Ozzy Osbourne detailed “life-or-death” heart problems in memoirs before fatal heart attack
In his upcoming memoirs, Last Rites, Ozzy Osbourne detailed his heart issues shortly before he sadly died following a heart attack this summer.
On July 22nd, less than three weeks after his final performance at Back to the Beginning with Black Sabbath, Osbourne died, aged 76, at his family home in Buckinghamshire. It was later confirmed that his cause of death was a heart attack, and it was noted that he also suffered from coronary artery disease and Parkinson’s.
Osbourne’s memoirs, which were only announced two weeks before his death, are set to hit shelves on October 7th.
In a passage from the book (per Louder Sound), Osbourne opened up about his health, saying, “It’s never silly little thing,” and the situation is seemingly “always life-or-death”.
Osbourne then shared that his heart issues began after he contracted sepsis in 2023 following a back operation, explaining, “The valve is 80 percent blocked, apparently. 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.”
Due to his other health issues, doctors refused to operate on his valve as it would have meant that he’d have to get off the blood thinners he was taking for Parkinson’s, which “would be too dangerous”.
The Black Sabbath singer candidly wrote of his health issues in the book, “Meanwhile, the thinners mean if I ever fall over, I’d bleed out in about five seconds. I’ve honestly lost count of the ways in which getting old sucks.”
In another passage from Last Rites, which was published in The Times last week, Osbourne reflected upon his final concert, which was a perfect send-off which brought his career to a fairytale end.
While the run-up to the concert was marred by an array of difficulties, including his health issues, Osbourne wrote of the show: “What I’ve realised is that the one place where I’m free of all my demons is on a stage. At Back to the Beginning, sitting on that throne, I felt at home, I felt at peace… I felt comfortable.”
The Black Sabbath frontman powerfully concluded of his final show, “Forty or fifty thousand voices singing back your words. All along, that’s what I was chasing. It was the best drug I ever took.”
Meanwhile, the journey of Back to the Beginning was recently documented in the new BBC film, Sharon & Ozzy Osbourne: Coming Home, which aired on October 2nd. In the documentary, he said after the concert, “It’s been a great life. If I could live my life again, I wouldn’t change a damn thing.”
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