Ozzy Osbourne’s family got a new BBC documentary canceled at the last minute.
“There have been conversations behind the scenes that maybe the BBC were rushing their show on Ozzy out – especially because Paramount+ also had a film in the offing,” a source told The Sun.
“The BBC’s production had been originally planned to run as a ten part series following Ozzy and Sharon’s move back to the UK called Home To Roost.”
“After Ozzy passed away, the makers of the series then decided it should be a one-off film,” they continued. “What mattered the most to the family was the overall tone and theme of the programme, which features Ozzy and Sharon in one of their last interviews together. It started to feel like the goal being pursued was that the BBC and the makers of the film were to get the show on air faster than the Paramount+ doc. Naturally that has caused some concerns with the family.”
Last month, on July 5th, Ozzy Osbourne and Black Sabbath performed what was billed as their last ever show at Villa Park in their hometown of Birmingham, England. The event, dubbed “Back to the Beginning,” was the first time the band’s original lineup – Ozzy Osbourne, Tony Iommi, Geezer Butler, and Bill Ward – had performed together since 2005.
A little over two weeks later, on July 22nd, Ozzy passed away at the age of 76.
Just days before he died, his wife and manager Sharon Osbourne spoke to Pollstar about the show. In the just published interview, Sharon shared with the publication just how much the event and playing with his Black Sabbath bandmates again meant to Ozzy.
“He turned around and he said to me that night, ‘I had no idea that so many people liked me.’ Ozzy’s always been in his own bubble,” she said.
“For Ozzy to play with Bill [Ward] again, he was very, very emotional about that,” she added.
“It was a huge success, because it was a phenomenal event. It was the first time, I think, that anybody’s gone into retirement and done it, where the show is streamed and it goes to charity. So it’s the first time anybody has said goodnight like that, it’s the perfect way, when you’ve had such a long career, to end it.”
Ozzy’s death certificate lists his cause of death as a heart attack with the certificate also mentioning that in addition to Parkinson’s disease the late metal pioneer also suffered from coronary artery disease.
