Ozzy Osbourne feels he has, at most, ten years to live.
In a recent interview with Rolling Stone UK, the Black Sabbath frontman talked about his ongoing health problems, including Parkinson’s disease and the limitations that came from a fall in 2019.
“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 said. “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 added. “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.”
Dubbed “The Prince of Darkness” in his heyday, Ozzy has had several back surgeries after his falll in 2019. That accident exacerbated existing back and neck problems from a 2003 bike crash.
Unfortunately, the surgery seemed to make things worse, and doctors found a tumor during another procedure.
“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.”
Still, he notes, he “should have been dead way before loads” of his late friends. He has admitted to drug and alcohol problems in his past.
“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?! 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.”
His wife, Sharon, concurs that he’s had a tough go over the last few years.
“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.”
Despite his frail condition, Ozzy is holding out hope for one last hurrah.
“I’m taking it one day at a time, and if I can perform again, I will,” he said. “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.”
