Ozzy Osbourne gave his four-word verdict on finally meeting Paul McCartney, whom he had looked up to for decades. Ozzy sadly died this week aged 76 after years of health battles, with tributes flooding in from across the music world for the Heavy Metal trailblazer.
But while dulcet harmonies of The Beatles may not have always been associated with his hard-rock sound and dark lyrics, the Brimingham-born singer always held up the Fab Four as his biggest inspiration. Black Sabbath were the band that made Ozzy famous achieved mainstream success in the early 70s, and he went on to have a massive solo career and achieved even wider fame with The Osbournes reality show on MTV. But somewhat surprisingly, it was decades before the “Crazy Train” singer came face to face with one of his idols and main inspirations, McCartney, describing the experience as “like meeting Jesus Christ”.
The pair met for the first time backstage at the Howard Stern show in Los Angeles in 2001, and Ozzy later recounted the experience on The Osbournes podcast on which he regularly appeared with wife Sharon and two of their children, Kelly and Jack.
“I’m a big Beatles fan and when I first met Paul McCartney, it was like meeting Jesus Christ,” Ozzy said.
“And he was a very nice man, a very nice man,” he added.
The Brummie legend, dubbed “The Prince of Darkness” also revealed a classy move Paul made after Ozzy one a prestigeous gong.
“And when I got a Grammy, he followed up with my producer to congratulate me. That was very, very special,” he said.
Details of Ozzy’s funeral haven’t yet been confirmed though he previously told The Times he didn’t want it to be a sad occasion.
Speaking to the newspaper in 2011, he said: “There’ll be no harping on the bad times.”
“It’s worth remembering that a lot of people see nothing but misery their whole lives, so by any measure, most of us in this country – especially rock stars like me – are very lucky.
“That’s why I don’t want my funeral to be sad, I want it to be a time to say ‘Thanks’.”