Ozzy Osbourne wanted his epitaph to be: "I told you I wasn't feeling well"
The Black Sabbath singer, who died aged 76 after playing his final concert before 42,000 fans at Villa Park in July, lifted the joke from comedy icon Spike Milligan and set out his wishes for his burial in his forthcoming posthumous memoir Back to the Beginning
5 October 2025
In it, he writes about how he and his wife Sharon discussed being buried together and how his family "don't even want to think about" death.
He said in an extract from the book obtained by The Times: "When the end does come, I don't want to be cremated. It's like you were never here. You're just a bag of dust. That's not for me. I wanna make the flowers grow.
"The only conversation I've had with Sharon was when we decided we wanted to be buried together. I've also said to Sharon, don't you dare go before me. It's my biggest fear now, Sharon leaving this world before I do. If she does, I won't be too far behind. I live for the woman.'
Ozzy added his family wouldn't "let" him discuss the details of his epitaph - but that between himself and his readers he has already decided what it should be.
He said: 'Between you and me, though, I'm thinking something short and sweet. 'I told you I wasn't feeling well' should do the trick."
The phrase is a lift from Spike Milligan, the Goon Show comic who died in 2002.
Spike had long joked about putting "I told you I was ill" on his grave, but after objections from church authorities it had to be inscribed in Irish instead.
His headstone in East Sussex now carries the words "Dúirt mé leat go raibh mé breoite".
In his memoir, Ozzy also reflects on his long struggle with ill health, his near-death experiences with pneumonia and sepsis, and his determination to make it back on stage for a farewell gig.
He says playing Back to the Beginning with Black Sabbath at his farewell show after years of surgeries and hospital stays was "the best medicine I've had since all my medical s*** started back in 2019".
Death, he writes, no longer scares him as it once did.
He said: "You get closer to the end - the very thing you were scared of your whole life - and suddenly the weight's lifted off you. Not that I'm ready to go. But I've had a good run. I think I made a mark on the world. And I'm glad I didn't check out early, like so many others."
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