After a fan’s mom wrote a letter 40 years ago, Ozzy Osbourne gave the teen a gift he still treasures
It began when his mom wrote a letter to the 'Ozzy Osbourne fan club,' and Sharon's secretary read it.
Stephen Rea, the Irish actor best known for films like "The Crying Game" and "V for Vendetta," shared a profound friendship with Ozzy Osbourne, singer and songwriter, for more than 40 years. But not many know how they first met. Well, their friendship began back when Rea was only 15, and Osbourne had called him and his parents for breakfast on Copacabana Beach in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. Yes, that's right; it all began when Rea's mom wrote a letter to the "Ozzy Osbourne fan club," and his wife's manager read it. What followed was the beginning of an unlikely friendship that the now-author treasures to this day, parting with one gift that changed his life. Rea shared the incident in an interview with BBC Radio WM (@bbcwm).
This incident dates back to November 1984, when the only way to communicate with your celebrity idols was through letters. So, Rea's mom also wrote a letter to the Ozzy Osbourne fan club, looking for information on ticekts. The letter begins: "Sir, I am writing in the hope that perhaps you can offer some advice on the forthcoming rock concert at which Ozzy Osbourne is appearing in Rio de Janeiro in January 1985. My son (Stephen Rea) is a fully paid up member of the Ozzy Fan Club: Membership n. 00090 and he is one of Ozzy's biggest fans. He buys all his L.Ps and singles and anything that is associated with the man."
The letter, somehow, reached the secretary of Sharon Osbourne, his wife. She called Stephen's mom and told her she would arrange everything if she really wanted to go to Brazil. "We get to Rio, she puts me on the bus, back and forth to the gig on Ozzy's bus."
"They gave me a backstage pass; they put me at the side of the stage for Ozzy's two shows," Rea recalled. But their Brazil tour didn't end there; in fact, Osbourne called the "Citizen X" actor, a teenager back then, and his parents for breakfast on the Copacabana Beach. Surprisingly, there was no one else other than the four of them; no security, no handlers, nobody. "I had a week in Brazil with my hero," he said, recalling the incident. Notably, Rea, who even today gets overwhelmed by his first meeting with his idol, has also mentioned it in his book, "Ozzy and Me." Interestingly, Osbourne had gifted the Irish actor two leatherbound notebooks and insisted he maintain a journal to document their adventures, unaware that it would form the basis of his book. The notebooks chronicle moments from the 80s and 90s featuring Ozzy Osbourne, which would've otherwise been lost in the fog of post-tour fatigue.
Osbourne was a very generous man; in fact, all of his band members knew how to honor their fans and well-wishers. Just two weeks before he died, Osbourne and his band performed for the very last time in his hometown of Birmingham. The show, "Back to the Beginning," honored the place where the band started 50 years ago. In gratitude, the band donated the earnings from that particular concert to charity. Reportedly, they earned more than $190 million, which was split between Birmingham Children’s Hospital, Acorns Children’s Hospice, and the Cure Parkinson's charity. The donation towards the charity helping people with Parkinson's is also special because Osbourne, too, was diagnosed with the disease in 2019. Having lived through it himself, he understood the challenges and wanted to help others navigate a similar journey.
Struggling to secure tickets for Ozzy's final farewell show with Black Sabbath, Stephen recalls the moment he managed to witness the last performance of "Mama I'm Coming Home" — an irreplacable memory in rock history. "It was a charged song anyway, but watching Ozzy, listening to his vocals, his hand shaking as he gripped the mic, made my eyes well. When Sabbath took the stage, Mike walked out to join me. 'Dude, what were you thinking when you said you might not come?' he asked. 'You couldn’t have missed this for the world.'"
People were in awe listening to Rea's story; for instance, @tcity9320 wrote, "I am not surprised; genuine through and through. I bet he liked giving that experience to a fan. Great stuff." @weenus12 shared, "Back in 1980 or 1981, I wrote a letter to Ace Frehley’s mother, telling her that my friend loved Ace, and I was hoping to get an autograph for her. I didn’t really expect to hear back, but she sent me a card with a piece of paper that had Ace’s autograph. She wrote in the card that when Ace moved out, he took everything he owned that wasn’t nailed down." Similarly, @localskatepirate said, "I remember the first time I saw Ozzy… I just stood there like a stone statue soaking it all up, and I’m a headbanger for sure, but I was so in awe."
More on Scoop Upworthy
Keanu Reeves once bought an ice cream just to give his autograph to a 16-year-old
Share on Facebook
