The Black Sabbath reunion was a truly heavy metal farewell for Ozzy Osbourne
Like the 42,000 fans who packed Villa Park in Birmingham to see his Black Sabbath reunion on 5 July, I knew this was a goodbye - but had no idea the farewell would come so soon.
Osbourne sang from a throne, encrusted with skulls, of course.
But despite the seated performance, his voice carried across Villa Park and he was more than capable of giving the crowd a few flickers of the Prince of Darkness - rising up on to the stage as the ominous O Fortuna soundtracked a montage of footage from his career.
"Let the madness begin!" he cried as he started the show. Singing fan favourites including Mr Crowley and Crazy Train, and Iron Man and Paranoid with Black Sabbath, he conducted the crowd to sing "louder, louder", and "go f****** crazy".
On stage earlier on, there were performances throughout the day from the likes of Metallica, Guns N' Roses, Slayer, Yungblud and Aerosmith's Steven Tyler.
"Without Sabbath, there would be no Metallica," frontman James Hetfield put it simply during their performance. It was a sentiment echoed by many other artists on stage.
In the crowd, the love and gratitude was also palpable.
Ben Sutton, 24, from Chester, told us beforehand: "I feel like it's important - we're of the younger generation - for us to see some of the heritage and history of the genre we love, metal in general. It's such an honour to say goodbye to him."
Steve Townson, from Lincolnshire, said: "I saw him the first time round and the fact that he's still going is incredible, isn't it? I was there at the start, I'm happy to be here at the end."
But perhaps Anthrax's Scott Ian summed it up best. "We're not here to say goodbye. We're just here to say thank you."
It's the kind of show that for many others might well have been organised with the bands he loved following his death.
But Ozzy's determination to perform one final time, despite his health problems - and with his wife Sharon behind him every step of the way, making sure it happened - meant he got to star and conduct his own tribute.
A truly heavy metal farewell.
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In October 2021, the official announcement then came via Variety, confirming the producers and studios involved as Polygram Entertainment, Sony Pictures and Osbourne Media – which is Sharon and two of the couple's children, Jack and daughter Aimée . The scriptwriter was revealed to be Oscar-nominated Billy Elliot and Rocketman scribe Lee Hall and the focus of the film the decades-long bond between the iconic rock star and his manager wife, which exploded onto the pop culture scene in the 2000s thanks to their TV reality show The Osbournes. 'Our relationship at times was often wild, insane and dangerous but it was our undying love that kept us together,' shared Sharon. 'We're thrilled to partner with Sony Pictures and Polygram to bring our story to the screen.' More Trending The update also confirmed that the biopic would feature music from both Black Sabbath and Ozzy's solo career. Jack Osbourne, 39, also shared his hopes for the earliest release possible date for the biopic at his dad's last show, as he confirmed the director they'd landed was 'absolutely phenomenal' and a 'die-hard fan' of his influential father. In terms of a predicted release, he added to The Sun: 'If the evil overlords of Hollywood give us the green light, we could be filming in the spring, so maybe it will be out by the summer of 2027.' It remains to be seen whether Ozzy's death could affect these plans. Got a story? If you've got a celebrity story, video or pictures get in touch with the entertainment team by emailing us celebtips@ calling 020 3615 2145 or by visiting our Submit Stuff page – we'd love to hear from you. MORE: Ozzy Osbourne's heartbreaking final texts to sister revealed days before death MORE: Bizarre theory around Trisha Paytas' superhero-inspired name of third baby MORE: Ozzy Osbourne predicted his epitaph would be about bats – this one isn't
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