Ozzy Osbourne has led quite a life. The Black Sabbath frontman has been open about his use of alcohol and drugs across his time in the spotlight, which has had a negative impact on his overall health. In an interview with Rolling Stone UK, the Prince of Darkness opened up about his health and offered fans an insight into how long he has left on this earth.
In the interview, published by Rolling Stone UK in November 2023, Osbourne got very candid about how much his life has changed recently, due to his health struggles. As aforementioned, he’s been open about his prior substance abuse, going so far as to admit to taking LSD every day for two years while in Black Sabbath. He’s also spoken about using cocaine and marijuana and drinking a lot of alcohol.
While he originally believed all this to have been the cause of tremors he began to experience later in life, it was later determined he had issues with Parkin, a protein, which produces similar symptoms to Parkinson’s disease. He’s since been diagnosed with the latter.
Following 40 years of substance abuse, Osbourne embarked on a sober lifestyle. He relapsed in the mid-2010s while in what he described as “a very dark place,” but was able to regain his sobriety.
However, the musician reveals that he’d begun dabbling in marijuana again, something his wife, Sharon Osbourne, was less than thrilled about.
“I said to Sharon that I’d smoked a joint recently and she said, ‘What are you doing that for! It’ll [expletive] kill you!’ I said, ‘How long do you want me to [expletive] live for?!’ At best, I’ve got 10 years left and when you’re older, time picks up speed,” he revealed, before discussing the musicians who’ve passed away before him.
“I’ve been doing a lot of reflection while I’ve been laid up, and all my drinking partners, I’ve realised they’re all [expletive] dead,” he said. “The graveyard’s full of them! You’re dead and you’re dead you’re dead.
“I should have been dead way before loads of them,” he continued. “Why am I the last man standing? I don’t understand any of it. Sometimes I look in the mirror and go, ‘Why the [expletive] did you make it?!’ I’m not boasting about any of it because I should have been dead a thousand times.”
Given his health, Osbourne was forced to retire from touring in February 2023. Several surgeries to rectify spinal damage caused by a major accident four years ago have “really knocked me out,” with him saying the second procedure “went drastically wrong and virtually left me crippled.”
However, he told Rolling Stone UK that his one wish is to perform one more show, so he can thank his fans for their support over the years. “If I can’t continue doing shows on a regular basis, I just want to be well enough to do one more show where I can say, ‘Hi guys, thanks so much for my life’,” he 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.
“I’m taking it one day at a time, and if I can perform again, I will,” he added. “But it’s been like saying farewell to the relationship of my life. At the start of my illness, when I stopped touring, I was really [expletive] 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.'”
As for death, Osbourne revealed that he’s not afraid of the afterlife. All he wants is to go without pain. “I don’t want to have a long, painful and miserable experience,” he said. “I like the idea that if you have a terminal illness, you can go to a place in Switzerland and get it done quickly.”
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Rolling Stone UK‘s full interview with Ozzy Osbourne can be read online or in the physical copy of the magazine.