Ozzy Osbourne opens up on traumatic health issues: "At one point I thought, Oh God, please don’t let me wake up tomorrow morning."

By Paul Brannigan
( Classic Rock )
last updated

Ozzy Osbourne reveals that health problems which forced him to undergo surgery this summer were causing him "f**king agony"

Ozzy Osbourne
(Image credit: Ross Halfin)

Ozzy Osbourne has opened up about his recent health issues, and revealed that he was in "fucking agony" with nerve pain before undergoing surgery earlier this summer.

Osbourne underwent a major medical procedure in a Los Angeles hospital on June 13 to remove two metal plates that had been screwed into his spine following a bathroom fall in January 2019. Ozzy's wife and manager Sharon previously stated the surgery would "determine the rest of his life."

In a new interview with The Observer, Mrs O revealed, “The screws had come loose, and were chipping away at the bone. And the debris had lodged under his spine." 

"With the pressing on the spinal column, I got nerve pain," Ozzy tells The Observer. "I’d never fucking heard of nerve pain! You know when you’re a kid, and you’re playing with snow and your hands get really cold? Then you go in and you pour on hot water, and they start getting warm? And you get those chills? And it fucking hurts? It’s like that.”

"It got so bad that at one point I thought: ‘Oh God, please don’t let me wake up tomorrow morning.’ Because it was fucking agony."

"You have not seen the end of Ozzy Osbourne, I promise you," Ozzy promises. "If I have to go up there and die on the first song, I’ll still be back the next day."

You can also read a new interview with Osbourne in the new issue of Classic Rock.

Osbourne's new album, Patient Number 9, is set for release on September 9. It features cameos from Tony Iommi, Jeff Beck, Eric Clapton, Pearl Jam's Mike McCready, the late Taylor Hawkins, Red Hot Chili Peppers' drummer Chad Smith, Metallica bassist Rob Trujillo and Guns N’ Roses bassist Duff McKagan.

The full tracklisting for Patient Number 9 is:

1. Patient Number 9 (feat. Jeff Beck)
2. Immortal (feat. Mike McCready)
3. Parasite (feat. Zakk Wylde)
4. No Escape From Now (feat. Tony Iommi)
5. One Of Those Days (feat. Eric Clapton)
6. A Thousand Shades (feat. Jeff Beck)
7. Mr. Darkness (feat. Zakk Wylde)
8. Nothing Feels Right (feat. Zakk Wylde)
9. Evil Shuffle (feat. Zakk Wylde)
10. Degradation Rules (feat. Tony Iommi)
11. Dead And Gone
12. God Only Knows
13. Darkside Blues

Paul Brannigan
Paul Brannigan
Contributing Editor, Louder

A music writer since 1993, formerly Editor of Kerrang! and Planet Rock magazine (RIP), Paul Brannigan is a Contributing Editor to Louder. Having previously written books on Lemmy, Dave Grohl (the Sunday Times best-seller This Is A Call) and Metallica (Birth School Metallica Death, co-authored with Ian Winwood), his Eddie Van Halen biography (Eruption in the UK, Unchained in the US) emerged in 2021. He has written for Rolling Stone, Mojo and Q, hung out with Fugazi at Dischord House, flown on Ozzy Osbourne's private jet, played Angus Young's Gibson SG, and interviewed everyone from Aerosmith and Beastie Boys to Young Gods and ZZ Top. Born in the North of Ireland, Brannigan lives in North London and supports The Arsenal.