Tony Iommi and Ozzy Osbourne invented heavy metal together. Iommi gave it its inaugural riff. Ozzy gave metal a voice. And they might have had their moments over the years, with Ozzy’s fractious departure from Black Sabbath in 1979 a rift that took some healing, the pair have a closeness that few can understand.
Jack Osbourne can. The son of the late Sabbath frontman has seen this up close, and speaking with Billy Corgan for The Magnificent Others podcast, he revealed that a moment on the night before Ozzy and Sabbath’s farewell show, Back to the Beginning, in July 2025, typified the “interesting dynamic” between the two.
Osbourne was feeling some pre-show jitters. Black Sabbath were going out in the only way they knew how, with the biggest heavy metal one-dayer in history.
“He was so nervous about making sure that they were happy and everyone was good, like, he was very nervous,” says Osbourne. “But he was also really happy about it. He was. He felt good.”
A lot of preparation had already been done. There had been some hairy moments, too. Ozzy’s ailing health had threatened the show on a number of occasions. Even close to showtime on 5 July, there was a worry that they might have to cancel it. With that in mind, the final soundcheck carried a certain gravitas. Everyone had an edge to them. Ozzy’s voice wasn’t quite there, and Iommi noticed.
“He was soundchecking, so he wasn’t going to go out there with his A-game on,” recalls Osbourne. “He was just making sure everything worked, and ran through the set. And Tony said, ‘Hey, you’re singing flat.’ And my dad got really pissed off. He was upset.
“And my mom was like, ‘Oh, you know dad.’”
But Jack could see it for what it was. Only someone that close to Ozzy could have said that on this of all nights. As Corgan suggests, Iommi was like a big brother, Ozzy the little brother. That was the dynamic. Osbourne agrees, and furthermore, that moment – as fractious as it was – speaks to the closeness between the two. We would all do well to find a friend as close as Iommi was to Ozzy.
“I was like, ‘No, I think it’s a good thing,’” says Osbourne. “I think it’s a good thing because, out of the 40-whatever-thousand people at that stadium, the only person in that stadium that could ever say to my dad, ‘Hey, do better,’ was Tony. And I think everyone needs someone like that.”
Osbourne says all of the original Black Sabbath members were like brothers. Even drummer Bill Ward, who had sat out Sabbath’s reunion shows over various disputes, was back for this show. It was all water under the bridge.
“Although Tony and my dad’s relationship over the years had its times of being contentious, it was family,” says Osbourne. “They were brothers: Geezer, Bill, like, closest family that anyone could ever ask [for]. They’ve done life together.”
Furthermore, he believes Iommi was right to say what he said. Ozzy, who passed away on 22 July, aged 76, ultimately got the send-off he deserved.
“As I look back on it, I’m like, ‘No, I think that that was OK to say, because they knew it was the last time,” says Osbourne. “And it was like, ‘Hey, get out there, everyone needs to give it.”
