Rob Halford of Judas Priest cried for hours after Ozzy Osbourne’s death

Judas Priest frontman Rob Halford admitted he “bawled his eyes out for hours” after learning that Ozzy Osbourne had passed away.

The Black Sabbath icon died last month at the age of 76, and Rob confessed he was devastated when he first heard the heartbreaking news.

The 73-year-old heavy metal singer told Detroit station WRIF: “Oh, man. I got a call the day Ozzy died. I just put the phone down in my hotel room, I think it was in Leeds, England, and I just curled up in a ball and bawled my eyes out for hours.

“I just couldn’t believe it. I still can’t believe it now. I’m still grieving, like so many people.”

Judas Priest had a concert scheduled in the UK the very next day, on July 22, following Ozzy’s passing. Rob remembered how the band honored him with a special dedication during their performance of Giants in the Sky.

The Breaking the Law singer said, “We had a show the next day. So, God, how do you process all of this tragedy, all of this love, because I’ve never seen such an outpouring of love.

“And we did the show, and we came to the song that we’ll be playing when we come to see you guys – it’s called Giants in the Sky, from the Invincible Shield album, and that song talks about people that we love in music that have moved on to this beautiful place.

“We reference Lemmy and Ronnie (James Dio) and Paul Di’Anno (from Iron Maiden) and Jill (Janus from Huntress and Chris (Cornell) and all of these greats, Janis Joplin, Freddie Mercury. And then for that show, we added Ozzy at the end.”

Halford expressed his hope that fans will continue to speak about the Crazy Train legend.

He said: “It’s great that we are talking about him now, and we should keep talking about him forever, like I always talk about Ronnie, I talk about Lemmy.

“These are all friends of mine. And we have to celebrate, we have to celebrate. That’s the way of helping you through the grief. You think about the memories, you think about the joy, you think about the good times, and that’s what we will always do with Ozzy.”