Ozzy Osbourne’s wife and manager Sharon Osbourne shared an interesting story about how her late husband felt terrible about the way he treated Ronnie James Dio, his replacement in Black Sabbath. According to her, in the documentary “No Escape From Now“, by the end of his life he used go on Youtube and watch Dio interviews and said he felt sorry for him, because he never got to know his solo career or hear his albums with Black Sabbath. She also recalled an episode of when they first met and Ozzy tried to stab him with a fork at the Rainbow Bar & Grill in Los Angeles decades ago.
Sharon Osbourne says Ozzy felt terrible about how he treated Dio
“It was like, ‘Why are you watching Ronnie?’ He goes, ‘I feel sorry for him. I feel terrible.’ He never really listened to any of those (Black Sabbath) records at all. He never knew Ronnie. The first time he met him was when he tried to stab him at the Rainbow (Bar and Grill)… with a fork. He never really knew the guy and never knew his music. So he feels really bad. So he watches Ronnie James Dio interviews and I’m like, ‘What the fuck are you doing?'” Sharon Osbourne said.
Due to his alcohol and drug addiction and his lack of commitment with Black Sabbath at the time, he was fired by the band in 1979, being replaced by Ronnie James Dio who had left Rainbow. During Sabbath’s first era with Dio they recorded two praised studio albums: “Heaven & Hell” (1980) and “Mob Rules” (1981). After those records due to creative differences with Tony Iommi and Geezer Butler, Dio left the band taking with him the drummer Vinny Appice, who replaced Ward on the second album. Both of them would return in the early 90s to record “Dehumanizer” (1992). Both of them would leave the band again but this time curiously, because of Ozzy Osbourne.
By the end of the tour to promote the record Iommi and Geezer accepted Ozzy Osbourne’s invitation to be his opening act and to perform a few songs together by the end of his show. Dio didn’t accept to perfom that night, being replaced by Judas Priest’s Rob Halford on vocals. It was the reason why he left Sabbath again but that same line-up would reunite again in the 2000s when they formed Heaven & Hell, Sabbath’s spin-off band, which released one studio album “The Devil You Know” (2009).