Tom Morello recalls the final words spoken to him by Ozzy Osbourne

In a recent interview at the Rocklahoma festival, Tom Morello, who served as musical director for Ozzy Osbourne‘s Back to the Beginning concert, shared his last exchange with Ozzy. While chatting with Chuck Armstrong (of Loudwire Nights) and Johnny Dare, presenter of Rocklahoma Live, Morello jokingly recalled his last encounter with Ozzy, which was distinctively Ozzy. It’s clear that many people were thinking back on their last conversations with the renowned Prince of Darkness when Ozzy Osbourne passed away so soon after his last performance. Because he was a little taken aback that the conversation was taking place, Morello nearly missed it.

This is the last time I saw Ozzy. The day is done. It’s been great and people have been working on the show for a very long time and we’re all hugging and crying. So we go to the afterparty and finally it’s mellow. I’m playing pinball with my son. And somebody taps me on the shoulder and I’m in the middle of a multi-ball and I’m like, ‘Get off me.’ And it’s Jack Osbourne because his dad wants to say hi. So I finish my game and it’s like, ‘Ozzy would like to say something’ and I’m like, ‘Oh my gosh.’ First of all, Ozzy comes to the afterparty, which is crazy right? And so, I got to one last time kiss his head, tell him I love him, thank him for a lifetime of music and his reply was, ‘Could you find Sharon, I want to get the fuck out of here.’ That’s the perfect coda to the day.

Ozzy was very meaningful to Morello.

Heavy metal music is the music that made me love music and Black Sabbath invented that. And then Ozzy Osbourne is the artist that brought Randy Rhoads to the world. And that was the poster that was on my wall when I was practicing eight hours a day. I named my first son Rhoads Morello in honor of Randy, so I don’t just owe a musical and artistic debt to those guys, it’s a real personal life debt. So when Ozzy and Sharon asked me to be musical director and curate that day, I took it very, very seriously. The idea was to make it the greatest day in the history of heavy metal and I think we did pretty well.