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.

Daniel Bukszpan, who wrote a biography about Ozzy Osbourne in 2023, couldn’t bring himself to watch the rocker’s farewell concert that took place less than three weeks before his death. “I couldn’t watch it.