Jack Osbourne reveals more details about the relationship with his father

Jack Osbourne has talked candidly about the death of his father, Ozzy Osbourne. In a September 3rd YouTube video, the 39-year-old described how he learned of his father’s passing in west London’s Harefield Hospital on July 22. This is his statement, transcribed by blabbermouth.net.

 I left [the United Kingdom] on the 13th of July. I came home [to Los Angeles], and, yeah, my dad was great. He was in a good mood. He was happy. I woke up in Los Angeles to a knock on my house door at around 3:45 in the morning. Someone who’s worked for my family for probably 30 years now was knocking on my door, and when I looked through my window and I saw it was him, I just knew something bad had happened. And I was informed that my father had passed.

And this was his reaction to this awful news.

I immediately — I don’t know — just pain, just sadness and pain and just so many thoughts. You go through this of feeling sad and frustrated and angry and this part of you that’s, like, ‘I have to get there right now. I have to.’ But there was a level of like, okay, he’s not not suffering anymore. He’s not struggling.’ And that is something. I wish he was still here, I wish he was still with us all, but he was having a rough go. And I think people saw that at the show. But no one expected it to happen as quickly as it did. And when it did, it was not anything that was on our radar. I know leading up to it, there was all sorts of stuff going around about my dad going to Switzerland and he was gonna euthanize himself and this was all planned and this was this… It was not — absolutely not. That is categorically untrue and ridiculous. My dad, he was so happy that he did the show and he was happy to kind of move into this next phase of his life. He wanted to, to spend more time in England. He wanted to spend more time with my kids. He wanted to spend more time with just exploring different things as much as he could.

According to Jack, he took a plane to England that day and reached the airport at the same moment that the world learned of his father’s passing.

It was, like, text and call and texts like you’ve never… I’ll tell you what — I was so grateful, though, that I was on a plane to where my phone wasn’t ringing; I was just getting texts,” he said. “And so many people reaching out — friends of mine and colleagues. And that’s something that has been really unique about this experience, is — as overwhelming as it can be with the outpour of love and people reaching out, it’s also been really validating because I know my dad was a special guy and he meant a lot to a lot of people. He meant something very different to me than 99.999% of the world. But the common thread is that he was loved. He was loved so much, and a lot of people are gonna miss him.

He went deeper about the relationship with his father.

He wasn’t just a father to me. He was my colleague. We worked together in so many capacities. I had recently moved. There was a period where I was between houses and I moved back in with him. So he was my housemate in my late thirties. And it was awesome. Me and the kids were living here. Just a friend, a text buddy, a joke cracker. I was so lucky, I had such a great relationship with him, and I’m so grateful. And I think that’s been — the overwhelming feeling has been gratitude. Deep gratitude. I’m so grateful that he was my father. And I’m sure people think, ‘Well, yeah, why wouldn’t you be?’ But the material component of it pales into comparison for the stuff that really, really made him a father. He was deeply complicated. He was funny and weird and awkward and clumsy and just hilarious and so insightful. I’ve said this before, but I think my father was probably one of the most deliberate people you’ve ever come across. He knew what was going on all the time, and people may have thought he was checked out, but most of the time he wanted you to think he was checked out. But he was very aware always.

And of course, about the event “Back to the Beginning”.

One thing that has kind of stuck with me about my father’s exit was how there is almost a perfection to it. He got to say goodbye in such a profound way. He got to thank his fans. He got to see his friends he hadn’t seen in such a long time. He got to perform. I mean, there was so much accomplished before the full stop. And a lot of that stuff, when the time is right, we’ll talk about. It’s been overwhelming ultimately. I know I was shocked at the outpouring of love. Shocked. And I think it’s been beautiful, and as I said earlier, it’s been validating to see that kind of outpouring of love. And I mean this — for people listening or watching — people that sent cards and did posts and whether they laid flowers up at the Birmingham Bridge or dropped them off at the house, we saw it all. We read all the letters. It didn’t go unnoticed. And I speak for the family when I say this, is that we are so grateful for that, and it meant so much. And, as I said earlier, it was validating, ’cause I know we weren’t alone. Yeah, it’s been a hard six weeks as a family. We’re all kind of navigating it together and alone and in our own ways. I think it’s common. And the price we pay for loving someone so much is grief. And it’s the pain of grief when they’re gone. And I’m okay with that.

He also explained why he recorded this podcast.

Just to say thank you to everyone and let everyone know that the family is doing okay. We’re hanging in there. We’re doing what we can to support each other and love each other. And, yeah, my father’s legacy will continue. I think Ozzy Osbourne does not end because he passed away on July 22nd. As I’ve been saying, he’s exploding through the universe, and we’re all seeing it.