Black Sabbath bassist Geezer Butler has paid a tender tribute to his friend and former bandmate Ozzy Osbourne, sharing his memories of how "the most incredible journey of our lives" began. Butler's recollections come in an essay penned for The Sunday Times, published yesterday, July 27.

"People always thought Ozzy was a feral wild man, but he had a heart of pure gold," he wrote of Osbourne, who died last week at age 76

"I didn’t realize then that I would never see Ozzy again after that night," Butler writes of the July 5 "Back to the Beginning" show in England.