(Credits: Far Out / YouTube Still / Sony Music Entertainment)
Tue 26 August 2025 18:30, UK
There’s no more intimate a relationship in the world than the one a guitarist has with his frontman. For Ozzy Osbourne, that came to matter most in a moment no one would have realised at the time.
It was only a few short months ago when the ‘Prince of Darkness’ performed his final ever gig in Birmingham, and just mere weeks after that that he bid his true final farewell to the world in his passing. But as the crowds poured into Villa Park at the beginning of July without a clue as to the events that would unfold, it was Osbourne’s guitarist Zakk Wylde who truly understood the gravitas of the moment.
Sure, everyone knew that this really was the swan song for the Black Sabbath frontman, yet with the heavy metal headbanging tiring him out and his voice beginning to falter through the gig, Wylde intrinsically knew this was the final chance he would have to honour his ultimate leader. The guitarist sprang into action at one particular point, saving not only the day but the legacy of the concert as a whole, meaning that although his health was drastically failing, Osbourne still remained the true king.
Wylde reflected on this in a recent interview with Guitar World, in which he said the memories of the Back to the Beginning concert are going to be forever “ingrained in my head”. But as far as giving the main man one final helping hand, the guitarist knew exactly what he needed to do. “With ‘Mama I’m Coming Home’, when we got the acoustic [guitar] out, I had to be like, ‘Keep the guitar away from the microphone so I can sing’, because Oz’s voice was having trouble at certain notes,” he explained.
“I was like, ‘I need to make sure I’m always there so I can double him’,” Wylde added, helping his hero as he continued: “I was like three feet away from the microphone when I started playing the song. I was like, ‘I gotta get near the microphone’, so I had to almost stop playing, lift the guitar up and put it over the mic.”
It may seem a simple act of service to some, but there is definitely more symbolism in this moment than you might first think.
As the ‘Prince of Darkness’ took his final bow and ultimately ‘headed home’, if you believe in such parlance, just a few weeks later, the poignancy of Wylde stepping in to send the man on his way certainly adds up to an emotional resonance. For the guitarist, who had been by Osbourne’s side for decades, it might have seemed like a natural calling given the circumstances he found himself in, but to the rest of the world, it’s almost a comfort that in his final days, the ageing frontman was always in safe hands.
As his family, friends, and the world learn to adjust to an undoubtedly quieter life without Osbourne, it’s worth remembering through the sadness exactly what he stood for. Evidently, this was not a man who bowed out without a flourish, but with his line of backing bands and sonic proteges lovingly watching on. It’s clear that he owns a legacy that will never fade, as if that was ever in any doubt, with people like Wylde quite literally tripping over their feet to give Osbourne the fitting final farewell, Back to the Beginning was far less of a goodbye than it was the ultimate testament to whose life embodied the very spirit of what it meant to be rock ‘n’ roll.
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