Ozzy Osbourne worried that no one would know who he was when he guested at the Commonwealth Games finale in his hometown of Birmingham last month.
His onstage reunion with Black Sabbath bandmate Tony Iommi was a triumphant moment in the singer’s battle back from severe health issues. He’s determined to become fit enough to complete his farewell tour and just released his latest album, Patient Number 9.
“I never think I’m going to win,” Osbourne told Rolling Stone in a new interview, adding that, before the brief appearance in Birmingham, he d worried that “these kids don’t know who the fuck I am.” He said that he sometimes tells his wife and manager Sharon, “Performing is the only thing I’ve done in my life that’s right or that I’m good at.”
“I tell him, ‘It’s not true,’” she noted. “He’s had his struggles, and they’ve all been very public. But it’s not true; he’s hard on himself.” She went on to say that Ozzy’s alcohol issues – he’s been sober for nine years now – resulted from his doubts. “He drank at first because he didn’t have confidence and it made him feel good. It gave him the confidence that he didn’t have. And then it turns on you. As the disease progresses, people always get nasty, and they do bad things and fuck their lives up.”
Ozzy has previously discussed the extent of his frail health, which has improved since his most recent surgery. “I’m doing as good as I can be, considering the fucking crap,” he said in the new interview. “If you’d have seen me a year or so ago, you’d have thought, ‘No. No way.’ I couldn’t fucking move because of what the guy did wrong on the first surgery.”
“We’re going to sue,” Sharon added. “You just don’t want other people to go through what you’ve gone through. It’s a fucking nightmare. But here we are today, and life is better.”
Legends Who Never Had a No. 1 Single
It’s all the more surprising when you consider the success so many of them had by any other measure.