Rage Against the Machine guitarist Tom Morello has shared the final conversation he had with Ozzy Osbourne before he passed away.
The interaction came after the Back to the Beginning concert, which Morello was the musical director of.
He sat down for an interview at Rocklohoma and had plenty of praise for his late friend.
Morello’s description of his final interaction with Ozzy Osbourne is totally what you would expect.
The 61-year-old guitarist was playing pinball with his son when he got a tap on the shoulder, “and I’m in the middle of a multi-ball, so I’m like ‘get off me’”.
Turns out, it was Jack Osbourne, letting him know that his dad wanted to say something.
Morello was a man of few words at this moment: “Oh my gosh.”
He said it was crazy that Ozzy was even at the afterparty, so he took full advantage of the moment.
“I got one last time to kiss his head, tell him I love him, thank him for a lifetime of music,” said Morello.
And Ozzy’s reply? “Could you find Sharon, I want to get the fuck out of here.”
This hilarious, on-brand interaction was a “perfect coda to the day”, according to Morello.
Morello spoke highly of the influence that Ozzy had on his musical career and his life.
“Heavy metal is the music that made me love music, and Black Sabbath invented that,” he said, “Ozzy is the artist who brought Randy Rhoads to the world. And that was the poster that was on my wall when I was practicing eight hours a day.”
Black Sabbath and Ozzy are so influential that it has dripped down to Morello’s family, with his first son named after Randy Rhoads, and his second son, Roman, playing the guitar for Jack Black’s ‘Mr Crowley’ cover.
In Morello’s eyes, he doesn’t just owe Sabbath a lot in a musical sense: “It’s a real-life personal debt.”
There is no doubt that Ozzy’s influence will live on forever in Morello’s life, and it’s a privilege that we all get to witness it.
