Sharon Osbourne stood outside the Orpheum Theatre in downtown Los Angeles talking about “Ozzy & Black Sabbath: Back to the Beginning,” the concert film that held its world premiere there on Wednesday, Oct. 14.
The film captured the final performance by her late husband Ozzy Osbourne on July 5, 2025, his return to the stage after years of ill health had kept him off it. With his death 17 days after that musical tribute from bands inspired by Black Sabbath, and a reunion of that band as well, the film is a last testament of one rock’s most iconic performers.
“He was on a high for 17 days afterwards,” Sharon Osbourne said of how thrilled Ozzy was at the day-long concert in Birmingham, England, his hometown and the city where Black Sabbath formed. “It was glorious to see him so happy because he was in agony for six years before that, and he was just on such a high.
“He was like, ‘I did it! Can you believe that I [bleepin’] did it? And everybody turned up for me,’” she continued. “He was just blown away with the support from the Sabbath guys, from his friends, everyone. It was the perfect storm.”
Many of those friends joined Sharon Osbourne on the purple carpet outside the Orpheum, including some who joined Ozzy in Birmingham on that day, the closest of them still working through the mixed emotions of the final concert and finality of his passing.
“For me, it’s just been empty. It still is,” said Black Sabbath drummer Bill Ward, who’d played with Black Sabbath for the first time in two decades on the farewell show. “I miss him every day. I’m starting to get back together in my life, but it took a while actually.
“But he was larger than life, so yeah, I miss him all the time,” he said.
“I’m just glad that we were able to play one final show together,” said Black Sabbath bassist Geezer Butler. “And that it was back where it all started in Aston,” the Birmingham neighborhood where Osbourne, Ward, Butler and guitarist Tony Iommi all grew up together to form Black Sabbath.
Many of the musicians in the film and on the carpet had played with Ozzy during his solo outings, including Metallica bassist Robert Trujillo, who’d played and recorded with Ozzy in the ’90s before joining Metallica in 2003.
“As youngsters playing music, we always tried to imagine what Ozzy was like,” Trujillo said as he and his wife Chloe walked the carpet. “He was our superhero. I used to play Black Sabbath at backyard parties.
“So to share the stage with him for so many years, and then be a part of life again with ‘Patient Number 9’ [Ozzy’s final solo album from 2022], and also the final performance was really, really incredible,” he said.
Guitarist Nuno Bettencourt played in one of the two supergroups musical director Tom Morello put together for the farewell concert. He’d never played with Ozzy before – in fact, he turned down an offer to join the band in the mid-’90s, something Ozzy teased him about at the concert, telling him he was the only to ever decline the lead guitarist gig.
“Between him, Black Sabbath, Tony Iommi, these guys are the godfathers, you know,” Bettencourt said on the carpet. “This deep, dark thing that changed all of our lives. It’s always difficult to know that it’s Ozzy and it’s Tony and [Ward and Butler]. You’re always doing double, triple takes.
“It was beautiful,” he said of the day-long concert in which he played guitar on a dozen Ozzy and Sabbath songs. “But what blew my mind the most was that we were all in one room, especially for that photo, one time. Not one person was a rock star. Not one person was a diva.
“It was like heavy metal summer camp. We were all like kids again because Ozzy, he was our dad, he was the godfather. I think that brought everybody down to size. We were all there because of Ozzy.”
Bassist Rudy Sarzo of Quiet Riot and a handful of other metal bands joined Ozzy’s band in the early ’80s through the connection of his former Quiet Riot bandmate, guitarist Randy Rhoads.
“It all started with the text I got from Tom Morello,” he said of how he ended up in one of the supergroups. “I opened it and, like, time stood still for that moment that I was reading it.
“It was just basically, ‘Rudy, Sharon and Ozzy want you to be part of this. It’s going to happen next year. Are you available?’” Sarzo said. He gasped and fired back one word: Yes.
“Once we saw Ozzy performing [during rehearsals leading up the concert], everybody was thinking maybe he can get a residency, because he did so well and he was so passionate. He was so strong.
“Unfortunately, you know, he passed away a couple of weeks later, and so we’re here to celebrate him forever and ever,” Sarzo said.
Jack Osbourne, Ozzy and Sharon’s son, also walked the carpet, fielding questions, such as: What would Ozzy think of all the hullabaloo about the film, which arrives in theaters on Oct. 28?
“I think he would just be flattered,” said Osbourne, whose four oldest daughters popped out briefly on the carpet for a photo with their dad and grandmother Sharon. The fifth, born in March and named Ozzy Matilda, stayed home.
“I don’t think it would be about pride,” he added. “I think he would just be flattered that so many people came out.”
It’s the grandchildren for whom the new film might end up meaning the most, Sharon Osbourne said.
“It’s really for them to see,” she said. “It was all bittersweet for us because we were all so happy that he managed to get up there. But we knew what the end result was going to be, so it was bittersweet.”
