Jack Osbourne is opening up about the moment he discovered his father, Ozzy Osbourne, had died.
Jack, 39, said he was at home in Los Angeles when he got the tragic news on July 22, having just spent a week with his father and the rest of his family in the U.K. earlier in July.
“I woke up in Los Angeles to a knock at my house door, at around 3:45 in the morning. Someone who’s worked for my family for probably 30 years now was knocking on my door. When I looked through my window and saw it was him, I just knew something bad had happened,” Jack explained in a YouTube video posted on Wednesday, September 3.
He continued, “I was informed that my father had passed. … Immediately, I don’t know … just pain. Sadness and pain. So many thoughts. You go through this of like, feeling sad and frustrated and angry. … But there was a level of like, OK, he’s not suffering anymore, he’s not struggling, and that is something.”
“I wish he was still here. I wish he was still with us all, but he was having a rough go, and I think people saw that at the show,” Jack said, referring to Ozzy’s frail appearance during his final performance with Black Sabbath in Birmingham, England, just weeks before his death.
Jack said that neither he nor his family “expected it to happen as quickly as it did,” adding that the possibility of Ozzy dying was “not on our radar.”
“He was so happy that he did the show. And he was happy to move into this next phase of his life,” Jack said. “He wanted to spend more time in England. He wanted to spend more time with my kids.”
Jack said he feels lucky to have spent time with his father before his death, when he and his family stayed with Ozzy in the U.K. just after the Back to the Beginning concert in Birmingham. Jack shares three daughters with his ex-wife, Lisa Stelly: Pearl, 13, Andy, 10, and Minnie, 7. In July 2022, he welcomed daughter Maple, now 3, with his current wife, Aree Gearhart.
“I stuck around, hung out with the family at the house, my kids — it was a really amazing week,” Jack said.
Jack said he and his family were initially meant to fly to Portugal after the Black Sabbath concert, but “my kids all got sick.”
“They all had a stomach virus and it was really gross,” he explained. “So we canceled the trip and we just hung out at our family house in England for a week. It was awesome. It was sunny. My dad was in an amazing mood. He was really happy every day. He was opening up the newspaper and seeing different reviews and different stories from the Back to the Beginning show. It was great. It was a lot of fun.”
Jack added, “I look back on that now and I’m so grateful. I’ve never been so grateful for my kids to have the stomach flu as I am today.”
Ozzy died from cardiac arrest, acute myocardial infarction, coronary artery disease and Parkinson’s disease, according to a death certificate obtained by the U.K.’s Sun newspaper in August.
Ozzy’s family confirmed his death at the age of 76 in a statement to Us Weekly on July 22.
“It is with more sadness than mere words can convey that we have to report that our beloved Ozzy Osbourne has passed away this morning,” they said. “He was with his family and surrounded by love. We ask everyone to respect our family privacy at this time”
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