Ozzy Osbourne to undergo further surgery: “I’m in a lot of pain”
Ozzy Osbourne has revealed that he’s to undergo further surgery due to injuries he sustained in previous accidents.
The soloist and former Black Sabbath frontman suffered a fall in 2019, which dislodged metal rods that were put into his body after a quad bike crash in 2003. Osbourne is also living with Parkinson’s, having been diagnosed with the disease in early 2020.
Last summer the singer’s wife Sharon confirmed that he was about to have a “very major operation” that would “determine the rest of his life”. The procedure is said to have taken place in June last year, with Ozzy explaining the following month that he was on “a slow climb back” to recovery.
Speaking on a new episode of The Osbournes Podcast, which premiered yesterday (September 12), Ozzy gave another update on his health. He said that he’s set to have his fourth significant surgery related to his structural damage.
“My lower back is… I’m going for an epidural soon because 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,” he explained.
“All I know is right now is right now I’m in a lot of pain. I’m in a lot of discomfort.”
The metal icon then confirmed that he would undergo a fourth operation, before his daughter Kelly asked if he had sought a second opinion. Sharon responded: “[The doctor] said, ‘Look, we don’t know if it’s gonna work, if it’s not. We’re gonna second and a third opinion’. And he’s doing that now.”
Ozzy went on: “Because what’s happening now… in my back, the two discs and the muscles on my shoulders have separated from my skeleton, and that’s why I lean forward as it’s like gravity is bringing my head forward.
“I was thinking when [the doctor] was saying it, ‘I’ve walked like that all my life’.”
Sharon added: “I said to [Ozzy], ‘Why did you always walk like that?’ And he said, ‘I thought it was cool when I was a kid’.”
You can watch the conversation in full at the seven-minute mark in the video above.
“Unfortunately, my body is telling me that I’m just not ready [to perform] 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 statement.
The Prince Of Darkness also explained that he had recently had a blood clot filter removed from one of his arteries.
Sharon and Kelly last week said that Ozzy was “heartbroken” over having to pull out of Power Trip.
Ozzy Osbourne had announced his retirement from touring on February 1, calling off his scheduled European and UK tour dates in the process. Later that month, however, he said that he hoped to return to the stage at some point in the future.
“If I get OK today. If the doctor said to me today, ‘Oh, you can tour.’ It would take another six months to get it together, you know? The only thing I’ve got that keeps me going is making records. But I can’t do that forever. I gotta get out there,” he said.
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Tom Skinner
NME
