Former Ozzy Osbourne guitarist Jake E. Lee has shared the last text he received from the metal icon, just weeks after the two reunited for the first time in nearly 40 years.
Lee, who played on Osbourne’s solo albums Bark At The Moon and The Ultimate Sin, hadn’t seen or spoken to Ozzy since leaving the band in 1987. That all changed a bit earlier this month when the pair finally crossed paths at the ‘Back To The Beginning’ farewell concert in Birmingham, which was Ozzy’s final live appearance.
The reunion came at the invitation of Tom Morello, who served as musical director for the stacked farewell show. Despite decades of silence between them, Lee eventually agreed to perform. Speaking now in the wake of Ozzy’s death on July 22, the guitarist has since posted a tribute on Facebook, calling the loss of Ozzy “hard to process”.
He also shared the private message Ozzy sent him as Lee was flying home from the UK:
Unfortunately, that reunion in Los Angeles never happened. Osbourne passed away at his home in Buckinghamshire, UK, despite emergency crews attempting to revive him for nearly two hours.
The Birmingham send-off which featured performances from Metallica, Guns N’ Roses, Slayer, Tool, Gojira, and more will be released as a concert film in cinemas next year, including backstage footage and interviews. Ozzy’s final memoir, Last Rites, is also due for release later this year.
Since his passing, tributes have also flooded in from across the music and entertainment world, including messages from Ghost, Elton John, Jack White, Coldplay, Alice Cooper, and Ozzy’s longtime Sabbath bandmates.
For Lee, the chance to reconnect with his former bandmate, however brief, clearly meant a lot. “The finality of it hits me in waves,” he wrote. “But I’m thankful we got that moment.”
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