I've stuck by Ozzy because I love him... I understand him and why he does the things he does

BLACK Sabbath's final-ever performance will draw more than 45,000 heavy metal fans from around the world to Villa Park tonight, to hear frontman Ozzy Osbourne in perfect voice.

- MARC BAKER

He may be 76 and suffering from Parkinson's but his Back to the Beginning celebration will make history for all the right reasons, insists wife Sharon.

Ozzy will also continue recording, although he won't perform live again.

She said: "We are doing it to say goodbye as he feels like 'I have never said goodbye to my fans. I want to say goodbye properly".

Disclosing that he has been having singing lessons, she added: "There won't be any head banging. Not any more. But his voice is still absolutely perfect." Devoted to the star, who she married 43 years ago yesterday, Sharon, 72, adds: "Even if you don't like his music you can't not like Ozzy - he draws you in." Her husband's manager since 1979, the pair met in 1970 when he walked into the music management offices of her father, the late Don Arden.

Just 18 then and manning the phone switchboard for Don, who looked after American greats Little Richard and Jerry Lee Lewis, Sharon, 72, remembers their meeting as if it was yesterday.

"When I first met Ozzy he was in pyjama tops, open toe sandals and a tap around his neck as jewellery," she laughs.

"We have been together for over 50 years. I have stuck by him because I love him. It is simple. I understand him and why he does the things he does. I have always felt I could not do it without his talent and feel I am on his coat tails."

Despite his hellraising image, Sharon says Ozzy was hopeless as a young star when it came to sex, drugs and rock 'n' roll.

A former petty thief, from working class roots in Aston, Birmingham, aged 17, Ozzy was jailed for two months after breaking into a clothes shop.