Ozzy Osbourne knew he was "dying" before his farewell concert.
The Paranoid hitmaker passed away just 17 days after his star-studded Back to the Beginning show in his native Birmingham, England, in July 2025, and his widow Sharon Osbourne has told how he shrugged off warnings from his doctors that the performance would "kill" him because he knew he didn't have long left anyway.
Sharon told Rolling Stone magazine: "He was in hospital in America before he left. We moved back to England, and we had a whole new team of doctors. His new doctors didn’t want to take doctor’s notes from America. They wanted to make their own assessment on him. He was in hospital for a week in England.
"After he came out of hospital, they asked for a meeting, and they came to our house. We had six different doctors and, like, a quarterback, because there were all of these specialists for the heart, for Parkinson’s, for his lungs, because of all the different things that were wrong with him.
"They advised us not to do the show. They said it would kill him.
"We were all together and Ozzy said, 'It’s not an option. It’s what I want.' He said, 'I know I’m dying. If I miss a few months of my life, I want to go this way. This is what I want.'
"It was his wishes and we went through it. He said to me, 'Another six months, what’s it going to do for me?' "
Although Ozzy was feeling "very, very emotional", Sharon admitted the concert was a "beautiful" and fitting farewell for her husband.
She said: "He was very, very emotional. But you know what? It was beautiful too. It was amazing. How lucky was he to go out that way? I say he went out like a Viking. It was the way he wanted.
"Ozzy always used to say, 'I’m one lucky motherf*****. Who else has had my life? I got everything I dreamed about.'
"He had no regrets about anything. He knew what his destiny was. He chose it."
Despite the perilous state of Ozzy's health at the time, Sharon, 74, admitted those closest to them, including their own children and his Black Sabbath bandmates, were kept in the dark about the fact he "knew" it was his last goodbye.
She said: "It was old friends seeing other friends. It was just amazing for everyone that was there, for all the guys, and everyone. It was just a great day.
"Well, it was more than a great day; basically, it was Ozzy’s goodbye, and he knew it was his goodbye.
"My kids didn’t know. We didn’t tell the children. We didn’t tell anyone. But we knew what was going on. Sabbath didn’t know, nothing.
"But again, it’s not sad. Look at him, a Viking to the end."