The Black Sabbath rocker — who suffers from Parkinson’s disease — revealed one of the several back surgeries he’s had in recent years went “drastically wrong and virtually left me crippled,” while doctors found a tumor during another.
Ozzy Osbourne is opening up about the severity of his health issues.
In a recent interview with Rolling Stone UK, the Black Sabbath rocker revealed he believes he has 10 years left to live — at the most — amid his battle with Parkinson’s disease and the medical problems and surgeries resulting from a fall in 2019.
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“Look, I said to Sharon that I’d smoked a joint recently and she said, ‘What are you doing that for! It’ll f–king kill you,'” Ozzy, 74, recalled. “I said, ‘How long do you want me to f–king 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!”
“I don’t fear dying, but I don’t want to have a long, painful and miserable existence,” he admitted. “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 Prince of Darkness has struggled with his health in recent years. Ozzy — who publicly revealed his 2003 Parkinson’s disease diagnosis in 2020 — has undergone several back surgeries in an attempt to fix the damage done to his spine due to a fall in 2019. The accident exacerbated his existing back and neck problems from a 2003 bike crash.
Ozzy told Rolling Stone UK that his second spinal surgery didn’t go as planned and left him “crippled,” while doctors found a tumor during another procedure.
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“It’s really knocked me about,” the singer 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 f–king 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 f–ked up.”
Ozzy — who previously struggled with drug and alcohol abuse — said he “should have been dead way before loads” of his late friends.
“Why am I the last man standing? I don’t understand any of it. Sometimes I look in the mirror and go, ‘Why the f–k did you make it?!'” he told Rolling Stone UK. “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.”
Meanwhile, Ozzy’s wife of over 40 years, Sharon Osbourne, opened up to the publication about how difficult it’s been to watch her husband struggle with his health.
“It’s been nearly five years of heartache, and at times I’ve just felt so helpless and so bad for Ozzy, to see him going through the pain,” Sharon, 71, said. “He’s gone through all these operations and the whole thing has felt like a nightmare. He hasn’t lost his sense of humor, but I look at my husband, and he’s here while everyone else is out on the road. This is the longest time he hasn’t ever worked for. Being at home for so long has been so foreign to him.”
Due to his ongoing health problems, Ozzy canceled his tour, and announced he was stepping back from live performing earlier this year. But he hasn’t lost all hope that he’ll be able to perform again, even if just to express his gratitude toward his dedicated fans.
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“I’m taking it one day at a time, and if I can perform again, I will,” the former reality star told Rolling Stone UK. “But it’s been like saying farewell to the best relationship of my life. At the start of my illness, when I stopped touring, I was really pissed off with myself, the doctors, and the world. But as time has gone on, I’ve just gone, ‘Well, maybe I’ve just got to accept that fact.'”
“That’s one of the things I’ve been the most f–king pissed off at: I never got the chance to say goodbye or thank you,” he later added. “Because my fans are what it’s all about. If I can just do a few gigs… They’ve been loyal to me for f–king years. They write to me, they know all about my dogs. It’s my extended family really, and they give us the lifestyle we have. For whatever reason, that’s my goal to work to. To do those shows.”
“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,'” Ozzy said. “That’s what I’m working towards, and if I drop down dead at the end of it, I’ll die a happy man.”
