Sharon Osbourne’s ‘Backup Plan’ for Ozzy’s Farewell Show

In his upcoming posthumous memoir Last Rites, Ozzy Osbourne details the myriad hurdles he had to overcome to perform at his Back to the Beginning farewell show, his mounting fear leading up to the big event — and Sharon Osbourne’s backup plan in case he couldn’t perform.

The Prince of Darkness, who died on July 22 at the age of 76, was plagued by health problems in his final years, which Last Rites will explore in detail. In an excerpt published by The Times, Ozzy describes the comically painful scene in the airport as his family traveled to Birmingham for the concert.

“The cherry on top was when they made me get out of my wheelchair and ‘walk’ through the body scanner,” he writes. “I almost went through that thing arse over tit. Well… this is going smoothly, I thought.”

READ MORE: 10 Simple Ways to Honor Ozzy Osbourne in Your Daily Life

Ozzy Was Worried About Farewell Concert: ‘The Show Kept Getting Bigger’

Things got worse before they got better for Ozzy after he landed in his home country. “Three days after we finally got to England I was back in hospital,” he writes. “My blood pressure kept me there for eight days, during which I had nothing to do but worry. Because the show kept getting bigger.”

The magnitude of the event made Ozzy even more nervous. “As all these huge names were announced — Guns N’ Roses, Metallica, Steven Tyler from Aerosmith — I was like, holy f***, it’s gonna be like metal’s answer to Live Aid,” he says. “Lying in bed at night I’d be like, I can’t go, I can’t do this. I kept saying to Sharon, we’d better get a video made ’cos there’ll be an empty stage. She just looked at me like I was mad. She knows me better than I do. She knew I was just scared.”

Sharon Osbourne’s ‘Backup Plan’: ‘Get Up There and Be Ozzy’

Finally, Sharon told Ozzy he was getting on the stage whether he sang or not. “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.”

Those who watched the Back to the Beginning concert know that Ozzy’s solo performance and Black Sabbath reunion were both soaring successes.

READ MORE: Black Sabbath Go Out With a Bang — See the Final Song + Full Setlist

“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,” he writes. “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.”