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Ozzy Osbourne recently turned a corner with his recovery from surgery following an injury stemming from a 2019 fall, his wife and manager, Sharon Osbourne, tells Rolling Stone. “He’s doing a lot better,” she says. But he still has a long way to go before he can perform a full concert.
In July, Ozzy had to make the tough decision to withdraw from the upcoming Power Trip festival, which would have seen him co-headlining alongside Metallica, AC/DC, Guns N’ Roses, and others. “Unfortunately, my body is telling me that I’m just not ready yet and I am much too proud to have the first show that I do in nearly five years be half-assed,” he wrote in a message to his fans.
“We can’t talk about it in the house because it is just so heartbreaking to see that all he wants is just one more show,” says Kelly Osbourne, who was with Sharon for an interview about the return of The Osbournes Podcast.
“And Ozzy wants to be on that show with all his friends,” Sharon adds. “It’s heartbreaking for him to see everybody going on, and he’s just left behind.”
“He could do it right now if he sat in a chair,” Kelly rejoins, “because the voice is there; there’s nothing wrong with the voice.”
“But he won’t do it,” Sharon says.
“He said that if he can’t give his fans what they paid to see, he won’t do it,” Kelly offers. “There is nobody that loves their friends as much as Dad does.” Sharon agrees and says the reason is that Ozzy is still a fan himself and knows what it’s like to be one.
While talking about the podcast, Sharon told Rolling Stone that the family is also still waiting for the all-clear from Ozzy’s doctors so they could move back to England, a decision they’d made last year. “I think it’ll be good for him for a while to go back,” Sharon said. “We can have privacy there. And he can do his own little thing and he his own garden. He can do a bit of fishing.”
Ozzy was in the middle of his No More Tours 2 trek, his final world tour, in 2018 when a staph infection forced him off the road. Shortly into 2019, as he was planning on returning to the road, he fell in the middle of the night and aggravated a spinal injury he’d sustained in 2003 in a nearly fatal quad-bike accident. A doctor installed two metal plates in his neck, but those ended up causing him more pain, and he underwent more surgery last year. In that time, he also revealed that he’d been diagnosed with Parkinson’s disease but told Rolling Stone last year that his symptoms were mild to nonexistent.
Osbourne was able to make two live performances, one in Birmingham, England, and the other in Los Angeles, last year, but each lasted only one or two songs, and he had a stand that he could lean against in case he needed it. After the Birmingham concert, he told Rolling Stone how much the experience reinvigorated him. “Up until last night, I was semi-retired,” he said. “For three years, I’m thinking, ‘I’m never going onstage.’ I kind of half-bought myself into the fact that [my performing career] was over.” But, he said, the experience was such a rush that he would do what he could to get back onstage.
Judas Priest, which had been set to open for Osbourne’s No More Tours 2 before the dates were canceled, will replace him at Power Trip. Osbourne called them “personal friends of mine” in a statement when he announced that he’d be leaving the lineup. “I can promise that you will not be disappointed,” he wrote. He ended his note saying, “I love you all and I will see you soon.”
