Ozzy Osbourne’s longtime guitarist Zakk Wyld revealed what the late rock icon said to him in his final text message.
Wyld, who worked with Osbourne since 1987, recalled performing with the singer for the last time at Osbourne’s final show with Black Sabbath in July.
“I figured we’d see him later on — the next day or whatever. But no,” Zakk shared in an interview with Guitar World. “The last text I got from Oz was saying, ‘Zakky, sorry, it was like a madhouse back there. I didn’t see you.’ He goes, ‘Thanks for everything.’”
“It was just us talking, saying, ‘I love you, buddy.’ That was it.”
The guitarist said he assumed he’d see Osbourne at some point after the farewell concert, but that never happened.
“Everybody and their mother were in the backstage dressing room and I just wanted to give him a break.”
Osbourne’s last show, which he played in Birmingham, England on July 5 to an audience of 45,000 people, was the last memory Wylde had with the heavy metal legend.
“It was definitely pretty amazing. Seeing Oz onstage when Sabbath got done, that’s the last time I saw him,” Wylde recalled. “I’m blessed and grateful. Anything other than that would be selfish.”
He continued, “Oz was just the best. I have my father, who was a World War II veteran; and then Ozzy, who was almost like an older brother. There was almost a 20-year age gap between us. With our relationship, there was the fun drinking — but if I ever needed advice, I could talk to him.”
Osbourne died on July 22 at the age of 76. Though his cause of death hasn’t officially been confirmed, the singer publicly announced in 2020 that he’d been diagnosed with Parkinson’s disease.
The Prince of Darkness is survived by wife Sharon Osbourne and six children including Jack and Kelly Osbourne, who appeared with their parents on their MTV reality series, “The Osbournes.”
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