Pioneering heavy metal legend Ozzy Osbourne is featured in the latest cover story to be published online by Kerrang!. With his thirteenth studio album, the guest-filled “Patient Number 9“, headed for a release this Friday, September 09th and a recent surprise live return, the Prince Of Darkness had no shortage of topics to discuss.
The 73-year-old metal icon, who continues to recover from several surgeries as well as the effects of PRKN 2 (a form or Parkinson’s Disease), remains adamant on returning to the stage and hopefully finishing out what was planned back in 2019 to be his final world tour.
Suffering life-changing injuries in a fall several years ago (he ruptured several previously surgically inserted steel rods), Osbourne most recently underwent his latest major surgery this past June to help alleviate the pain and side effects he has endured since.
While he is still plagued by nerve pain, balance issues and more, his recent return live performance at the ‘Commonwealth Games‘ alongside his Black Sabbath bandmate Tony Iommi has certainly raised his spirits.
As his health still remains a bit shaky at the moment though, that performance was not without some caveats. Speaking to The Observer last month, Ozzy himself stated of the precautions undertaken to keep him upright:
“Sharon had them put in a bracket at the back, to hold me up. So I was leaning against that. And I was holding the microphone. I was kind of wedged in. Every time I see my Parkinson’s doctor, the first thing he says to me is: ‘Have you had any falls?’ Not only that, I’m on blood thinners. I’m pretty fucked up, actually.”
In this new cover story with Kerrang!, the infamous heavy metal veteran stated of his plans to get back onstage:
“I’ve just got to get back into a rhythm again. My balance is all fucked up, but I’ve got to keep going. I mean, I’ll probably always have a limp. But I don’t mind, as long as I can fuckin’ walk around without falling on my head. I have a goal: that next summer I will be onstage. If I put every effort into it and I still can’t, at least I can’t say that I haven’t tried.”
He later revisited that topic, offering:
“I am going to put 110 per cent into getting myself out there. Time is my most valuable asset now. I’m 73. I don’t think that I’ll be here in another 25 years. I’ve got a goal: the goal is to get back onstage. I had my last surgery in June, I can’t have any more. So whatever I make of it is entirely up to me now. Even if I manage one show, then fall over, [I’ll have done it]. But I know that I’m going to carry on. I know I can beat it. I know that I can get back onstage. It’s just that I’ve got to get off my butt and go for it.”
In the same interview, Osbourne also spoke of working once again with Iommi. Outside of the aforementioned live performance, Iommi also guests on tw “Patient Number 9” tracks, including the previously released ode to masturbation “Degradation Rules” and the yet to be shared “No Escape From Now“.
When asked if he would like to work on more new music with his Black Sabbath bandmate, Osbourne replied:
“If Ozzy Osbourne and Tony Iommi do an album together, it’s going to sound like a Sabbath album. Tony was the sound of Sabbath. There’s no getting away from the fact that, when he plays with me, it’ll be some kind of a reflection of that. Maybe the tracks he did on my album was like what Sabbath should have been had we stayed together, but I want to take it away from Sabbath. We put that band to bed. And if he wants to [make it another] Sabbath album, I’m not doing it!”
Osbourne also spoke of the impact late Foo Fighters drummer/vocalist Taylor Hawkins had on the aforementioned “Degradation Rules” and the limited time he spent with the man:
“You know what ‘Degradation Rules‘ is about? Masturbation. Sticky little magazines. A toss-pot. There’s a line in there, ‘Red Tube rules!’ which is an [ode to] the free porn website. And, do you know who suggested that? The drummer, Taylor Hawkins, who died recently. To be perfectly honest with you, I’d never heard of him before he played on my album. But he must be good to play with Dave Grohl’s Foo Fighters. When I met him, and from what I saw of him, he was a really nice man, one whose soul will surely last. I should imagine that everyone in that band was fucking devastated when the poor guy passed away.”
You can find a whole lot more from Ozzy over at Kerrang!. Meanwhile, tomorrow, September 08th, will find Osbourne back onstage, this time as halftime performer at the SoFi Stadium in Inglewood, CA when the Los Angeles Rams host the Buffalo Bills.
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