‘He Had a Heart of Gold’

Although guitarist Zakk Wylde had shared his thoughts on the passing of Ozzy Osbourne via social media, he hadn’t yet commented publicly on the loss of his friend, mentor and bandmate. That is, until now, as Wylde recently reflected on Ozzy’s resilience, “heart of gold” and much more during an interview with the Los Angeles Times.

Zakk Wylde’s First Public Statements About Ozzy

During his chat with the publication (published online on Oct. 9), Wylde – who’d sporadically been in Ozzy’s band since 1987 and who performed at Black Sabbath’s Back to the Beginning final show – started by looking back on making 2007’s Black Rain. (It was Wylde’s first record with the Prince of Darkness since 2001’s Down to Earth and his last until 2022’s Patient Number 9. Plus, it was Ozzy’s first LP done sober.)

“What always struck me was his fortitude to just keep going forward,” Wylde said of Ozzy’s strength in the face of hardships such as being fired from Black Sabbath and losing Randy Rhoads. He continued:

Like I said, I always feel like he was my hero for his toughness as well. Even down to the last show, he willed himself, like, “I’m going to do this show.” And he did it. He had that one thing alone, like, “We’re not going to quit.” And I told him, after the gig when I texted him, I was like, “Ozzy, you never quit, man. You did great.” So, yeah, without a doubt, man, it just is toughness alone. . . . If he was a fighter, a boxer, no matter how lumped up he was, he would just continue.

Of course, Wylde commended Ozzy’s self-deprecating humor, too: “Oh, my God. [He was] so hilarious, man. He always made fun of himself all the time. I always said it was a miracle any work ever got done just because we’d always be on the floor crying, laughing.”

Wylde also touched upon what’s arguably Ozzy’s most beloved and characteristic personal trait by explaining why he “had the biggest heart I the world”:

He hated seeing people being upset and things like that. So, yeah, he had a heart of gold. And all the best qualities you could ask for in somebody — super giving, had a heart of gold and just tough as nails. And to carry on without a doubt. Those are all redeeming qualities. They’re just awesome.

When asked about Ozzy’s “sense of wonder” in conjunction with his famous proclivity for partying, Wylde was equally blunt and endearing. “[W]hen I joined the band, it was still beyond silly. But it never got in the way of shows, and he would never drink before the gigs,” he clarified, adding:

There’s only one time in Japan where we got beyond blasted above the berserker radar. And I remember the next day, he was like, “Zakk, you got any beers?” I remember that was on the train on the way to the gig. I hooked him up, but aside from that, we were actually in the bathroom. I remember he was just like, “I’ll meet you in the bathroom.” Because I was just like, “What, are you trying to get us both fired?”

So, I end up going into the bathroom and actually I’m in one bathroom stall. He goes into the other bathroom. He’s like, “All right, Zakk. I’m ready and I toss over a Kirin beer. He downs it in one [makes gulping sounds], slides the can back over like, “All right, Zakk, have a good show.” Just hilarious, man, and I’m just thinking, “If people only knew what’s going on.” It’s like we were 14 years old trying to sneak it from your parents. But that was his gift to himself, like, “After we get done with the show, now I can have a cocktail.” But yeah, no matter how lumped up he got it never got in the way of gigs.

In fact, Wylde remembered how Ozzy “loved doing gigs” because being on stage was “where he wanted to be” (which is why he’s “always smiling” and “always happy” in pictures).

Looking about on the Back to the Beginning show, Wylde explained that Ozzy was determined to do it despite his medical issues. “I would text Sharon [Osbourne]. And I would just say, ‘Hopefully the game plan is we do this show, Back to the Beginning. Then it goes over great. And then we just book a tour and then just have the chair, have the throne. So, it’s hydraulic,” he told the Los Angeles Times.

He elaborated:

I was like, “Man, I wonder if we’re going to do this gig” before it even happened because it was so far out, like a year. And then Oz was like, “Oh, man, my neck is still killing me. I can’t walk.” And I was just like, “Man, I wonder if this thing’s even going to get off the ground.” But he was just adamant about doing it.

