Ozzy Osbourne has revealed that he will undergo a fourth surgery on his spine to try and address the pain he has experienced since his quad-biking accident two decades ago.
In the first episode of the relaunched The Osbournes Podcast on Tuesday (13 September), the 74-year-old English singer said he will undergo further surgery due to the injury he sustained after a quad bike accident at his estate in 2003, which was exacerbated by a fall in 2019.
“I’m going for an epidural soon because what they’ve discovered is the neck has been fixed,” Osbourne, who was also diagnosed with Parkinson’s disease in 2019, said. “Below the neck, there’s two vertebrae where the bike hit me and disintegrated, there’s nothing left of ’em.
“All I know is right now I’m in a lot of pain. I’m in a lot of discomfort,” he added.
In a 2022 conversation with The Sun, Osbourne opened up about his experience with his injury.
“Never have I been laid up so bad for so long,” he said. “It’s been breaking Sharon [Osbourne’s] heart to see me like this.”
Osbourne revealed he had been diagnosed with a “mild” form of Parkinson’s in January 2020. The singer said he has suffered from depression, blood clots, and crippling nerve pain as a result of the disease.
“You know when you’re a kid, and you’re playing with snow and your hands get really cold? Then you go in and you pour on hot water, and they start getting warm? And you get those chills? And it f***ing hurts? It’s like that,” Osbourne said.
“It got so bad that at one point I thought: ‘Oh God, please don’t let me wake up tomorrow morning.’ Because it was f***ing agony.”
The “Paranoid” singer also detailed how the disease has affected his mental health and his ability to walk.
“You think you’re lifting your feet, but your foot doesn’t move. I feel like I’m walking around in lead boots,” he said. “Nothing really felt great. Nothing. So I went on these antidepressants, and they work OK.”
Earlier this year, Osbourne pulled out of the Power Trip festival for health reasons. The singer was scheduled to perform at the heavy metal festival alongside the likes of AC/DC, Iron Maiden, and Guns N’ Roses.
“As painful as this is, I’ve had to make the decision to bow out of performing on Power Trip in October,” Osbourne said in a statement. “My original plan was to return to the stage in the summer of 2024, and when the offer to do this show came in, I optimistically moved forward.
“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.”
In an interview with The Independent last year, Osbourne said he had made a pledge with himself to recover enough that he could return to the stage.
“I will do whatever is physically possible until the summer of next year,” he said. “If by then I can’t, then I can’t, but I’ll have given it my best. I’m pretty confident. I will get back on stage if it f***ing kills me, because if I can’t do it then that’s what’s gonna happen anyway, I’m gonna f***ing die. I love to see them audiences.”
