Tony Iommi Recounts Final Call with Ozzy Osbourne: “It Was Really a Hell of a Shock”

Tony Iommi has described his last conversation with Ozzy Osbourne. During an appearance on SiriusXM’s Trunk Nation, the Black Sabbath guitarist said the two spoke the night before Osbourne’s death. Osbourne told him he was feeling “really tired.” Iommi assumed it was the aftereffects of the band’s final “Back to the Beginning” charity concert. “The next thing, he’d gone,” Iommi said. “It was really a hell of a shock.”

Iommi also addressed the physical toll visible when Osbourne arrived for rehearsals after two years apart. “To actually see him sort of carried in, it was quite sad really,” he said. Iommi had initially resisted the reunion after Black Sabbath’s 2017 farewell tour, but agreed because the event was for charity. He said the decision allowed the four original members to close their story where it began.

Osbourne performed two sets that day, one solo and one with Sabbath. Iommi had advised against it. Their final conversation, he said, was brief and ordinary: both tired, checking in as they had done for years.