Ozzy Osbourne was aware that his health was failing in the weeks leading up to his death from a heart attack.
In the final chapter of his upcoming memoir Last Rites, the legendary heavy metal frontman reveals that he had been battling arrhythmia and “a dodgy heart valve” shortly before he passed away.
The chapter was written after his farewell concert, “Back To The Beginning”, held on July 5 this year. Osbourne died just over two weeks later, on July 22.
“It’s never silly little things,” he wrote about his ongoing health struggles. “It’s always life-or-death.”
Osbourne explained that his heart problems stemmed from a severe sepsis infection he contracted in 2023, following the last in a long series of spinal surgeries.
“The valve is 80 percent blocked, apparently,” he wrote. “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.”
Doctors ultimately decided not to operate, as the procedure would have required him to stop taking blood thinners prescribed for his Parkinson’s disease — a move they warned would be “too dangerous.”
“Meanwhile, the thinners mean if I ever fall over, I’d bleed out in about five seconds,” Osbourne added. “I’ve honestly lost count of the ways in which getting old sucks.”
Osbourne’s health troubles began in 2018, when he developed a staph infection in two of his fingers. A year later, in February 2019, he suffered a serious fall at home, worsening injuries from a 2003 quad bike accident and prompting multiple surgeries. In 2020, he publicly revealed his Parkinson’s diagnosis.
These challenges forced the rock icon to postpone and eventually cancel his “No More Tours II” farewell tour. He officially retired from touring in 2023, but returned to the stage one final time for “Back To The Beginning” — performing with his Black Sabbath bandmates for the first time since 2005, and later delivering a solo set at Villa Park stadium near his hometown of Aston, Birmingham.
Osbourne passed away at his Buckinghamshire home 17 days after the concert. His funeral, held privately on July 30, followed a moving procession through Birmingham, where tens of thousands of fans gathered to pay tribute.
“Last Rites”, which was announced shortly before his death on July 10, will be released on October 7 through Sphere Publishing.
