Halestorm have marked the first anniversary of Ozzy Osbourne‘s death by putting out a professionally filmed video of themselves tearing through one of his solo classics.
The song is “Perry Mason“, and the footage comes from a night the band spent in Ozzy‘s own city. Posting the clip to YouTube, Halestorm kept the message short:
“In honor of Ozzy Osbourne day, we’d like to pay homage to the Prince of Darkness the only way we know how. This is a live version of Ozzy‘s classic ‘Perry Mason‘ from the album Ozzmosis. Recorded at BP Pulse Live in Ozzy‘s hometown of Birmingham, England on November 23, 2025.”
That Birmingham date came midway through the band’s “nEVEREST” run behind Everest, their sixth album, and it was not the first time they had reached for the track.
Where the cover started
Halestorm were on the bill at “Back To The Beginning” on July 5, 2025 — the all-day Villa Park event in Birmingham that closed with Ozzy‘s final solo set and the original Black Sabbath lineup playing together for the first time in two decades. The band had three songs, and they used the last one on Ozzy: “Love Bites (So Do I)” and “Rain Your Blood On Me” came first, then “Perry Mason“.
The song is the lead single from Ozzmosis, Ozzy‘s seventh solo record, out in October 1995 and eventually certified double platinum in the States. Frontwoman Lzzy Hale has named it among the three metal albums that shaped her most, and she has never hidden the fact that she loves a record plenty of listeners write off.
Hale was also the only woman fronting a band anywhere on the Villa Park bill that day, a point that drew plenty of comment when the lineup was revealed.
Seventeen days later, Ozzy was gone. Halestorm were playing Cascades Amphitheater in Ridgefield, Washington on July 22, 2025 — the day the news broke — and closed their set with “Perry Mason” again. The song has followed them ever since.
Lzzy Hale on losing Ozzy
The morning after Ozzy died at 76, Hale called in to SiriusXM‘s “Trunk Nation With Eddie Trunk” and spoke about a man she had shared a stage with just weeks earlier. She said in part:
“It’s sad to see Ozzy go. Obviously, we just saw him [at the ‘Back To The Beginning‘ concert in Birmingham, United Kingdom on July 5, 2025], and [he was] hungry till the end. I mean, the guy was just ready to be on that stage and clapping. There was such joy in his face even then. But we just didn’t think it was gonna be that fast. So I don’t know. There’s so many emotions. We’re so grateful to have been there, but at the same time it’s so sad to see one of the greats go. I mean, it’s Ozzy. He’s supposed to always be here.”
Looking back at the show itself, she described a bill full of legends who all seemed to shrink to the same size in front of Sabbath:
“We had such a wonderful time at ‘Back To The Beginning‘. It was just such a mix of emotions. We were so grateful to be there and to celebrate these men, obviously with Black Sabbath and then Ozzy, and really kind of sitting with all of the feelings of how deeply ingrained what they gave to the world is in what we do. And then to kind of look around at all of these rock titans — Steven Tyler [Aerosmith] and Metallica [were] there — and everybody had the same feeling, that same childlike wonder and really just kind of looking around and saying, ‘Look, none of us would’ve existed in a band if not for these men.’ So it was really wonderful to be a part of that.”
She was honest, too, about how little time anyone actually got with the man they had come to honor:
“We didn’t get a whole lot of interaction with Ozzy. He was kind of getting wheeled in and out and doing the thing. And I spent some time with [Ozzy‘s wife and manager] Sharon. She’s so incredibly sweet. And then [Black Sabbath guitarist] Tony Iommi and everybody. One of our regrets that we had said right after the show is, like, man, we should have spent more time with Ozzy. But again, this is how life goes, and we were just absolutely grateful to be there and to experience all of it.”
Ozzy’s last stand
Ozzy Osbourne died on July 22, 2025 at the age of 76. His death certificate listed a heart attack as the cause, and reportedly noted that he had been living with coronary artery disease and Parkinson’s disease. He had gone public with the Parkinson’s diagnosis in 2019.
His last performance was “Back To The Beginning” at Villa Park, put together by Tom Morello and hosted by Jason Momoa. Unable to stand, Ozzy sang from a black throne, running through solo material before Tony Iommi, Geezer Butler and Bill Ward joined him for a closing Black Sabbath set — the four of them onstage together for the first time since 2005. Metallica, Guns N’ Roses, Slayer, Pantera, Tool, Alice In Chains, Gojira, Lamb Of God, Mastodon and Anthrax were among the acts who turned out, and proceeds went to Cure Parkinson’s, Acorns Children’s Hospice and Birmingham Children’s Hospital.
