Ozzy Osbourne’s health left him unable to tour in the last years of his life, but a new documentary shows that he kept his sense of humor until the end.
The late rocker’s final four years are chronicled in the new Paramount+ documentary Ozzy: No Escape From Now, which premieres Tuesday, October 7. The film follows Osbourne, who died in July at age 76, as he recovers from a series of surgeries and prepares for his final concert ever in his hometown of Birmingham, England.
While the movie doesn’t shy away from capturing Osbourne’s darker moments, the former Black Sabbath frontman was still cracking jokes even as he spoke about how sad he was that he could no longer take the stage as he once did.
“That’s the thing about getting older,” he quips at one point. “I used to take pills for fun. Now I take them to stay alive.”
Keep scrolling for the biggest revelations from the film:
Paramount
Ozzy’s Health Problems Were Made Worse by a Botched Neck Surgery
In 2019, Osbourne fell and broke his neck, which resulted in a surgery where a doctor put screws and metal plates in his body. His family, however, noticed that the surgery didn’t seem to improve his quality of life and instead made it worse.
“I watched my dad go from being able to sit up to — I’m sorry to say this, but I can’t think of anything else — having posture like f***ing Gollum,” Ozzy’s daughter Kelly Osbourne says.
Kelly’s sister Aimee Osbourne adds, “He was in great discomfort and really grieving, and I think just in a lot of shock. Also traumatized to fall like that and then go through that and then not be able to bounce back like he had in the past and then having to cancel the tour — that was really, I think, his biggest heartbreak.”
Ozzy’s wife, Sharon Osbourne, notes that her husband, who’d gotten sober again before his death, was in more pain that she’d even seen him experience. “The pain just never subsided,” she recalls. “It was unbearable constantly. And I know Ozzy’s a drama queen, he’ll do anything for a pain pill, but it was for real. You can look in someone’s eyes and know.”
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Music Improved Ozzy’s Mood — To a Point
After the 2019 surgery, Kelly encouraged her dad to get back in the studio, where he began working on what became his 12th solo album, Ordinary Man. Ozzy says recording again got him “out of the blues,” while his son Jack Osbourne notes that Ozzy’s music from that period reflects the pain he was feeling.
“I do think that Ordinary Man is less an Ozzy Osbourne album and more a John Osbourne album,” Jack explains, referring to his dad’s legal name. “There’s a lot of themes in it of processing his own life and mortality and what he’s facing, and it was less madman, less biting heads off bats. It wasn’t the madman, it was just kind of where he was in that time.”
Ozzy Considered Suicide After His 2021 Surgery
Ozzy had another surgery in 2021 to correct the 2019 one, which the second surgery said was “overly aggressive.” While it was supposed to improve his pain, Ozzy was still forced to postpone and ultimately cancel his planned farewell tour, which left him in a deep depression — the point he considered suicide.
“The thought of not doing any gigs anymore, I went really into depression,” he says. “I’m on antidepressants now, actually. Because I was getting ready to off myself at some point. But then I’ll go there in my head and I go, ‘What are you f***ing talking about?’ Because knowing me, I’d half-do it and I’d be half-dead. … I mean, I wouldn’t die, you know? That’s my luck.”
Kelly noticed her dad’s despair as well, saying, “He wouldn’t even draw. He wouldn’t go shoot his gun. He wouldn’t do anything. He was just miserable. He was like, ‘I’ve got no escape, I’m stuck in this.’ And he’s just looking for a way out.”
What Ozzy Really Thought About His Black Sabbath Firing
While Ozzy’s Black Sabbath bandmates fired him in 1979 and replaced him with Ronnie James Dio, he reunited with them many times, including at this final concert. In the film, however, his family says he was still upset about the incident, with Sharon claiming she would catch him watching old Dio interviews in between World War II and Vietnam War documentaries.
“My dad will never get over being fired from Black Sabbath. He’ll never get over that. Ever, ever, ever, ever,” Kelly tells the camera. “It hurt him more than anything people can put into words. It destroyed him. Those were his brothers. Those were his extended family and all he knew.”
Jack agrees, adding, “It was a traumatic event for him. His dad died and then he gets booted out of a band, and he thinks, ‘Well, I haven’t really got much to live for now, and now I have to, like, piece this all back together.’ And I think it definitely affected the way he operates.”
Ozzy Suffered From Social Anxiety
Ozzy will go down in history as one of the most legendary rock stars of all time, but in the film, he confesses that there are certain aspects of fame he could have lived without. “If something’s in my head, it will torture me,” he explains. “If I’ve got a commitment or I’ve gotta make a speech, I f***ing hate making speeches.”
Kelly says that her dad could handle performing in front of thousands but would sometimes have difficulty in more low-key situations. “For somebody who gets on stage and performs in front of the size of the crowds that he does, you would think that he can walk into any room and be confident and fine. That’s not the case,” she tells the camera. “He is somebody that suffers from the worst social anxiety I’ve ever seen. Nobody will ever really understand how insecure my dad is.”
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Sharon and Ozzy Were Planning a Quiet Retirement
Following Ozzy’s last show, he and Sharon intended to live out their golden years together in their quiet England home, with both of them saying they would be “free” after the Back to the Beginning concert.
“July 5, full stop. Take a bow, come home,” Sharon says. “I just want to live a life. That’s all I wanna do. Find a little bubble somewhere and just live out our life together, just doing stuff we wanna do.”
Ozzy: No Escape From Now premieres on Paramount+ Tuesday, October 7.
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