Ozzy Osbourne hasn’t toured since various injuries and ailments forced him off the road beginning in late 2018. While he currently has an oft-postponed UK/European tour on the books for Spring 2023, the metal legend isn’t sure if he’ll be able to honor those dates, saying, “I just can’t fucking walk much now.”
It’s been a rough four years for Osbourne, who contracted a staph infection in fall 2018; caught pneumonia in early 2019, at which time he suffered a serious fall at his home that dislodged previously-inserted metal rods in his back; and revealed an ongoing battle with Parkinson’s disease in early 2020. In June of this year, he underwent a major neck surgery that his wife Sharon stated would “determine the rest of his life.”
While he has been able to release two well-received albums — Ordinary Man and Patient Number 9 — during that time period, his physical ailments have limited him to occasional one-off gigs. Those include a surprise performance of “Paranoid” this past summer with Tony Iommi at the Commonwealth Games in Birmingham, England, and a two-song set at the NFL kickoff game in September.
Appearing on his own “Ozzy’s Boneyard” channel on SiriusXM (as reported by Yahoo!), Osbourne discussed the prospects of touring again. “It is so fucking tough because, I mean, I want to be out there,” he said. “I want to be doing it. This fucking surgery this guy did. Fucking hell, you have no idea.”
He continued, “The thing is my head is all right, my creativity is OK, my singing OK but I just can’t fucking walk much now.”
Ozzy went on to say, “I can’t begin to tell you how fucking frustrating life has become. It is amazing how you go along in life and one stupid thing can screw everything up for a long time. I have never been ill this long in my life.”
Still, the singer credits the surgery with keeping him somewhat mobile: “That surgeon told me if I didn’t have the surgery there would be a good chance I would be paralyzed from the neck down.”
In Consequence’s own recent Cover Story, Osbourne told us, “It’s a very slow recovery. I’m not good at being sick anyway, and it’s too fucking slow for me. I’ve never been this laid up in my life.”
He did offer some hope when speaking with Consequence, adding, “I’m determined to get back on the stage again. I don’t think I’ll be doing fucking nine-month tours anymore. But I don’t even know myself. Right now, I’m still in recovery, and I have a goal. And my goal is to get back onstage. It’s the driving force in me. I miss my audience. I miss doing gigs. I miss my crew. I miss my band. I miss the whole thing.”
Ozzy kicked off on his “No More Tours 2” farewell outing in 2018, and sounded great when Heavy Consequence caught his show at New York’s Jones Beach in September of that year. Unfortunately, his health has prevented him from embarking on a number of additional legs that were planned for the tour.