Ozzy Osbourne Says Fall That Put Him In The Hospital Didn't Look Like Much

By Andrew Magnotta @AndrewMagnotta

August 28, 2019

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You've got to pity anyone who's had a worse year than Ozzy Osbourne.

In fact, having a little empathy for the Prince of Darkness would be appropriate. The heavy metal icon says 2019 "has been one of the most f---ed up years" of his life, thanks to a litany of ailments that caused him to spend about a third of the year so far in the hospital.

Ozzy recounted his 2019 maladies, as well as the near-fatal staph infection in late-2018 that also put him in the hospital. He says everything was going well until that infection. Then he played one more show on New Year's Eve; everything else has been put on hold.

Not long after returning home, following several weeks of hospitalization with the flu and then pneumonia, Ozzy got up in the middle of the night to use the restroom. He tripped and fell flat on his face and immediately knew he'd done some serious damage. The fall dislodged metal rods in Ozzy's neck that had been placed there following a 2003 ATV crash. The resulting surgery and recovery landed the Black Sabbath front man in the hospital for two months. He'll be in rehab for the rest of the year.

Ozzy told the Cult's Billy Morrison on a recent Ozzy's Boneyard appearance that the fall must not have looked like much. His wife, Sharon Osbourne, seemed to think he was playing around.

"...Sharon — she goes, 'What are you doing?' It was two o'clock in the morning," Ozzy recalled. "I said, 'I think I've broken my neck.' She goes, 'Oh, go on, get back in bed.' I said, 'No, darling — phone an ambulance.' So that was it."

He added that he's always bounced back from illness fairly quickly.

"You know me; I get a flu and two days later I'm back onstage," he said.

Ozzy told Rolling Stone in another recent interview that the "agony" of the first four months since his injury has finally subsided. Now he's in physical and occupational therapy classes, which he's not enjoying. The worst part is how slow the recovery is for someone used to being ambulatory and doing whatever it takes to stay fit enough to perform. He said his fingers are crossed that he'll be in good enough shape to get back on tour this winter.

Photo: Getty Images

Ozzy OsbourneBlack Sabbath
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