Ozzy Osbourne knew he had serious heart problems shortly before he died of a heart attack.
In the last chapter of his upcoming memoir Last Rites, the heavy metal icon reveals that he had arrhythmia and “a dodgy heart valve” during his final weeks.
The chapter was written after Osbourne’s retirement show Back To The Beginning, which took place on July 5 this year. The singer died on July 22.
“It’s never silly little things,” Osbourne writes of the health problems he was suffering at the time. “It’s always life-or-death.”
He then explains his heart issues and that they were caused by a recent sepsis infection. He contracted the infection in 2023, after he underwent his last procedure in a years-long series of spinal surgeries.
“The valve is 80 percent blocked, apparently,” Osbourne continues. “The sepsis also gave me something called arrhythmia – when your heart can’t keep time, like a drummer in a bad pub band – so cheers for that.”
He adds that doctors refused to operate on his valve, as to do so he would have to come off the blood thinners he was taking to manage his Parkinson’s disease, which “would be too dangerous”.
“Meanwhile, the thinners mean if I ever fall over, I’d bleed out in about five seconds,” Osbourne finishes. “I’ve honestly lost count of the ways in which getting old sucks.”
Osbourne’s late-life health issues started in 2018, when he contracted a staph infection in two of his fingers. They continued in February 2019, when he fell at home in the middle of the night. The fall exacerbated injuries he sustained in a quad bike accident in 2003 and led to multiple, extensive surgeries. The singer revealed he was living with Parkinson’s in 2020.
Due to these setbacks, Osbourne postponed legs of his farewell tour No More Tours II several times, before outright cancelling the shows and retiring from the road in 2023. Back To The Beginning marked his first time onstage with his fellow founding members of Black Sabbath since September 2005. He also played a solo set at the all-day event, which was held at Villa Park football stadium, near to Osbourne’s childhood home in Aston, Birmingham.
Osbourne died at his Buckinghamshire residence 17 days after Back To The Beginning. He had a private funeral on July 30, after his cortége passed through Birmingham in front of tens of thousands of mourning fans.
Last Rites was announced on July 10, before Osbourne’s death, and comes out on Tuesday (October 7) via Sphere Publishing.