On a more somber note, Wylde then discussed whether Ozzy and Sharon knew Back to the Beginning would truly be Ozzy’s final professional endeavor:

No, I don’t think so. The way I always felt, all the things that I’ve gone through with them, it was always — if it was a setback or anything like that — it was more of a speed bump and it was just like, “All right, we’ll fix the flat tire on the truck and then we’ll just keep moving.” So, I think it was more like that, because I knew he still wanted to make records and things like that. But I was just thinking, “Who knows, man, hopefully if this thing goes over well, then we might be able to do some other shows or do select shows throughout the year.” Like these Ozzfest-type things, just so Oz can still keep doing gigs, but maybe not touring in the capacity of doing four shows a week or whatever.

Wylde also admitted that Ozzy kind of felt invincible to him:

Even when we were doing [Back to the Beginning], I didn’t go, “Oh, this is the last time I’m ever going to play ‘Mama, I’m Coming Home’ with him or ‘Crazy Train’ with him or anything. . . . You never think it’s your last Super Bowl; you’re playing and you’re playing to win. So, yeah, I didn’t think about it, and like I said, I’ve always been optimistic. I would always tell him, no matter how bummed he got, “Just keep doing therapy and keep doing everything you’ve got to do because what’s the option? Then you just quit in the corner, and you whine about it. Or you could do something about it, with therapy and hitting the weights and doing everything you got to do.” . . . I didn’t think after we did the show, two weeks from now, he was gonna be gone. I wasn’t thinking that at all.

Ultimately, Wylde concluded, he hopes people remember that Ozzy “had a heart of hold, man,” adding: “It was that he had all the best qualities you’d want in somebody; his heart of gold, and then you couple that with him just being hard as nails and tough, no quit ever.”

READ MORE: 10 Things We Learned From Ozzy Osbourne’s New ‘Last Rites’ Book

Wylde’s Prior Remarks About Ozzy’s Life + Legacy

On the day Ozzy died (July 22, 2025), Wylde paid tribute to him via social media, sharing a video clip of the two performing together in 2010. Alongside it, Wylde wrote:

THANK YOU FOR BLESSING THE WORLD w/YOUR KINDNESS & GREATNESS OZ – YOU BROUGHT LIGHT INTO SO MANY LIVES & MADE THE WORLD A BETTER PLACE – YOU LIVED w/THE HEART OF A LION – I THANK THE GOOD LORD EVERY DAY FOR BLESSING MY LIFE w/YOU IN IT –
I LOVE YOU OZ
BEYOND FOREVER
ZAKK
XOXO

A week later (on July 29), Loudwire reported on Wylde revealing Ozzy’s final text message to him (during the Back to the Beginning show):

Everybody and their mother were in the backstage dressing room and I just wanted to give him a break. I figured we’d see him later on – the next day or whatever. But no. 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.”

Other Ozzy News

It seems like there’s new news about Ozzy at least a few times a week (which certainly isn’t a bad thing).

Earlier this month, for example, an excerpt from Ozzy’s new memoir – Last Rites – shows him contemplating why “the best drug [he] ever took” and “the best medicine [he’d] had since all [his] medical shit started back in 2019” was the adulation he received during Back to the Beginning:

[A]s soon as the curtain went up I forgot about my nerves. Suddenly I was looking out over 42,000 faces, with another 5.8 million watching online. That was when the emotion really hit me. I’d never really taken it on board that so many people liked me – or even knew who I was.

I choked up when I started ‘Mama, I’m Coming Home.’ I mean, it’s Sharon’s song, y’know? One of her favourites. Lemmy [Kilmister] wrote it with the two of us in mind. But the feeling I had was about more than that. It was my last hurrah. I’d made it to the stage after six traumatic years, after losing the ability to walk or do anything on my own. It was just the whole thing, all of it coming together. There was so much love in that stadium, coming at me in waves… The crowd noticed I was struggling and they started singing back the words. I’ve been so lucky to have had so many wonderful fans. God bless you all.

What I’ve realized is that the one place where I’m free of all my demons is on a stage… I spent my whole life trying to get high from every substance known to man. … I was just trying to get back the feeling of when I was up there onstage, doing my job. The packed arena; The thump of the bass drum you can feel in your stomach. Forty or fifty thousand voices singing back your words. All along, that’s what I was chasing. It was the best drug I ever took.

Last Rites also reveals Sharon Osbourne’s backup plan in case Ozzy couldn’t sing at Back to the Beginning: “Eventually Sharon said, ‘Look, there’ll be no backup plan. No video. No prerecorded anything. If you can’t sing on the night, just talk to the crowd and thank them. All you need to do is get up there and be Ozzy.’”

There’s plenty more to discover in Last Rites, too, which is why you should check out our feature on 10 [other] things we learned from it!