and we’re all seeing it.”
