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RIP Ozzy Osbourne, Who Gave Fans One Final Performance While Battling Parkinson’s Disease

By Kevin Kinkead

Published: Jul 22nd, 2025 · 3:58 PM EDT

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This is pretty incredible. Ozzy died less than three weeks after performing the Black Sabbath farewell show:

It is with more sadness than mere words can convey that we have to report that our beloved Ozzy Osbourne has passed away this morning. He was with his family and surrounded by love.

We ask everyone to respect our family privacy at this time.
 
Sharon, Jack, Kelly, Aimee and… pic.twitter.com/WLJhOrMsDF

— Ozzy Osbourne (@OzzyOsbourne) July 22, 2025

Ozzy had been battling Parkinson’s for some time, but he recently traveled to Birmingham, England, where Black Sabbath formed back in 1968. The “Back to the Beginning” show took place on July 5th at Villa Park and featured a Sabbath headlining set that was preceded by Ozzy performing five solo songs while sitting on a throne and holding a microphone. In the two performances combined, he sang nine songs over the course of a little more than an hour, then died 17 days later.

Honestly, that is an incredible way to go out. You put a bow on your career with a final performance in front of thousands of fans in your hometown, playing with the original Black Sabbath lineup for the first time in more than 20 years. Ozzy sounded pretty damn good considering his age, his affliction, and the mileage on those vocal cords. We’re talking about a guy who had toured the world for decades and performed live consistently between 1970 and 2020, almost 50 years of performing and recording while putting god knows what into his bloodstream, like all of the rockers of his era. The fact that he lived as long as he did is a minor miracle.

Ozzy obviously performed many times in the Philly area over the years. There were Sabbath shows and solo shows at The Spectrum, Wells Fargo Center, Camden music venue that has changed names a hundred times, Live Aid back in 1985, and the famous Glassboro show of 1970. He came around almost yearly when Ozzfest was a thing in the late 90s and early 2000s. There was no shortage of opportunity to see him live if you grew up in the area.

Bandmates say that Ozzy didn’t do much of the songwriting or lyric writing for Sabbath or his solo act, but they give him a ton of credit for vocal melodies and arrangement, and his low tenor voice really perfectly fit the music. He had this raspy timbre and was never classically trained, so what you hear is totally organic and natural. It just worked for Sabbath and it worked alongside Randy Rhoads and Zakk Wylde and Jake E. Lee and Bob Daisley and all of the great musicians he had with him over the years. On top of that, he had all of the prerequisite energy and enthusiasm you need in a frontman. He was such a unique personality and this larger-than-life figure. A music icon, no doubt.

RIP Ozzy.