“I still can’t believe that he’s not here with us. There will never be another Ozzy”: Tony Iommi shares Ozzy Osbourne tribute on the first anniversary of his death

Tony Iommi has taken to Instagram to pay tribute to his former bandmate, Ozzy Osbourne, a year after his passing.

After one hell of a retirement gig in Back to the Beginning, Ozzy passed away aged 76, leading to an immense outpouring of love from the rock and metal community. Everyone from Wolfgang Van Halen’s Mammoth to Grace Bowers and Billy Strings paid tribute to the legendary Black Sabbath singer.

A year on from losing a man with whom he conquered the music world, Iommi has shared a heartfelt tribute.

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“Well, it’s now a year since Ozzy’s passing, and I still can’t believe that he’s not with us,” he writes. “I watch him on YouTube, and it feels like he’s still here with us. We always stayed in touch, almost every week or so, and we’d usually talk about our ailments and then about what we’d been doing that particular week.

“The fans have been absolutely brilliant, and the love and respect that they have shown for him has just been amazing.

“I’m so glad that we were able to play one final show with the original line-up of Sabbath at the Back To The Beginning show in our home town of Birmingham,” he adds. “There will never be another Ozzy. I miss you, my dear friend.”

In January, Gibson launched a multi-part documentary on the rags-to-riches rise of heavy metal’s progenitors, with Iommi reflecting on what would become Black Sabbath’s “horrible” first jam.

More recently, a story from their final show – relayed by Ozzy’s son, Jack – further underscored the pair’s relationship, which was at the heart of Black Sabbath’s success.

Iommi had called his passing “heartbreaking” in his initial tribute, offering the same sentiment that has been repeated by so many – there will never be another like Ozzy.