In the first episode of The Osbournes Podcast since Ozzy Osbourne passed away in July, his family revealed that the metal icon suffered multiple health setbacks in the months leading up to his final concert and his subsequent death.
Ozzy triumphantly performed both as a solo artist and with his band Black Sabbath at the “Back to the Beginning” concert in his hometown of Birmingham on July 5th, just 17 days before his passing on July 22nd. As Sharon, Jack, and Kelly Osbourne point out in the new podcast episode, it’s a miracle that the metal legend even made it to the stage that day.
They revealed that Ozzy suffered a fractured vertebrae after falling at his home in Los Angeles in December of last year. Unlike the 2019 fall that led to multiple health issues over the past several years, the family didn’t make this one public.
Related Video
He underwent surgery for the fracture, but ended up contracting pneumonia and sepsis, the latter of which nearly took his life months prior to the concert. “It was draining every ounce of strength he had, and it was in March that we thought we were going to lose him,” said Sharon.
There was talk of cancelling the “Back to the Beginning” concert at that time, but as Sharon noted, “The human spirit is stronger than anything, and he was so determined — he was so determined to go do his show. He wasn’t going to give up on it.”
Then, just two weeks before the concert, Ozzy was hospitalized again, this time in England, although the family didn’t specify the reason. In order to keep it under wraps, strict security measures were put in place so that the public couldn’t find out that Ozzy was in the hospital.
One time, they thought they had a breach when someone showed up claiming to be the brother of John Osbourne (Ozzy’s birth name). As it turns out, there was another John Osbourne admitted to the hospital at the same time, and Ozzy was “hysterically laughing” when he found out about the comical misunderstanding.
The “Back to the Beginning” concert was touch and go in the weeks leading up to the show, with Sharon noting, “Every other day [Ozzy said], ‘Cancel the show, I’m not doing it,’” with Jack adding, “And then he’d be like, ‘No, no, no, don’t cancel it.’”
The family had hoped that Ozzy’s enthusiasm over the overwhelmingly positive response to the concert would give him an extra jolt that may have helped him survive a little longer, but Kelly admitted she now realizes that her dad knew the end was near.
“It’s only in retrospect that I see that now,” she said. “Because he started saying things to me that I think he was preparing me for when he wasn’t going to be here. I just thought that the buzz of the show, and everything that gave him, would give him enough to stick around a little longer.”
Watch the new episode of The Osbournes Podcast below.