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.”
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