Rob Halford On What Made Ozzy Osbourne So Special

12-26-2025

Ozzy Osbourne was a true original. And Judas Priest frontman Rob Halford reflects in a new interview just what the legendary Black Sabbath frontman and his friend so special.

Halford was asked by "Louder, "What made Ozzy so special?" and he responded, "Ozzy was always Ozzy, to me. I think that's what we all love about him. I think it happens to all musicians, no matter what moniker is attached to your name, you physically and mentally change when you go on-stage and become a different person. I don't think it matters who it is - I reckon even the Gallaghers feel different going out onstage than they do having a fag and a pint.

"You've got to be aware that you need to knock it into the back of the net, every single night. That was always the same with Ozzy - we toured with him and something just happened when he was about to go on, he becomes Ozzy Osbourne."

Rob also recalled when he first met Ozzy, "I reckon there's probably a few nights where I met Ozzy, but didn't know I'd actually met him. I wish I could tell you for certain the first time we actually spoke, it felt like I always knew him."

He then looked back on their first conversation. "Our first chat was, 'Are you sleeping alright?' We'd both been on the road a few years by that point, and both of us had terrible insomnia. Then we'd be talking about our voices - usually complaining! 'I don't know how I'm gonna do this tonight,' just very casual, genuine banter between the two of us.

"I have to stress I wasn't in the inner circle like Zakk [Wylde] was. That's just the way that life went for us. We had a very close relationship when it came to music, our love for metal and how we supported and respected each other. I'm still grieving the loss of him, I can't really accept it because like a lot of people I don't want to think about him not being here.

"I'm just grateful that we had a friendship. Fans and everybody understand that it's the music more than anything that we thrived on, that gave us strong emotions. That's enough for me - I'm content and happy with the time I spent with him. The opportunity to sing with him on War Pigs is kind of like a complete circle. It must've been destined to happen. It's also amazing that the first thing you'll hear of Ozzy, after he passed, is him singing with Judas Priest. That's mad."