Ozzy Osbourne is hitting the stage one last time on July 5 with the original Black Sabbath lineup in a show that’s being billed as “his final bow.”
The Prince of Darkness had intended to make “his final bow” years ago on his “No More Tour 2” farewell tour. Unfortunately, that tour was cut short due to the coronavirus pandemic and a litany of health issues.
In light of the news of the epic final show for Ozzy and Sabbath, which will also feature an insane support lineup, we’re taking a detailed look back on how it has all come down to this historic show.
February 2020: Ozzy Shares More Parkinson's Details, Cancels North American Tour Dates
Ozzy shared with The Los Angeles Times in an interview published on February 12 that he was actually first diagnosed with Parkinson’s back in 2003.
“I’m not dying from Parkinson’s. I’ve been working with it most of my life,” he said. “I’ve cheated death so many times. If tomorrow you read ‘Ozzy Osbourne never woke up this morning,’ you wouldn’t go, ‘Oh, my God!’ You’d go, ‘Well, it finally caught up with him.'”
Ozzy also mentioned that he takes medication for tremors, but one of the side effects includes short-term memory loss.
On February 17, Ozzy’s ongoing health issues force him to cancel the North American dates of his “No More Tours 2” farewell tour. In a statement, Osbourne said, “I’m so thankful that everyone has been patient because I’ve had a sh-t year. Unfortunately, I won’t be able to get to Switzerland for treatment until April and the treatment takes six-eight weeks. I don’t want to start a tour and then cancel shows at the last minute, as it’s just not fair to the fans. I’d rather they get a refund now and when I do the North American tour down the road, everyone who bought a ticket for these shows will be the first ones in line to purchase tickets at that time.”
The aforementioned trip to Switzerland for Parkinson’s treatment would eventually get canceled due to the then-ongoing coronavirus pandemic. Sharon said at the time on The Talk, “We had to cancel our trip to Switzerland. And we were meant to go the eighth of April, but we had to cancel for his treatment. And we’re just hanging in like everybody else. You know, just trying to stay away, and be quiet, and just, you know, hold it in there.”
August 2022: Ozzy's Surprise Performance, Scary Details About Recent Surgery
Ozzy surprised the world when he and Black Sabbath bandmate Tony Iommi performed during the closing ceremony of the 2022 Commonwealth Games. It was his first public performance since performing with Post Malone at the 2019 American Music Awards.
Days after this performance, he spoke to U.K.’s The Sun that his neck and spine surgery in 2019 was, more or less, botched. He said, “I was told, ‘You’ve got a good chance of being paralyzed for the rest of your life.’ You just don’t expect the surgeon to be a f—ing butcher. I was left in agony.”
His June surgery was performed by a different doctor. Ozzy said, “Thank God I found the right surgeon who knows how to deal with spinal problems. He had to cut nerves and you have to take f–ing nerve-pain pills, but I am getting better. I go forward two inches and back one, but I’m doing it.”
As for how his Parkinson’s disease factors into all of his neck and spine issues, Ozzy said, “I don’t shake at all. My Parkinson’s doctor says, ‘I’ve got to tell you something, I’ve seen all kinds of Parkinson’s but yours is the mildest ever’. I don’t even know how anyone worked out I had it in the first place.”
September 2022: Ozzy Performs at Halftime of the Los Angeles Rams' Season Opener
As part of the promotion for his album Patient Number 9, Ozzy performed at halftime of the season opener for the Los Angeles Rams, who were then the defending Super Bowl champions.
September 2023: Ozzy Talks About His 'Final Surgery'
On an episode of The Osbournes podcast, Ozzy talks about having neck surgery again and said it would be his “final surgery,” because he just was fed up with going under the knife. Despite being over surgery, he wasn’t nervous about it and said, “It’s all right. It’s just like going over for a f—ing haircut now.”
On a previous episode of The Osbournes podcast, Ozzy said, “My lower back is, I’m going for an epidural soon because what’s happening, what they’ve discovered is the neck has been fixed, below the neck there’s two vertebrae where the bike hit me and disintegrated, there’s nothing left of ’em. All I know is right now, I’m in a lot of pain, I’m in a lot of discomfort.”
