"He really wanted to do it and he was determined to do it," the group's guitarist said following Osbourne's death

Sykes appeared on Thin Lizzy's harder-edged 1983 album Thunder and Lightning, the group's Top 5 U.K. hit studio finale with the late frontman Phil Lynott. Sykes then joined Whitesnake for a two-album mid-'80s stint that began with the reworked 1984 edition of Slide It In.

Black Sabbath’s co-founding members have reacted to the news of Ozzy Osbourne’s passing, with Tony Iommi echoing the thoughts of the wider metal community by reflecting, “There won’t ever be another like him.