Ozzy Osbourne may have a number of health issues, but he is not counting himself out just yet.
The legendary rocker, 74, was diagnosed with Parkinson's disease 20 years ago, and he has dealt with a number of medical problems since, but he is staying positive in a new interview with Rolling Stone UK. Osbourne admitted, "I’m getting pissed off reading the papers, and they’re saying things like ‘Ozzy is fighting his last battle. He’s sung his last "Paranoid."’ You know, I don’t even think about Parkinson’s that much."
At that point in the conversation, he held his arms out, and the reporter noted that he showed "very little signs of the tremors" that are common in people with Parkinson's disease. Still, he is aware that the majority of his life is behind him.
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"I said to Sharon that I’d smoked a joint recently and she said, ‘What are you doing that for! It’ll f---ing kill you!’" he recalled. "I said, ‘How long do you want me to f---ing live for?!’ At best, I’ve got 10 years left and when you’re older, time picks up speed."
In September, he had an operation done on his spine to correct injuries suffered during a fall in 2019 – his fourth in relation to the incident.
"It’s really knocked me about," he said. "The second surgery went drastically wrong and virtually left me crippled. I thought I’d be up and running after the second and third, but with the last one they put a f---ing rod in my spine. They found a tumour in one of the vertebrae, so they had to dig all that out too. It’s pretty rough, man, and my balance is all f---ed up."
Although he is still working on recovering from the surgery, Osbourne said he is willing to perform again, but only if he is able to put on a good show.
"I’m taking it one day at a time, and if I can perform again, I will," he said. "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.'"
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He added, "I’m not going to get up there and do a half-hearted Ozzy looking for sympathy. What’s the f---ing point in that? I’m not going up there in a f---ing wheelchair. 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."
He says the fact that he "never got the chance to say goodbye or thank you" on stage to his fans is "one of the things I’ve been the most f---ing pissed off at."
Expressing hope that he could someday "just do a few gigs," he explained to the outlet that his fans have been "loyal to me for f---ing years. They write to me, they know all about my dogs. It’s my extended family really, and they give us the lifestyle we have. For whatever reason, that’s my goal to work to. To do those shows."
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"If I can’t continue doing shows on a regular basis, I just want to be well enough to do one show where I can say, ‘Hi guys, thanks so much for my life.’ That’s what I’m working towards, and if I drop down dead at the end of it, I’ll die a happy man."
At another point in the interview with Rolling Stone UK, the conversation came to death again when Osbourne spoke about fellow musicians he has known who have passed away in recent years.
"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 f---ing dead!" he said. "The graveyard’s full of them! You’re dead and you’re dead and you’re dead."
Later, he admitted, "I should have been dead way before loads of them. Why am I the last man standing? I don’t understand any of it. Sometimes I look in the mirror and go, ‘Why the f--- did you make it?!’ I’m not boasting about any of it because I should have been dead a thousand times."
