Ozzy Osbourne: ‘I should have been dead a thousand times!’

Ozzy Osbourne thinks he should have died years before his late “drinking partners”.

The Black Sabbath rocker, 74, who is afflicted with Parkinson’s and pain from a string of surgeries, revealed ahead of being handed the Icon Award at Thursday (23.11.23) night’s first Rolling Stone UK Awards he is astounded he has outlived so many of his former hard-living pals – including Motörhead’s Lemmy and UFO bass player Pete Way, who he performed with in the 1980s.

He was quoted by The Sun saying about being a rock survivor: “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 dead.

“I should have been dead before loads of them. Why am I the last man standing? Sometimes I look in the mirror and go, ‘Why did you make it?’.

“I should have been dead a thousand times. I’ve had my stomach pumped God knows how many times.”

Ozzy, who is set to turn 75 on 3 December and has been married to his wife Sharon, 71, for 41 years, added: “I don’t fear dying, but I don’t want to have a long, painful and miserable existence.

“I like the idea that if you have a terminal illness, you can go to Switzerland and get it done quickly. I saw my father die of cancer.

“I said to Sharon that I’d smoked a joint recently and she said, ‘What are you doing that for? It’ll kill you!’

“I said, ‘How long do you want me to live for?’ At best, I’ve got 10 years left and, when you’re older, time picks up speed.

“Me and Sharon had our 41st wedding anniversary recently and that’s just unbelievable to me.”

Ozzy is set to retire as he continues to battle a rare – but mild – form of Parkinson’s.

But he said it is surgeries following a fall in 2019 that have resulted in his biggest health fights.

An accident dislodged metal rods which had been inserted into his back after a quad bike accident at his home in Buckinghamshire, south-east England, in 2003 and earlier this year, the rocker underwent spinal surgery for a fourth time in a bid to repair another operation – where a tumour was also discovered.

He told Rolling Stone magazine: “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 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 (messed) up.”