Ozzy Osbourne was a big fan of Judas Priest’s cover of Black Sabbath’s War Pigs, according to Rob Halford.
Talking exclusively to Metal Hammer, Halford reveals how Ozzy reacted to his band’s cover of the 1970 track, which came out in the lead-up to the singer’s retirement concert Back To The Beginning in July.
“Apparently Sharon [Osbourne, Ozzy’s wife/manager] sat with him, he heard it and had this massive smile on his face,” Halford tells us. “He told her he really loved it and gave it his blessing. That was extra special for us.”
Ozzy enjoyed the rendition so much that he lent his voice to an overhauled version of the cover, which was released last month, after Ozzy’s death on July 22.
The version with Ozzy’s vocals was planned by Sharon and proceeds from it go to the charities Cure Parkinson’s and The Glenn Tipton Parkinson’s Foundation. Both Ozzy and Tipton, Priest’s long-serving guitarist, have suffered from Parkinson’s disease.
“It all just got better and better,” Halford says, “from the original idea, the Priest version and now for this Ozzy version to be out for charity. A lot of it comes down to Sharon, she has these simple ideas that turn into something massive. It’s going to be a physical CD, at some point.”
Priest’s first, Ozzy-free War Pigs cover came out on July 2, and Back To The Beginning took place at Villa Park in Ozzy and Halford’s hometown of Birmingham on July 5. Priest were one of the few veteran metal bands to not perform at Back To The Beginning, as they were already booked to appear at the 60th-anniversary celebrations for German hard rockers Scorpions on the same night in Hannover.
Talking to Hammer in May, Halford said he was “gutted” to miss Back To The Beginning. “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,” he explained.
Ozzy publicly announced that he was living with Parkinson’s in 2020. The singer died at his Buckinghamshire home at the age of 76, and his cause of death was later revealed to be a heart attack. In the final chapter of his posthumous memoir Last Rites, which was written shortly after Back To The Beginning, it’s revealed that the singer knew he was living with a potentially serious heart issue before he died.
Tipton, who joined Priest shortly before the recording of their debut album Rocka Rolla in 1974, was diagnosed with Parkinson’s in 2008 but did not make the news public until 2018. The condition forced the guitarist to retire from touring, but he occasionally plays during the encore of Priest’s concerts.
Priest are currently touring North America on a co-headling run with shock rocker Alice Cooper. The two acts will next play on Saturday, October 25, at Germania Insurance Amphitheater in Austin, Texas.
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