Sharon Osbourne has revealed she stopped husband Ozzy from auditioning for a role for Pirates of the Caribbean and admits it was a huge mistake.
The Black Sabbath rockstar is preparing for his final concert with the band in July, but he could have been a famous movie pirate if his wife hadn’t put her foot down.
She says she still regrets not letting him take on the role alongside Johnny Depp’s Jack Sparrow character, which led to one of the highest grossing movie franchises of all time.
In the end, Ozzy lost out on the Pirates role simply because Sharon turned it down.
While appearing on the February 19 episode of The Magnificent Others podcast with Billy Corgan, Sharon, 72 – who is also Ozzy’s manager – revealed that she didn’t let Ozzy, 76, audition for Pirates of the Caribbean.
“Do you want to know the biggest mistake I ever made with Ozzy?” Sharon asked Corgan, 57. “He got offered to go and read for Pirates of the Caribbean, and I’ve never said this to anyone, and I said no.
“Now wouldn’t he have been perfect? He would have been perfect! Maybe it’s not too late, but God bless.”
“Because when Johnny Depp wanted Keith Richards to be a pirate, you remember?” Sharon added, alluding to another rock legend appearing in Pirates of the Caribbean: At World’s End and Pirates of the Caribbean: On Stranger Tides as Captain Teague.
Despite not joining the Pirates film franchise, Ozzy has appeared in Austin Powers in Goldmember, Little Nicky and an episode of Crime Scene: Investigation, among other television shows and movies.
Sharon’s revelation comes just weeks after she shared that Ozzy can no longer walk due to Parkinsons disease as he prepares for the Black Sabbath reunion show at the band’s hometown Birmingham in July.
“He’s very happy to be coming back and very emotional about this,” she revealed..
“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 also shared in February that he would be unable to perform a full set at the concert but instead would be doing “bits and pieces”.
“I’m not planning on doing a set with Black Sabbath but I am doing little bits and pieces with them,” he said. “I am doing what I can, where I feel comfortable.”
The final Black Sabbath concert called Back to the Beginning will take place on July 5 at Villa Park in Birmingham.
“It’s my time to go Back to the Beginning….time for me to give back to the place where I was born,” Ozzy said. How blessed am I to do it with the help of people whom I love. Birmingham is the true home of metal. Birmingham Forever.”
Osbourne, who was once rumoured to have eaten a live bat onstage, has had various health issues in recent years, stemming from multiple surgeries.
“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,” he said. “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.”
Sharon explained that her husband was doing “really great” at the moment and that Ozzy was feeling “very emotional” about the final Sabbath show, and that it was “what he wants”.
“He wants to say thank you to everybody,” she said. “He didn’t have that chance because of his illness, but now he does have the chance.”