Sharon Osbourne has revealed that the extent of Ozzy Osbourne’s poor health was kept secret when the Black Sabbath frontman performed what became his final concert.
Doctors had firmly advised Ozzy not to appear at the Back To The Beginning show at Villa Park. However, he chose to go ahead, determined to thank his fans and say goodbye in person.
Just two weeks later, Ozzy died from a heart attack on July 22, 2025, aged 76. He had endured several serious health problems, including Parkinson’s disease.
Speaking at the British premiere of a film documenting the final concert, Sharon described how difficult the performance had been for her husband. “He was just praying that his lungs would work and that he could sing,” she said.
Sharon also spoke about the burden of being among the very few people who knew how ill Ozzy really was. She said the family even kept the seriousness of his condition from their children.
“I was petrified,” she said. “He did great, and we see that in the film. But the guys from Black Sabbath didn’t know how sick Ozzy was. Even my kids—we never told my kids. Nobody knew how sick he was.”
She added that returning to Aston Villa, the place where Black Sabbath’s story began, must have brought powerful memories flooding back for the band members as they performed together again.
Sharon Osbourne says the full extent of Ozzy Osbourne’s illness was unknown to almost everyone when he performed his final concert
Despite strict medical advice not to perform at Villa Park, Ozzy Osbourne went ahead with the Back To The Beginning show to bid farewell to his fans
“He was just praying that his lungs would work and that he could sing,” Sharon said. “Because, with everything else that was wrong with him, he had emphysema.”
“So for him to breathe was very, very hard. You never knew from one day to the next. He could be great for two days, and then on the third day he’d wake up and all you’d hear was wheezing. He couldn’t breathe, so it was tough.”
In the film, Sharon recalls that Ozzy was warned just days before the show that he might not make it through the performance. Even so, he refused to abandon the commitment he had made.
The decision ultimately produced one of heavy metal’s most memorable concerts, giving Ozzy the opportunity to share a final stage with industry friends and offer fans a fitting farewell.
Sharon said the concert appeared to transform her husband. After years of illness, she described him as seeming like a completely different person in the days that followed.
“He was flying high again. He was so happy,” she said. “Until the day he passed, he was still on that high, so thankful to everyone.”
“It was so joyous for us to see because we hadn’t seen him like that for years. He was laughing and telling jokes again. It was brilliant.”
The film also captures Ozzy thanking Sharon on stage for the two-year effort she invested in bringing the concert together. Metallica and Guns N’ Roses were among the other bands who performed.
Sharon and Ozzy married in 1982 and had three children: Aimee, 43; Kelly, 41; and Jack, 40. Ozzy was also father to Jessica and Louis, as well as adopted son Elliot, from his previous marriage to Thelma Riley.
The comments come after Jack defended his family’s decision to create an AI avatar of his late father, insisting that the project was not a “cash grab.”
Following the Black Sabbath singer’s death last year, Sharon revealed that the family had signed an agreement with AI avatar companies Hyperreal and Proto Hologram, which specialise in creating lifelike 3D holograms.
She revealed earlier this year that fans would be able to speak with the AI recreation, saying at the Licensing Expo 2026: ‘The things that you can do with that are just endless.’
Discussing Ozzy’s struggles, Sharon shared her pain of being one of the only people to know the truth about her husband’s health as she even shielded their children from it; pictured with son Jack and daughter Kelly
I’m A Celeb star Jack, 40, has now defended the decision saying he wants to be ‘out in front’ when it comes to the new technology.
Speaking on Jamie Laing’s Great Company podcast, he said: ‘Yeah, we’re doing this…’.
Jamie then chipped in: ‘And you know, by the way, I know you got backlash for it but I think it’s a great idea. I love it.’
Jack then said: ‘Well you know, there was backlash. It was my own fault. I you know, it was like we had just kind of figured this thing out and that we were going to do it and I guess I wasn’t properly armed with the way to properly explain what it was.
‘And I think people thought that, you know, next thing you know, it’s going to be Ozzy Osbourne, you know, doing freaking, you know, selling, you know, cell phones. It’s like no, we and a lot of people are doing this now’
‘We are creating this digital fingerprint you ultimately will own the digital IP and image of that person.
‘It was our choice to go, hey, we should be out in front of this and we should not be, you know, on the back foot with having this kind of new pillar of entertainment properly locked down.’
Sharon and Jack had previously defended the decision in the wake of criticism, as they spoke on their The Osbournes podcast recently, where she insisted the avatar will also be ‘for their grandkids’.
Sharon said: ‘I was reading some, and it’s like, ‘Oh, f**k off. Give me a break. The thing is, it’s like saying when there were propellers and then there were jet planes. ‘Oh, well, cash grab! Why go on a jet when there’s a propeller? What are you doing?’
‘Well, you know what, technology moves on. And I’m sorry for those people. I’m not asking you to come. I don’t want your f**king money. I don’t need your f**king money. I’m doing very well.’
She continued on her tangent, saying: ‘And the thing is, for somebody to turn around to me and say I’m doing a cash grab? No, you don’t know my husband, OK? I know my husband.
‘And my husband would say to me over and over, ‘After I go, how long do you think I’ll be remembered? How long do you think?’ And I go, ‘I just don’t know, cause I’ll probably be going with you. So, don’t ask me.”
‘[It’s something] that will pass on through our family, and it’s for our grandkids.’
Jack said: ‘I have so much I want to unpack with this because what we’re doing … isn’t ChatGPT with dad’s face on it. This is a closed AI….
‘So it’s not connected to the internet. We build a database. And the thing that I cannot emphasize enough is that this is only information that either my dad said or was accurate or was written accurately…
‘[It will] be tasteful and the reaction… It’s innovative. It’s either we do it or someone else is gonna do it. For me, it’s not about pretending he’s still alive. It’s making sure he’s never forgotten…
‘The most important thing for me is that when we create this digital imprint of dad, we create it. We own it. We control it.’
