Mastodon drummer Brann Dailor has shared an emotional tribute to Ozzy Osbourne following the rock legend’s passing. He reflected on his experience performing at Ozzy’s and Black Sabbath’s final concert, Back to the Beginning.
Dailor spoke candidly about his lifelong connection to Ozzy Osbourne. He described the profound impact the show had on him and everyone in attendance — an impact made all the more significant by Ozzy’s passing just two weeks later.
“Ozzy was untouchable. Throughout my life, he was there. I had ‘Ozzy rules’ written on every Trapper Keeper I ever had as a kid, it was on the brick wall at the end of my street, just everywhere. He’s my go-to music. Don’t know what to listen to? Put Ozzy on and I’m happy. It didn’t matter what he did, it was Ozzy, and he was his own thing, his own genre,” Dailor said.
He went on to describe how Ozzy felt like a personal discovery, distinct from the classic rock he associated with his parents’ generation.
“I love Black Sabbath, but as a kid that was almost like my parents’ music. [Whereas] Ozzy felt like my own discovery. In the early ’80s when I was really young, I remember going to the record store and buying Blizzard Of Ozz and Diary Of A Madman and actually getting a little scared! But it was fun, and it was horror in that fun way of A Nightmare On Elm Street. That’s the thing that people who were protesting against him as The Prince Of Darkness didn’t understand – Ozzy was just having the time of his life!”
Dailor also reflected on the honour of being asked to perform at the historic farewell concert.
“When we got asked to play Back To The Beginning, I was like, ‘Are you sure you’ve got the right band?!’ To be asked was probably the biggest honour of my whole life. I’ve played a million shows, but I’ve never had the feeling that I had running out to the drums that day. I spent the six months leading up to it trying to conjure up what it would be like, and I honestly couldn’t. People were asking me how I thought it was going to go, and I tried really hard to picture it, but I just couldn’t.”
He described the collective spirit shared among the legendary acts on the bill that day.
“The feeling from Metallica, Guns N’ Roses, Tool and every other band there was: ‘We’re here for one reason, and that’s to honour our heroes and the giant oak tree that is Black Sabbath and Ozzy that all of us sprouted from.’ It still stands as prominent as ever, and will always stand as the main trunk of heavy metal. That was the assignment. Being the band to kick everything off, I thought there might be this tremendous amount of pressure, but it was more like an incredible honour. I was like, ‘Just don’t f*ck up!'”
Dailor then recalled the deeply emotional moment Ozzy took the stage, a moment that moved the entire crowd to tears.
“I watched the show from the front, because I wanted to have the best experience of that day I could. I knew I was going to be emotional when Ozzy played – duh, of course. As soon as his throne came up, everyone burst into tears, and the gravity of the situation started to come up. None of us thought that two weeks later he would pass.”
He closed with a heartfelt farewell to the man he called rock’s equivalent of Elvis.
“But you knew: this is the last time I’m going to hear any of these songs sung by him, it’s never going to happen again. This is the last time Mr. Crowley is going to happen. As soon as the organ started, it was goosebump city. I was in tears, man. There’s never going to be another Ozzy – he was our Elvis. Ozzy rules.”
Ozzy Osbourne passed away shortly after the Back to the Beginning concert. He left behind a legacy that, as Dailor put it, will always stand as the main trunk of heavy metal.
The Back to the Beginning concert took place on July 5, 2025, in Birmingham — Ozzy and Black Sabbath’s hometown. It drew tens of thousands of fans for what would become one of the most emotionally charged events in rock history. Ozzy performed seated, his physical limitations doing nothing to diminish the power of his presence or the magnitude of the occasion.
Ozzy Osbourne died on July 22, 2025, just seventeen days after the show. He was 76 years old. His family confirmed that he passed away surrounded by love — a quiet end to one of the loudest lives ever lived in rock and roll.
The concert brought together some of the biggest names in heavy music, including Metallica, Guns N’ Roses, and Tool. Each act performed as a direct descendant of the sound that Ozzy and Black Sabbath built from the streets of Birmingham more than five decades ago. The event was a celebration of that legacy — not a farewell, but an honour.
For many who were there — musicians and fans alike — the show carried an unspoken finality. The image of Ozzy rising on his throne to face the crowd one last time has since become one of the defining moments of his legacy. It was a farewell that no one fully understood was a farewell until it was over.
Source: Kerrang!
