Black Sabbath bassist Geezer Butler has paid a tender tribute to his friend and former bandmate Ozzy Osbourne, sharing his memories of how "the most incredible journey of our lives" began. Butler's recollections come in an essay penned for The Sunday Times, published yesterday, July 27.

"I didn’t realize then that I would never see Ozzy again after that night," Butler writes of the July 5 "Back to the Beginning" show in England.

Geezer Butler honored Ozzy Osbourne with a moving tribute, reflecting on their early days, lifelong bond, and emotional final show in Birmingham.

In an emotional essay, Geezer Butler recalled his decades-long friendship with Ozzy Osbourne and Black Sabbath's final rehearsals.

Black Sabbath bassist Terence 'Geezer' Butler shared an essay about his friendship with Ozzy Osbourne and their final gig together before the rocker's death at age 762. In the essay, Butler said he 'wasn’t prepared to see how frail he was.

Few people knew Ozzy Osbourne more intimately than his Black Sabbath bandmates, who, despite their conflicts over the years, spent decades with the Prince of Darkness. To Geezer Butler, however, Osbourne wasn’t the Prince of Darkness at all; he was the “Prince of Laughter,” as the bassist wrote in a tribute to his old friend for The Times.

Ozzy Osbourne was unwell for years ahead of his devastating death, but Black Sabbath bandmate Geezer Butler has admitted he was shocked by how ‘frail’ the icon had become. Ozzy died aged 76 on July 22, mere weeks after the War Pigs legends had performed their final show in their home town of Birmingham.

Bassist Terence “Geezer” Butler, guitarist Tony Iommi, lead singer Ozzy Osbourne, and drummer Bill Ward were all between the ages of 18 and 20 when they began playing together in Birmingham. Naming themselves after an Italian horror film in early 1969,