Ozzy Osbourne and Lemmy Kilmister are two of the most iconic characters in heavy music and the musicians shared a friendship that spanned decades. In fact, Osbourne revealed in a new interview with Classic Rock that he had spoken with Lemmy on Dec. 28, 2015, just prior to the musician’s death.
“He was a good man, Lemmy was,” said Osbourne, then reflecting, “All the guys from Motörhead have gone now, from the original band.”
“It’s hard to lose anyone you love,” he continued. “I was talking to Lemmy on the morning that he died, but I couldn’t understand what he was talking about. I wanted to talk to someone else who was there, but they kept giving the phone to Lemmy.”
Osbourne had previously revealed that final phone conversation with Lemmy in a 2018 Metal Hammer interview, where he explained that after speaking with Lemmy and hearing the state he was in, he was ready to rush to the singer’s side. But according to Osbourne, Sharon informed him that Lemmy had just passed right as they were ready to leave the house. “Just as we were leaving she came up to me and said, ‘Don’t worry, he’s gone.’ And I went, ‘Oh god,’ recalled Osbourne. “I just sunk. It hit me really hard, I’m not going to pretend it didn’t.”
In a 2016 Sydney Morning Herald interview, Osbourne revealed that his actual final conversation with the Motorhead leader came two days before his death. “I couldn’t make head nor tail what the fuck he was talking about, he was so ill,” said Osbourne. “And two days before I spoke to him he just had a birthday, his 70th … I mean, there’s nothing fucking good about fucking dying at any age, you know? But as he said to me, in one of the last conversations I had with him, he says, ‘Well, I lived my life the way I wanted to live it. Who wants to live to 85? You’re gonna be bored shitless.'”
https://loudwire.com/ozzy-osbourne-last-conversation-lemmy-kilmister-rock-star-death/
“So I got back, and he goes, ‘What do you think about these?’ And I go, ‘Oh, great,'” recalled Ozzy. “He then goes, ‘What about these?’ I go, ‘Oh, you got two…?’ He goes, ‘No, I got another one – three.’ I go, ‘You had written three sets of lyrics?!’ He said, ‘Yeah, and that book was crap!’ I said, ‘What book?’ He says, ‘The book you gave me.'”
As Ozzy tells it, “He was a speed-reader! He could read really fast. He was amazing! You look at people like Lemmy and you think, ‘Oh, he’s a yob.’ But he was very well-educated.”
Just this past year, a new version of “Hellraiser” was released featuring both Ozzy and Lemmy’s vocals on the song that both had previously recorded individually. The track combining their vocals was in honor of the 30th anniversary of the song.
Lemmy Kilmister died on Dec. 28, 2015 at the age of 70.
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