Billy Morrison, rhythm guitarist for Billy Idol, has opened up about his 30-year friendship with Ozzy Osbourne. He spoke about the rock legend’s last days before death came in July 2025. Morrison gave a eulogy at the funeral. He’d watched the Prince of Darkness battle failing health in hospitals and endure surgeries.
“Everyone with a heart was crying the day of that show at (the) Back to the Beginning concert. Obviously, his health had been declining, and I had been witness to that. I had seen him in more than one hospital with tubes attached. I visited him coming out of surgeries,” Morrison said in an interview with Guitar World.
Morrison described private text exchanges with the rock icon during those last months. He watched his friend suffer. Still, Morrison tried to stay strong when they talked.
“But you know you don’t go there in your head. Ozzy was so strong and overcame so much. He would text me: ‘I’m in pain. This thing, it’s getting me down.’ I would just say: ‘You’re the strongest man I know,'” he said.
Morrison admitted he expected Osbourne to “overcome everything like he’s Superman” because the man had bounced back “time after time after time.” The funeral in England became the hardest day Morrison had experienced.
“The hardest day I’ve ever been through was his funeral. I flew to his funeral in England, and I delivered a eulogy. It was one of the hardest things I’ve ever had to do. Sharon would tell you that we were like two 11-year-olds when we got together. That’s what made the friendship special. We understood each other in situations where, perhaps, other people didn’t understand us,” Morrison told the ouetlet.
He added, “And as friends, there were huge life events for both of us where one of us helped get the other one through… We had a connection. I miss him.”
The Black Sabbath frontman died on July 22, 2025, at age 76. Death came just 17 days after his Back to the Beginning concert on July 5, 2025, at Villa Park in Birmingham. Doctors had warned him about performing. They told him not to do it. He ignored their advice.
The official cause of death was acute myocardial infarction and out-of-hospital cardiac arrest. Coronary artery disease and Parkinson’s disease with autonomic dysfunction were listed as contributing factors. Osbourne had battled Parkinson’s since his 2019 diagnosis.
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