EXCLUSIVE: Ozzy Osbourne Reveals Dream Epitaph in Emotional Memoir — After Radar Told You First He Was Set to Include Sad Grave Message in Final Book
Ozzy Osbourne had the perfect epitaph for his tombstone.
Oct. 6 2025, Published 6:00 p.m. ET
Ozzy Osbourne has revealed his dream epitaph, joking darkly about his own death in his posthumous memoir while reflecting on his extraordinary final show, RadarOnline.com can reveal.
The 76-year-old Black Sabbath frontman, who died at his Buckinghamshire home after years of illness, writes candidly about the end of his life and his hopes for what will appear on his tombstone.
Osbourne's ' Ideal Epitaph' Revealed
Osbourne accepted death was near before he passed away.
In the extract from Back to the Beginning – his forthcoming memoir detailing his last concert at Villa Park in Birmingham before 42,000 fans – Osbourne describes feeling at peace with his mortality and shares his preferred inscription.
"Between you and me, though, I'm thinking something short and sweet," he says about his ideal epitaph,"'I told you I wasn't feeling well' should do the trick."
The line is a nod to legendary British comic Spike Milligan, whose own epitaph reads the same but had to be inscribed in Irish to placate church authorities. According to those close to him, Osbourne had discussed the idea of his epitaph with his wife Sharon, 72, and their children Aimee, Kelly, and Jack in the months before his death.
"Ozzy always had that wicked sense of humor, even about death," a family friend said. "He loved Spike Milligan and would often quote him. He felt that epitaph summed up his whole life – funny, self-deprecating, and a little bit rebellious."
'Death's Been Knocking at My Door'
The rocker even had an ' ideal epitaph.'
Another insider claimed: "Sharon hated him talking about the grave, but Ozzy was insistent. He said, 'That's me, that's who I am.' He wanted to make people smile even at the very end."
Osbourne showed off his ideal epitaph in the book after RadarOnline.com was first to reveal in July that he was penning his everlasting final words for his gravestone ahead of his last Black Sabbath gig. In his memoir, Osbourne also recounts how close he came to missing his final show due to a string of health crises, including pneumonia, sepsis, and ongoing complications from Parkinson's disease.
Less than three weeks before the gig, doctors warned he might not survive.
"Death's been knocking at my door for the last six years, louder and louder," Osbourne writes in his book. "And at some point, I'm gonna have to let him in. Not that I'm ready to go. But I've had a good run. I think I made a mark on the world. And I'm glad I didn't check out early, like so many others."
Osbourne was open about death in his memoir.
His memoir also details his and Sharon's decision to be buried together and his refusal to be cremated.
"When the end does come, I don't want to be cremated," he writes. "It's like you were never here. You're just a bag of dust. That's not for me. I wanna make the flowers grow."
Despite the somber subject matter, the book is filled with the same black humor and wild stories that made Osbourne a cult figure – from tales of smuggling jewelry on a transatlantic flight to rehearsing with the original Sabbath lineup for their "metal's answer to Live Aid" final show.
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The Black Sabbath frontman did not want to be cremated.
But it's his reflections on legacy and the afterlife that resonate most. "People ask me what I think's gonna happen in the afterlife," he writes. "I say to 'em, I've no idea, but it won't be long now, so if you hang around a bit, maybe I can haunt you and give you the answer."
