Ozzy Osbourne: “Lemmy and I used to joke about who would die first”

Ozzy Osbourne has revealed his late friend Lemmy Kilmister insisted he didn't want to live unless he was having fun.

He told Rolling Stone: "Me and Lemmy go back a long time. We used to have a standing joke with each other, 'Which one of us is going to go first?' But I curbed my ways, staying up all night and all that, a long time ago. "But Lemmy said to me one time, 'What's the point of living to 99 if you're not enjoying it? It's my life and I want to have fun with it,' he added. "And he lived to 70. And the way he lived, smoking cigarettes, drinking and all that, he knew he wouldn't be doing it. You can't live that lifestyle and live 'til 99. Very rarely, some people can. Most of us drop off along the way." Ozzy, who calls Lemmy "my hero", revealed he was on his way to visit his friend when he heard that he had died suddenly. He said: "I phoned up, and I couldn't make out one word he was saying.  I got from his manager saying, 'Lemmy's on the way [out], and he wants to see some of his friends. "So my wife and I were just about leaving the door and the text came saying he'd gone. It shook me up bad. We were like 'Wow.' He must have been suffering for a while. You know, he's 70. He lived the rock & roll lifestyle to the max, but still it's sad when you lose a friend like that."