The injured Ozzy Osbourne isn’t quite on the mend yet. After pulling out of an appearance at upcoming rock festival Power Trip due to his ongoing recovery from a fall in 2019, Osbourne has revealed he will now need additional surgery.
In a new episode of The Osbournes Podcast that debuted this week, Osbourne confirmed he’s set to have his fourth significant surgery related to the structural damage sustained during his fall.
“I’m going for an epidural soon because what they’ve discovered is the neck has been fixed,” he explained, noting that the problem is in his back. “Below the neck there’s two vertebrae where the bike hit me and disintegrated, there’s nothing left of ’em.”
He added, “All I know is right now is right now I’m in a lot of pain. I’m in a lot of discomfort.”
During the podcast, his daughter Kelly asked if he’d sought out a second opinion. Sharon Osbourne chimed in, “[The doctor] said, ‘Look, we don’t know if it’s gonna work, if it’s not. We’re gonna get a second and a third opinion.’ And he’s doing that now.”
Osbourne added, “In my back, the two discs and the muscles on my shoulders have separated from my skeleton, and that’s why I lean forward as it’s like gravity is bringing my head forward. I was thinking when [the doctor] was saying it, ‘I’ve walked like that all my life.’”
Recently, Sharon told Rolling Stone that her husband is “doing a lot better.” However, he’s still not well enough to perform live shows. In July, the musician had to make the tough decision to withdraw from the upcoming Power Trip festival, which would have seen him co-headlining alongside Metallica, AC/DC, Guns N’ Roses, and others.
“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,” he wrote in a message to his fans.
Sharon also told Rolling Stone that the family is still waiting for the all-clear from Ozzy’s doctors so they could move back to England, a decision they’d made last year. “I think it’ll be good for him for a while to go back,” Sharon said. “We can have privacy there. And he can do his own little thing and he his own garden. He can do a bit of fishing.”
Osbourne was in the middle of his No More Tours 2 trek, his final world tour, in 2018 when a staph infection forced him off the road. Shortly into 2019, as he was planning on returning to the road, he fell in the middle of the night and aggravated a spinal injury he’d sustained in 2003 in a nearly fatal quad-bike accident. A doctor installed two metal plates in his neck, but those ended up causing him more pain, and he underwent more surgery last year.
Osbourne was able to make two live performances, one in Birmingham, England, and the other in Los Angeles, last year, but each lasted only one or two songs, and he had a stand that he could lean against in case he needed it. After the Birmingham concert, he told Rolling Stone how much the experience reinvigorated him. “Up until last night, I was semi-retired,” he said. “For three years, I’m thinking, ‘I’m never going onstage.’ I kind of half-bought myself into the fact that [my performing career] was over.”
