Ozzy Osbourne Says He Hopes to Perform One Last Show Amid Health Struggles: “I’ll Die a Happy Man”
Ozzy Osbourne is opening up about his health, whether he has a fear of dying or not, and the one thing he still holds out hope for.
In a recent interview with Rolling Stone UK, the “Godfather of Heavy Metal” revealed that a tumor was found in one of his vertebrae while undergoing a fourth spinal surgery. The procedure was to fix damage caused by a fall in 2019, which dislodged metal rods he had put into his body after a previous quad bike crash in 2003.
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“It’s really knocked me about,” Osbourne said. “The second surgery went drastically wrong and virtually left me crippled. I thought I’d be up and running after the second and third, but with the last one they put a fucking rod in my spine. They found a tumor in one of the vertebrae, so they had to dig all that out too. It’s pretty rough, man, and my balance is all fucked up.”
But this wasn’t the only setback the musician, who has been open about his past addictions and overdoses, has faced in recent years. In 2020, he shared that he had been diagnosed with Parkinson’s disease.
Now, Osbourne told the outlet that he has come to some realizations as he’s been doing “a lot of reflection while I’ve been laid up.”
“All my drinking partners, I’ve realized they’re all fucking dead!” he said. “The graveyard’s full of them! You’re dead and you’re dead and you’re dead.”
He added, “I should have been dead way before loads of them. Why am I the last man standing? I don’t understand any of it. Sometimes I look in the mirror and go, ‘Why the fuck did you make it?!’ I’m not boasting about any of it because I should have been dead a thousand times. I’ve had my stomach pumped God knows how many times.”
But through it all, Osbourne said he still doesn’t fear death.
“I don’t fear dying, but I don’t want to have a long, painful and miserable existence,” he explained. “I like the idea that if you have a terminal illness, you can go to a place in Switzerland and get it done quickly. I saw my father die of cancer.”
The artist continued, “But look, I said to Sharon [Osbourne] that I’d smoked a joint recently and she said, ‘What are you doing that for! It’ll fucking kill you!’ I said, ‘How long do you want me to fucking live for?!’ At best, I’ve got ten years left and when you’re older, time picks up speed. Me and Sharon had our 41st wedding anniversary recently, and that’s just unbelievable to me!”
The one thing Osbourne is “fucking pissed off at” is never getting the “chance to say goodbye or thank you” to his fans since he announced earlier this year that he was retiring from touring due to some surgeries.
“For whatever reason, that’s my goal to work to. To do those shows. If it’s at Ozzfest or somewhere, or even a fucking gig at the Roundhouse,” he said. “If I can’t continue doing shows on a regular basis, I just want to be well enough to do one show where I can say, ‘Hi guys, thanks so much for my life.’ That’s what I’m working towards, and if I drop down dead at the end of it, I’ll die a happy man.”
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