Ozzy Osbourne is going through some “changes.”
The Black Sabbath frontman revealed his plans to quit performing live if he’s permanently stuck in a wheelchair amid his ongoing health issues.
“I’m not going to get up there and do a half-hearted Ozzy looking for sympathy,” Osbourne, 74, told Rolling Stone UK.
“What’s the f–king point in that? I’m not going up there in a f–king wheelchair.”
Osbourne continued on, explaining, “I’ve seen Phil Collins perform recently, and he’s got virtually the same problems as me. He gets up there in a wheelchair! But I couldn’t do that.”
Pvnew previously reported that the “Crazy Train” rocker was diagnosed with Parkinson’s disease in 2003 – though he didn’t reveal his diagnosis to the public until 2020.
While Osbourne has undergone numerous surgeries and treatments related and unrelated to the nervous system disease, it was a June 2022 operation that would ultimately leave Osbourne questioning if he’ll hit the stage again.
“I’m taking it one day at a time, and if I can perform again, I will,” Osbourne told Rolling Stone UK.
“But it’s been like saying farewell to the best relationship of my life. At the start of my illness, when I stopped touring, I was really pissed 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.’”
Osbourne had a fourth spinal surgery in an attempt to correct damage from a 2019 fall, but the procedure impacted metal rods that were previously put in his body from a 2003 bike crash.
“It’s really knocked me about. The second surgery went drastically wrong and virtually left me crippled,” he admitted. “I thought I’d be up and running after the second and third [surgery], but with the last one they put a f–king rod in my spine. They found a tumor in one of the vertebrae, so they had to dig all that out too.”
Osbourne’s last full performance was in 2018. The singer has made only two appearances on stage since then — one in Birmingham, England, and another in Los Angeles in 2022 – with each lasting one or two songs, per Rolling Stone.
Osbourne was previously scheduled to headline the heavy metal Power Trip music festival in Indio, Calif., in October to mark his big comeback show.
However, he announced in July that he was pulling out as he was not capable of performing a full set.
“As painful as this is, I’ve had to make the decision to bow out of performing on Power Trip in October,” he wrote in a statement. “My original plan was to return to the stage in the summer of 2024, & when the offer to do this show came in, I optimistically moved forward.”
He added, “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.”
Months prior, the singer also released a statement canceling tour dates in the UK and Europe.
“Never would have imagined that my touring days would have ended this way,” Osbourne wrote in a statement posted to X, formerly Twitter, back in February.
As for any potential Black Sabbath reunion in the future, Osbourne told Rolling Stone that fans shouldn’t expect the full crew on stage.
Amid his health woes, Osbourne alleged that bassist Geezer Butler “hasn’t given [him] one f—king phone call” to check in.
“When his son was f—king born, I phoned him every f—king night even though we were at war with each other, Black Sabbath and me [after his sacking]. I thought, ‘F—k it, he’s my mate, I’m gonna call him.’ But from him, not one f—king call,” Osbourne claimed.
“It’s sad, man. We all grew up together, and he can’t pick up the f—king phone like a man and see how I’m doing.”
