Legendary Black Sabbath vocalist Ozzy Osbourne has paid tribute to fallen Motörhead legend Lemmy Kilmister, who passed away on December 28th at the age 70 due to cancer. Rolling Stone has published Osbourne's lengthy tribute. An excerpt is available below:

All I've done since I heard the news was reflect on the times we had together. He was a good guy, a very good friend of mine. I'm still in some shock.

I phoned him up two days ago, and I couldn't make out one word he was saying. Yesterday, I got a text 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.

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 shit, 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." 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.

I met him when he was in Hawkwind. We used to rehearse in the same place in England. And then when he formed Motörhead, they were like the pirates of the rock business. I remember when I did my first solo tour of America, and they were opening up for us. We had a lot of fun together. They would be partying every day. On that tour, I remember saying to Lemmy at one point, "Do you ever sleep?" And he goes, "Well, not much." I go, "When was the last time you slept?" He said, "Let me think. Ten, 12 days ago." I said, "You're joking!" If I stayed awake for two days, I would be absolutely screaming, crazy. But they used to go for it.

He was the king of partying for a long while, but I'm sure he didn't keep it up forever. You could not do it. Lemmy was a fucking monster for it.

It wasn't all partying, though. Lemmy and I did a lot of work together, too. I remember when he wrote some lyrics for me, I went over to his apartment. That place was unbelievable. There was more war memorabilia and things hanging off the wall than most museums. I've given him some swords and daggers over the years that I picked up. It was his hobby. We had an interest in that Second World War. But he was so intelligent about it. He knew so much about the history.

Anyway, I gave him a song that I wrote. He was great with lyrics, so I said to him, "Can you work on this?" I also gave him a book about the Second World War, about some general or something. He says, "Come back in two hours." So I come back and he not only wrote me a bunch of lyrics, he had three sets of lyrics and he said to me, "That book was crap also." I said, "What book?" "The one you gave me." He had read a book in an hour. I said, "Are you kidding me?" He said, "Do you like these lyrics?" And I think it was for "Mama, I'm Coming Home." And I said, "They're all right." And he goes, "What do you think about these?" He'd written me three sets of lyrics.

He was a serious friend to us. He was very loyal. And if he had something to say to you, he wouldn't mince about it. He wouldn't yell at you. He'd just say, "That pissed me off." That was very rare. I don't think he said that to me, but he was just everybody's friend.

I'll miss him so much. We all will. There's a big hole in the music industry as far as I'm concerned.

He was a character. There ain't many characters in music today. I mean, you've got Miley Cyrus, OK, but there's not many characters in the game anymore. But he was definitely a character. An original. He lived the lifestyle. Sex, drugs and rock & roll, that was Lemmy.

You know what? There goes a hero for me. He was my hero. He was fucking great, a good friend. I'm missing him already. I'll never forget him. I don't think a lot of people will forget Lemmy. He'll be so missed in my camp. He was a good guy, a good man, a good friend of mine. He was just a fucking great dude, man. Not enough time for him.

God bless you, Lemmy. I'm so honored to have you a part of my life.

This is an abbreviated version of Ozzy's tribute. Go to this location for the complete piece. It's worth the read...