“The crowd noticed I was struggling, and they started singing back the words” – read an excerpt of Ozzy Osbourne’s feelings after the farewell show

Details of Ozzy Osbourne‘s last performance were revealed posthumously in his new memoir, “Last Rites.” Ozzy wrote a piece about the Villa Park show that was featured in The Times, as reported by blabbermouth.net.

Coming on stage all I could think was, is my voice really up for this? But as 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. It was overwhelming, man, it really was.

[My solo band and I] got through ‘I Don’t Know’, ‘Mr. Crowley’ and ‘Suicide Solution’ no problem at all. I was having a ball. But I choked up when I started ‘Mama, I’m Coming Home’. I mean, it’s Sharon’s song, y’know? One of her favorites. Lemmy wrote it with the two of us in mind. That alone was enough to bring tears to my eyes. 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.

I just couldn’t hold in my emotions any more. Out in the crowd, everyone was holding up the lights on their phones. Someone said in the papers it was like I was attending my own wake, which would be a very metal thing to do. But it didn’t feel like a funeral. It felt like a celebration. There was so much love in that stadium, coming at me in waves. I had tears streaming down my face, but I felt so uplifted. 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.

By the end of the song, thank God, I’d managed to pull myself together. Then it was one last ride on the ‘Crazy Train’ and time for the Sabbath set.

The guys in Sabbath were as nervous as I was about me doing two sets in a row. They had no idea if I could pull it off. But it couldn’t have gone better. When the crowd chanted the tune of ‘War Pigs’ like they were cheering on England at the World Cup, it was just electrifying. Then we did ‘N.I.B.’, ‘Iron Man’… and ‘Paranoid’.”

Grand Central Publishing of Hachette Book Group will release “Last Rites” on October 7. In it, Ozzy also details his difficult struggle with Parkinson’s illness, sepsis, blood clots, emphysema, and several episodes of pneumonia. In the recently released BBC documentary “Sharon & Ozzy Osbourne: Coming Home,” which was shot prior to his passing, Ozzy also discussed the Villa Park performance.