For decades the "Madman" seemed indestructible. Recently, however, Ozzy Osbourne's hospital stays have become more frequent, and it looks as if the excessive overuse of his own body is taking its toll after all. His latest album "Ordinary Man" could therefore also be his last.
On the portal of the impressive Osbourne's Villa in Hancock Park, a posh district of Los Angeles, the sign reads: "Never mind the dog - beware of the owner" That gives hope. But the "Prince of Darkness", the supefather of all metal-bards, neither owns a sharp watchdog at the moment nor can he perform this function himself. On the contrary: The 71-year-old is an old, sick, weak man who needs a stick to walk, only makes it with difficulty into the plush armchair of his private basement cinema, cannot sit still for five minutes and stammers a lot of incomprehensible things, while on the other hand he is extremely hard of hearing. In short, having a conversation with him is anything but easy. And: It hurts to see the hero of his youth in this condition
In January 2019, he broke his neck for the second time, which tied him to the hospital bed for three quarters of a year. The cause was a trifle: "I woke up in the middle of the night because I had to pee," says the man in the sea-blue Thomas Gottschalk jacket. "So I went to the bathroom, and on the way back it was so dark that I tripped and slammed backwards on the floor. There was a crash and I saw lightning. My first thought was, "You fucking idiot! Then I said to Sharon, "Call 911. I'm afraid I broke my neck.' Her reaction was, "Are you kidding? But the ambulance took me away immediately."
After a finger infection and pneumonia, it was his third hospital stay within a few months - which is still bothering him: Ozzy complains of pain in his arms, legs and neck, and one involuntarily asks oneself what will happen next. "This last year has been a horror," he goes on. "And the year before that, too. It was one thing after another. I haven't smoked or drunk for a long time. I don't do drugs either. But still this shit happens to me."
It's tragic: the hard rock icon par excellence, who with Black Sabbath has written pages and pages of music history and influenced whole generations of musicians as a soloist, seems to have come to the end of its strength. Like Lemmy or Keith Richards, Ozzy Osbourne always gave the impression that he had an exceptional constitution that could not be shaken by anything. After all, for decades he has consumed every conceivable type of alcohol and drugs and even snorted live ants - without any noticeable long-term consequences. But now he has also been diagnosed with Parkinson's disease in the second stage - a relatively mild phase of the nervous disease. "I'm having quite a run of bad luck at the moment," remarks the landlord dryly
