NEED TO KNOW
- Jack Osbourne has opened up about the moment he was told about the death of his dad, Ozzy.
- Speaking in YouTube video posted on a Wednesday, Sept. 3, Jack said he was woken up to the news by “someone who has worked for my family for probably 30 years who was knocking on my door.”
- Ozzy died at Harefield Hospital in London on July 22. The Black Sabbath legend was 76.
Jack Osbourne is opening up about the moment he found out his dad Ozzy Osbourne had died.
Speaking in a YouTube video posted on Wednesday, Sept. 3, Jack, 39, explained that it had taken him a while to figure out how to address his father’s July 22 death at Harefield Hospital in west London, per a death certificate obtained by PEOPLE. The Black Sabbath legend was 76.
“I woke up in Los Angeles to a knock on my house door at around 3.45 [a.m. local time] in the morning,” Jack recalled in the YouTube clip.
“Someone who has worked for my family for probably 30 years was knocking on my door, and when I looked through my window and I saw it was him, I just knew something bad had happened. I was informed that my father had passed,” he said.
Jack explained that he immediately felt “sadness” and “pain,” adding, “So many thoughts … there was a level of like, ‘Okay, 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,” the reality star continued, referencing his dad’s final Black Sabbath gig on July 5 in Birmingham, England.
“No one expected it to happen as quickly as it did and when it did,” Jack insisted of Ozzy’s death. “It was not anything that was on our radar.”
The TV personality flew to England that day and arrived at the airport just as the news about his father’s death broke around the world.
“So many people reaching out,” he remembered, admitting he was “grateful” to be on a plane at the time, so he could only receive texts and not countless calls.
“That’s something that has been really unique about this experience is, as overwhelming as it can be, with the outpour of love and people reaching out, it’s also been really validating, because I know … my dad was a special guy,” Jack said.
“He meant a lot to a lot of people,” he shared, getting emotional. “He was loved so much. A lot of people are going to miss him.”
Jack, who is a father of four, explained earlier in the video that his family had meant to go to Portugal on vacation in the weeks before his dad’s death, but his kids ended up getting a stomach virus, so they just hung out at Ozzy’s home north of London for a week.
“I’ve never been so grateful for my kids to have the stomach flu as I am today,” Jack insisted.
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Jack had been in the U.K. to attend Ozzy’s final performance with Black Sabbath at Birmingham’s Villa Park stadium on July 5.
Ozzy performed while sitting on a bat-themed throne with a skull design on each armrest after being diagnosed with Parkinson’s disease in 2003 (he revealed his diagnosis to fans in 2020).
After the show, Jack said in the YouTube clip that his dad had been “in an amazing mood” and had been enjoying reading reviews and stories from the gig in the paper.
Jack’s comments come after Ozzy’s family — which includes his wife Sharon Osbourne, 72, plus Aimee Osbourne and Kelly Osbourne, as well as Jessica Osbourne, Louis Osbourne and Elliot Osbourne — previously told PEOPLE in a statement following the rocker’s death 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.”
“He was with his family and surrounded by love. We ask everyone to respect our family privacy at this time,” they added.
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