Ozzy Osbourne's parade of maladies over the past two years rivals anything from the canon of ancient Greek tragedies, and somehow he's still around.
The Prince of Darkness is no stranger to pain, but even he's a little surprised he's still ambling about — let alone getting better.
"I'm not back to 100 percent. I'm about 75 percent there, but it's such a slow recovery," he told Jenny McCarthy in a recent conversation. "Spine surgery is bad news, man. I've been in such a bad state with pain; I'm still having a lot of pain."
Not long after returning home from a stay in the hospital last winter with pneumonia, Ozzy tripped over a rug in his bedroom and tumbled, head first, into his nightstand.
The fall aggravated a near-fatal spinal injury from 2003 and set the Black Sabbath frontman right back to the ICU. He later underwent surgery to repair the damage and he's been rehabbing for over a year.
"There was a point I was convinced that I was dying," he continued. "I was in that much discomfort and pain and misery. I thought they were all hiding it from me. I remember saying to Sharon, 'You've gotta level with me. Is it worse than you're making it out? She says, 'No.' ...I've dropped all the medication for pain now."
While the spinal injury and resulting Parkinson's disease diagnosis are setbacks that ultimately contributed to the cancellation of his 'No More Tours 2' farewell tour, the pain and boredom and time at home has reinvigorated the Rock and Roll Hall of Famer creatively.
In February, he released his 12th solo album, Ordinary Man, which was his most positively received record in decades. He's also reportedly working on another new LP.
Ozzy is determined to get well-enough to be able to tour again — whether or not the pandemic will allow him to get back on the road is another story, he admits.
"I cannot wait [to get back onstage," he said. "But I was talking to Tony Iommi the other day, and he was saying with the way it's going with this coronavirus, indoor shows will be a thing of the past."
Photo: Getty Images