Judas Priest frontman Rob Halford says he “bawled [his] eyes out for hours” after Ozzy Osbourne died last month.
In a new interview with Talkin’ Rock With Meltdown, the 73-year-old details how he found out about the death of the Black Sabbath singer, who passed away at his Buckinghamshire home aged 76 on July 22 following a heart attack.
He explains that he was touring the UK with his band when he got a phone call delivering the news.
“I just put the phone down in my hotel room in – I think I was in Leeds, in England, and I just curled up in a ball and bawled my eyes out for hours,” Halford remembers (via Blabbermouth).
He continues: “I just couldn’t believe it. I still can’t believe it now. I’m still grieving, like so many people. And then we had a show the next day. So, God, how do you process all of this tragedy, all of this love, because I’ve never seen such an outpouring of love.”
At the remaining dates of their UK run, Priest modified the video graphics for their 2024 song Giants In The Sky to include a tribute to Osbourne. A photo of the singer was screened on the band’s backdrop during the song, joining pre-existing tributes to Queen’s Freddie Mercury, former Iron Maiden singer Paul Di’Anno, former Black Sabbath/Rainbow singer Ronnie James Dio and other fallen musical icons.
“And I said to everybody [while performing onstage], this is just so much to try and comprehend and so tough,” Halford adds, “but Ozzy would say, ‘Let’s party. Let’s rock and roll. Let’s live it up. Let’s enjoy.’
“That was in his heart, his soul, and his spirit. Whenever we did shows together, he would always say that to me after, ‘Did you have a good time?’”
The singer goes on to call Osbourne “the embodiment of kindness in that respect”.
Osbourne’s death came only 17 days after the frontman played his retirement show Back To The Beginning, where he performed both as a solo artist and with his fellow Black Sabbath co-founders Tony Iommi (guitar), Geezer Butler (bass) and Bill Ward (drums). It was the first time the four men performed in public together since September 2005.
Back To The Beginning was an all-day charity event held at Villa Park – close to where Osbourne grew up in Aston, Birmingham – with an all-star lineup of support bands including Metallica, Guns N’ Roses, Tool, Gojira and more. Priest were one of the few vaunted metal bands to not play the event, as they were appearing at the 60th-anniversary celebrations of German hard rockers the Scorpions in Hannover the same day.
In an exclusive conversation with Metal Hammer in May, Halford said he was “gutted” to be missing Back To The Beginning. He remembered: “It all got announced and was a big deal – Scorpions and Priest – and suddenly I get this phone call [from Sharon Osbourne]: ‘Robbie, I know you’ve got this gig with Scorpions, but could you consider coming over to do a thing with Ozzy and the guys, he’d love to see you.’
“Even with a private plane, there’s a word called ‘technical’, where something could go wrong, or the weather that time of year could cause problems… I was absolutely gutted.”
Judas Priest will tour North America from September to October and are set to headline Bloodstock Open Air festival in Derbyshire next August.
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