Sharon Osbourne has revealed her husband Ozzy Osbourne can no longer walk as continues to live with Parkinson’s disease. The rock star, 76, is set to retire his Prince of Darkness title later this year in a final performance dubbed “the greatest heavy metal show ever”, reports the Mirror.
The music icon will take the stage one last time with Black Sabbath at Aston Villa’s Villa Park on July 5. However, wife Sharon has amitted the occasion will be bittersweet as he is now unable to walk.
Music manager and former X Factor judge Sharon teamed up with Ozzy’s bandmate Tony Iommi to announce the huge gig, Back to the Beginning. Their performance will mark the first time that Black Sabbath’s original line-up – Ozzy, Tony, Geezer Butler and Bill Ward – have took to the stage together in over 20 years.
They will be joined by dozens of bands they inspired, including Metallica, Pantera, Slayer, Gojira and Anthrax.
Ozzy, who has been forced to halt touring due to his health issues, is set to play a short solo set before joining his bandmates on stage for the epic reunion. He was diagnosed with Parkinson’s in 2020 and largely stepped back from touring after playing the closing ceremony of the Commonwealth Games in 2022.
Speaking of the gig, Sharon told the Sun: “He’s very happy to be coming back and very emotional about this. Parkinson’s is a progressive disease. It’s not something you can stabilise. It affects different parts of the body and it’s affected his legs. But his voice is as good as it’s ever been.”
Ozzy plans to move back to the UK next month and spoke of the upcoming legendary show on Sirius XM. He said: “I have made it to 2025. I can’t walk, but you know what I was thinking over the holidays? For all my complaining, I’m still alive. I may be moaning that I can’t walk but I look down the road and there’s people that didn’t do half as much as me and didn’t make it.”
All proceeds from the show will support Cure Parkinson’s, the Birmingham Children’s Hospital and Acorn Children’s Hospice, a Children’s Hospice supported by Aston Villa. Other acts on the line-up include Alice In Chains, Halestorm, Lamb Of God and Mastodon.
Ozzy has candidly spoken about his health battles over the years, after he shared his Parkinson’s diagnosis in 2020 in an interview with Good Morning America. He said the diagnosis was “terribly challenging”, and spoke about the complications he has suffered, including depression and mobility issues.
Sharon confirmed her husband struggled day to day, explaining: “There’s so many different types of Parkinson’s; it’s not a death sentence by any stretch of the imagination, but it does affect certain nerves in your body. And it’s – it’s like you have a good day, and then a really bad day.”
In 2022, Ozzy underwent major spinal surgery, and less than a year later, he announced he was retiring from touring because he was no longer “physically capable”. However, he recently told Rolling Stone UK, that he has strong desires to return to the stage – although he doubts that it will be realistic given his health struggles.
Last year, he told the publication: “I’m taking it one day at a time, and if I can perform again, I will. But it’s been like saying farewell to the best relationship of my life. I’m not going to get up there and do a half-hearted Ozzy looking for sympathy. What’s the [expletive] point in that? I’m not going up there in a [expletive] wheelchair.”