Last week I turned 58. For the most part, I have tried pretty hard to cram in as much life and experience as I can into every passing year. Sometimes I succeed. I have often failed. Sometimes I look back with pride. There are things I regret. I keep going.
Because I have favored the doing of things over other choices; and because I have valued being there and doing that, I have had the opportunities to witness great art or sport or music in person. Pele, Jagger, presidents, a future pope, starship captains, jedi, Avengers, physicists, astronauts, and novelists have been people I have had the good fortune to see perform, speak, or even work with. As time passes, many of these people I have had actual contact with or experienced the work of in person pass away.
Experiencing the artistic or athletic performances of the extraordinarily talented is inspiring. Looking back at photos or interviews of these people I have worked with is pretty cool. There is just something a little different about experiencing it all in person.
Ozzy passing away the other day is what specifically brought me to the keyboard for this. We get the art or work of these people. Keanu Reeves once commented on death that, "I know the ones who love us will miss us." A public life amplifies that in ways most people will never experience. For most, we will live and be grieved by friends and family, not millions of strangers.
In the end, all of them are just people. Having seen them in person adds something to the experience of their work; and it also adds a sense of realism to their passing. Remembering that those with a public life are also people with close family and friends who are experiencing the loss in close proximity is easy to lose track of or fully appreciate sometimes. Our world in 2025 is much too harsh in so many unnecessary ways.
As people pass, I think back sometimes on those experiences. Jimmy Carter looked up at me and smiled and commented back when signing a book for me. Pele played his final match as I sat criss cross applesauce on the sideline in Portland at age ten. I managed to avoid being glitter bombed by Carrie Fisher working a show in New York weeks before she passed. A future pope presided over Saturday evening mass I attended at the Vatican when traveling overseas the first time. I drove Batman around back stage in an electric golf cart. I listened to Stephen Hawking in an opera house that was demolished days later due to earthquake damage.
Being able to reflect so personally on people I did not really know is a privilege. I saw Ozzy Osbourne perform four times, including the final full Black Sabbath original members tour in 2005. The final performance I saw was in 2007. Ozzy barking out, "Zakk, hit it!" as he encored with a rocking version of Paranoid.
There are pics and videos of Ozzy in his last days with grandchildren, just being a grandpa. I lost someone of whom I was a fan. His and other public figures families lose a real person.
Rest in peace.
