Ozzy Osbourne's Painful Experiences Before His Death

Ozzy Osbourne, the 'Prince of Darkness,' became known for his thunderous presence on enormous stages, but in his final years, he navigated a quiet battle in private. Before dying at 76 on July 22, the Black Sabbath frontman shared that he had spent "five years of a living hell" in which nonstop health problems left him weakened, inside and out.

The rock legend publicly revealed his diagnosis of Parkinson's disease in 2019, a moment that lifted the veil from years of downtrodden sound bites. But that wasn't the whole story. In a heartfelt interview with Piers Morgan Uncensored in 2023, Ozzy revealed the full extent of his physical decline and the effect it had on him and his family. "It's been five years of absolute hell for me and the family," he admitted. "My family has been so supportive. I couldn't have done it without them."

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The singer's son, Jack Osbourne, helped set the record straight that Parkinson's wasn't the only obstacle his father was facing. A lot of what hastened Ozzy's decline was a neck injury he suffered in a fall in 2019. It was devastating, on top of the earlier neck injury he received in a quad bike crash in 2000. For the first time, Ozzy said, he had broken his neck and just worked through it, not even knowing.

"I just got up and carried on," Ozzy said. "But I had broken my neck and I carried on working with it and then it just everything came undone." It was that injury that initiated a prolonged physical recovery. The singer canceled tours, went under multiple surgeons' knives, and spent a total of years in recovery, slowly losing the mobility and vitality that made his savage live presence so electric. But through it all, he never lost his characteristic grit, humor, and defiance.

While Ozzy's struggles with health issues were frequently kept behind closed doors, such openness in those last years allowed fans to get closer than ever before to the man behind the myth. During his final chapter, there was certainly pain, but there was also perseverance, love, and an unbreakable family, one of rock's most storied vocal cords whispering the most harrowing, stirring, and human of farewells.