“If I’d done normal, sensible things, I wouldn’t be Ozzy”: Ozzy Osbourne to release new memoir Last Rites, centred around his recent health struggles
The Prince Of Darkness’ second and final memoir will come out in October
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Ozzy Osbourne has announced a new memoir to come out later this year.
The Prince Of Darkness, who recently retired from the live stage at Black Sabbath’s blockbuster Back To The Beginning event, will put out Last Rites via Grand Central Publishing on October 7. Pre-orders are now live.
The book will be Osbourne’s second autobiography following 2009’s I Am Ozzy and is being promoted as his “final memoir”.
It will focus on the last seven years of the singer and former reality TV star’s life, including his health struggles following his diagnosis with Parkinson’s disease and spinal surgery.
It will also reflect on his marriage to his longtime wife/manager Sharon and interactions with a host of rock’n’roll celebrities, such as Slash of Guns N’ Roses, Bon Scott of AC/DC, John Bonham of Led Zeppelin, Lemmy Kilmister of Motörhead and Keith Moon of the Who.
The events of Back To The Beginning will be covered in the book as well. The all-day event took place last Saturday (July 5) and saw Osbourne bow out with a five-song solo set, followed by a four-song show with his fellow founding Sabbath members Tony Iommi, Geezer Butler and Bill Ward. It was the first time the four men had played together in public since 2005.
Ozzy comments: “People say to me, if you could do it all again, knowing what you know now, would you change anything? I’m, like, fuck no. If I’d been clean and sober, I wouldn’t be Ozzy. If I’d done normal, sensible things, I wouldn’t be Ozzy. Look, if it ends tomorrow, I can't complain. I've been all around the world. Seen a lot of things. I've done good… and I've done bad. But right now, I'm not ready to go anywhere.”
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Although he’s retired from live performance, Osbourne is still making public appearances. This weekend, he will join members of his family – Sharon, their daughter Kelly and so Jack – as a guest at Comic-Con Midlands in his hometown of Birmingham. Photo opportunities and autographs from the Osbournes will be available.

Louder’s resident Gojira obsessive was still at uni when he joined the team in 2017. Since then, Matt’s become a regular in Metal Hammer and Prog, at his happiest when interviewing the most forward-thinking artists heavy music can muster. He’s got bylines in The Guardian, The Telegraph, The Independent, NME and many others, too. When he’s not writing, you’ll probably find him skydiving, scuba diving or coasteering.
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