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Two of Birmingham’s greatest exports, Judas Priest and the late Ozzy Osbourne, have teamed up to perform a rendition of War Pigs by Ozzy’s band Black Sabbath.
The take on the 1970 Paranoid song, which features co-lead vocals from Ozzy and Priest’s Rob Halford, follows Priest’s cover of the same track, which they released on July 2. According to Halford, shortly after that first cover came out, Ozzy’s wife/manager Sharon Osbourne reached out offering new vocal tracks from her husband.
Halford told Full Metal Jackie earlier this month: “She approached me with this idea, she said, ‘I love your version of War Pigs. Is there a way we can get Ozzy?’ I was [like], ‘You’re asking me? This is gonna happen!’
“So, you get Ozzy singing a line and then I’m singing a line and Ozzy’s singing a line and I’m singing a line. It’s the first ever time in my entire life that I’ve been able to do a duet with Ozzy and I’m so eternally grateful and blessed that I was able to do that.”
All proceeds from the new War Pigs cover will go to the charities Cure Parkinson’s and The Glenn Tipton Parkinson’s Foundation. Ozzy was diagnosed with Parkinson’s disease in 2019, and Priest guitarist Glenn Tipton was diagnosed with the disease in 2008. Priest launched The Glenn Tipton Parkinson’s Foundation in his honour in 2018. Due to his condition, Tipton has stepped back from touring full-time, but he has made appearances during the encores of several of their concerts.
Priest released their first War Pigs cover to pay tribute to Ozzy in the lead-up to the vocalist’s retirement concert Back To The Beginning, which took place at Villa Park – near where he grew up in Aston, Birmingham – on July 5. Priest were one of the few veteran metal bands to not play at the star-studded event, and Halford explained to Hammer that it was due to a clash with the 60th-anniversary celebrations for German hard rockers Scorpions, which they were booked to play on the same day.
Ozzy died at the age of 76 on July 22, 17 days after Back To The Beginning, following a heart attack. Priest offered their condolences via social media, saying, “Sharon, may God surround you and your beautiful family with love, peace and light. Ozzy, you will never leave us.”
The band played a concert in Scarborough, UK the day after Ozzy’s death and added a tribute to him to their stage show, putting his face on the video backdrop during the song Giants In The Sky.
Two documentaries about Ozzy’s final years, where he dealt with the effects of his Parkinson’s and multiple spinal surgeries, will be released next month. An hour-long programme called Ozzy Osbourne: Coming Home will be broadcast by the BBC on October 2, and the two-hour film Ozzy: No Escape From Now comes out via Paramount Plus on October 7. The singer’s second autobiography, Last Rites, will also come out on October 7.
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