When Ozzy Osbourne stepped onto the stage at Villa Park in Birmingham on July 5, 2025, for what became his final live performance, the occasion was built around history.
Former bandmates, legendary guitarists, major rock acts, and thousands of devoted fans gathered for “Back to the Beginning,” a farewell celebration designed to honor Ozzy’s extraordinary career and bring his story back to where it began. Ozzy himself described it as his final opportunity to thank the fans who had supported him throughout the decades.
But longtime followers of Ozzy’s early solo years noticed something almost immediately.
One important name was missing: Brad Gillis.
For fans who remember the difficult days following the tragic death of Randy Rhoads in 1982, Gillis was not simply another guitarist who passed through Ozzy’s band. He stepped into an almost impossible situation. Gillis was brought in after Bernie Tormé’s brief stint and had the enormous responsibility of helping Ozzy continue the Diary of a Madmantour while carrying the musical legacy Randy had left behind. He was given live recordings featuring Rhoads and worked intensely to learn the material, eventually stepping onto enormous stages with a band still grieving.
Gillis later recalled how overwhelming those first performances were. He had been learning the songs in hotel rooms with a small amplifier and cassette recordings, knowing that audiences were not simply listening to a new guitarist—they were listening for the echoes of Randy. His period with Ozzy also produced the live material that became “Speak of the Devil,” further cementing his place in one of the most dramatic chapters of Ozzy’s career.
That history made his absence from “Back to the Beginning” particularly noticeable.
Fans began asking why he had not been invited to participate. One commenter even questioned Gillis directly on his social media, pointing out his role as Randy’s first replacement, his appearance in Ozzy’s history, and his contribution to Speak of the Devil.
Yet the answer appears to be considerably less mysterious than some online speculation suggested.
At the time of the concert, Night Ranger—the band Gillis had ultimately chosen to return to after his Ozzy chapter—was also scheduled to perform on July 5, 2025. Contemporary fan discussions noted the scheduling conflict as a likely reason he could not attend.
And that detail matters because Gillis’s departure from Ozzy was not presented as a bitter ending. After helping Ozzy through one of the darkest moments of his career, Gillis chose to return to Night Ranger when the band secured its record deal. Years later, he explained that he felt it was time to build something of his own rather than remain a sideman. Ozzy himself spoke warmly about Gillis, saying that he was grateful for the guitarist’s help and that Gillis should follow his heart.
There is something deeply fitting about that history.
Gillis entered Ozzy’s world when everything was uncertain. He helped keep the music moving after unimaginable loss, played the songs night after night, recorded a piece of Ozzy’s history, and then eventually walked his own road. Decades later, when Ozzy Osbourne prepared to take his final bow, Gillis was no longer standing beside him onstage—but his fingerprints were already part of the story being celebrated.
💬 “I have no regrets.”
Those words, which Gillis has used when reflecting on his time with Ozzy, perhaps explain more than any dramatic theory ever could.
His absence from “Back to the Beginning” does not erase what he contributed. If anything, it reminds longtime fans that rock history is rarely a perfectly assembled reunion. Some musicians are there for the final photograph. Others helped make the photograph possible decades earlier.
And Brad Gillis belongs firmly in that second group—a guitarist who stepped into an impossible moment, helped carry Ozzy Osbourne through it, and quietly left behind a chapter that fans still remember today.