After canceling the tour in the UK and Europe at the beginning of the year due to serious physical problems – effectively announcing that we will never see another Ozzy Osbourne tour – the former frontman of Black Sabbath is speaking again about himself and his health in a long interview (with his wife Sharon) for the cover story of Rolling Stone UK.
“I’ll be lucky if I have another ten years of life. Plus, when you get older, time passes more quickly.” Statements that take into account a long history of medical problems, starting with a bicycle fall in 2003 and continuing with Parkinson’s and a bad fall at home in 2019, which left Ozzy with permanent spinal damage.
“I thought that after three surgeries, I would go back to walking like before, and instead, with the last one, they had to put a damn piece of metal in my spine. Then they found a tumor in one of the vertebrae, and they had to remove that too. It’s really tough. My balance went to hell.”
It seems unlikely, therefore, that we will see the Prince of Darkness (who is now 74 years old) not only on tour but also on stage. However, Ozzy is not the type to lose hope: “I’m living day by day, and if one morning I woke up and could go back on stage, I would do it right away. For now, all this is like having to say goodbye to the most beautiful relationship of my life. At first, when I had to cancel the tour, I was very angry. With myself, with the doctors, with the world. Now some time has passed, and I feel like accepting it.”
And he concludes: “But if I can’t be on stage like before, then I just want one last concert. A show where I can thank the fans for the life they’ve given me. I’m working on it. If I die right after stepping off the stage, it will be the farewell of a happy man.”