“It’s Sharon’s song. One of her favourites. Lemmy wrote it with the two of us in mind”: Just before he died, Ozzy Osbourne revealed the song that made him cry during the Back To The Beginning gig

Ozzy Osbourne may have passed away in July, but his legacy is being celebrated more than ever right now.

As well as a pair of revealing documentaries, the upcoming No Escape From Now and recent BBC film Sharon & Ozzy Osbourne: Coming Home, the late Black Sabbath singer’s posthumous book, Last Rites, is published on October 7.

UK newspaper The Times has published a lengthy excerpt from the latter book, covering the build-up to Ozzy’s farewell Back To The Beginning show, held at Villa Park, Birmingham, on July 5, 2025.

The all-star gig saw many of rock and metal’s biggest names gather to pay tribute to Ozzy and Sabbath, including Metallica, Guns N’ Roses, Slayer, Tool and more. Ozzy died just 17 days later.

In the Last Rites excerpt published, the singer – who was diagnosed with Parkinsons in 2019 – reveals the health struggles he went through in the months leading up to the Back To The Beginning show, including bouts of pneumonia and sepsis which nearly killed him.

“It really was touch and go,” Ozzy says of the latter. “I mean, at my age, with Parkinson’s and blood clots and all the other shit that’s going on, I had about as much chance of surviving a major sepsis infection as I did of winning the next season of Love Island.”

He goes on to reveal that his wife Sharon and the rest of the family didn’t expect him to pull through.

“Sharon didn’t tell me at the time, but the whole family basically thought I was a goner. They sat at the bottom of the stairs and sobbed their hearts out.

“As for me, I was like, OK, I’ve had a good run, it’s game over now. But after two months of antibiotics – on a twice-a-day IV drip — I somehow bounced back.”

Of course, Ozzy did make it to the Back To The Beginning gig, where he played five solo songs before re-joining his Black Sabbath bandmates for a four-song set that took in War Pigs, N.I.B, Iron Man and Paranoid.

In the excerpt, Ozzy paints an emotional scene backstage, admitting that he shed a few tears reconnecting with Sabbath’s old road crew and his wardrobe assistant Marta, as well as various well-wishers from other bands on the bill.

But the most emotional moment of the night came during his solo set, when the curtain lifted and he saw the 42,000-strong audience in front of him.

He elaborates: “We got through I Don’t Know, Mr Crowley and Suicide Solution no problem at all. I was having a ball. But I choked up when I started Mama, I’m Coming Home.

“I mean, it’s Sharon’s song, y’know? One of her favourites. Lemmy wrote it with the two of us in mind. That alone was enough to bring tears to my eyes.”

Elsewhere in the excerpt, Ozzy reveals his plans for his funeral, and shoots down “bullshit” rumours of a ‘suicide pact’ between him and Sharon.

“When the end does come, I don’t want to be cremated,” later It’s like you were never here. You’re just a bag of dust. That’s not for me. I wanna make the flowers grow.”

He continued: “Meanwhile, there’s been talk about us having some kind of suicide pact, but that’s bullshit. We just don’t want some drawn-out end on a breathing tube. I’ve said to Sharon, if that happens to me, please… turn me off. Or fly me to Switzerland, give me one final sip of the jolly juice and send me out like a Viking.”

Ozzy passed away at home in Buckinghamshire on July 22. A wave of fellow musicians paid tribute to the singer in the wake of his death, including Metallica, Guns N’ Roses, Elton John and Lady Gaga.

Ozzy’s posthumous autobiography, Last Rites, is published on October 7 via Sphere.