Kelly Osbourne makes a moving revelation about her father Ozzy in a new BBC documentary filmed ahead of the musician’s death, aged 76.
To many of his fans and, evidently, his daughter, Osbourne was once jokingly thought of as indestructible thanks to his headline-making antics over the years, which included biting the head off a dead bat and supposedly “snorting” a line of ants.
In scenes set to air in a new one-hour special, shot before the Black Sabbath frontman’s death on 23 July, Kelly muses sadly on her father’s health struggles, stating that the seemingly unstoppable Prince of Darkness behind “Iron Man”, the classic Sabbath song, “wasn’t really made of iron”.
Titled Ozzy Osbourne: Coming Home, the one-off project, recorded over three years, will air on 18 August and is described as “an inspirational account of the last chapter of Ozzy’s life”, featuring candid access to his wife Sharon as well as children Kelly and Jack.
The project was originally pitched as a series designed to emulate the wackiness of The Osbournes, which launched the family to reality TV superstardom in the 1990s. However, it became a one-hour film after Ozzy suffered ill health in the wake of a Parkinson’s diagnosis.
Coming Home will focus on Ozzy’s efforts to get fit enough to perform a Black Sabbath farewell show in his home city of Birmingham – something the rocker pulled off just two weeks before his death.
The documentary’s executive producers Ben Wicks and Colin Barr said “it was an incredible privilege to spend the last few years with Ozzy, as well as Sharon, Jack and Kelly”.
They said that, despite his ill health, they witnessed “his sense of mischief and his honesty in the final years of his life” – but said his “intense love for his exceptional family who were by his side through it all” is what struck them most about the experience.
The announcement of the documentary comes after Ozzy and wife Sharon’s eldest daughter Aimee listed the singer’s occupation as “songwriter, performer and rock legend” on his death certificate.
The certificate also revealed Ozzy’s cause of death was “acute myocardial infarction” – typically meaning the death of tissue resulting from a failure of blood supply to an organ – and “out of hospital cardiac arrest”, or heart attack.
It also listed coronary artery disease and Parkinson’s disease with autonomic dysfunction as “joint causes” of death.
On 30 July, thousands of fans lined the streets to say a final farewell as his funeral cortege passed through Broad Street in Birmingham, before a private funeral service for family and friends.
In one particularly emotional moment, Sharon, 72, wiped away tears before kissing her own flower and placing it beside a poster that read: “Birmingham will always love you.”
Ozzy Osbourne: Coming Home airs on 18 August.
