Legendary Black Sabbath singer Ozzy Osbourne has paid tribute to his former guitarist Bernie Tormé, who has just passed away. Osbourne called him “a gentle soul with a heart of gold.”
Ozzy wrote, “”What a sad day. We’ve lost another great musician. Bernie was a gentle soul with a heart of gold. He will be dearly missed. I send my sincere condolences to his family, friends and fans. Rest in Peace Bernie.”
Bernie’s family said in a statement, ““Bernie Tormé passed away peacefully on the 17th March 17, 2019, one day short of his 67th birthday, surrounded by his family,” the statement reads. “He had been on life support for the past four weeks at a London hospital following post-flu complications. Bernie will be remembered for dedicating his life to his music for five decades. He will be sorely missed.”
Fox News reports that Torme’s Twitter account posted last month that the guitarist was in intensive care with virulent pneumonia; the same post stated that he was owed nearly £16,000 by the financially troubled direct-to-fan marketplace PledgeMusic, “which was due last December on completion of his recent ‘Shadowland’ Pledgemusic campaign.” A subsequent post noted that Torme had “paid for all for all recordings, merchandise, CDs and all postage costs to honour his fans’ pledges out of his own pocket. He has as yet been unable to pay his musicians, drummer Mik Gaffney and bass player Simon Morton for their work on the album.”
