Ozzy Osbourne was warned performing with his band Black Sabbath again could kill him – but the heavy metal legend was determined to do it
Doctors issued a chilling warning to rockstar Ozzy Osbourne ahead of his final Black Sabbath show.
Health professionals said he would die if he took to the stage again, his devastated wife Sharon Osbourne has revealed in a new interview.
The heavy metal icon died on July 22, 2025 at the age of 76 just two weeks after he performed with his band Black Sabbath for the final time in a homecoming gig in his beloved Birmingham. But what fans didn’t know was that Ozzy – whose real name is John Michael Osbourne – was hiding a secret health battle.
Fans were aware that the Prince of Darkness had been diagnosed with Parkinson’s disease, believed to have been triggered by a fall in 2019. This meant he had to undergo surgery on his spine multiple times and left him with mobility issues. Though his wheelchair was cleverly disguised as a bat throne during the gig at Villa Park on July 6.
It was the first time the band – made up of Ozzy, Bill Ward, Tony Iommi, and Geezer Butler – had performed together in 20 years. In his final words to fans, Ozzy said: “Thank you for everything, you guys are f***ing amazing. Birmingham Forever.” Now it’s emerged that Ozzy was warned not to do the gig as he wouldn’t survive it – but he did it anyway.
READ MORE: Sharon Osbourne recalls moment she found Ozzy dead and final words he said to her
Opening up on the death of her husband of 43 years, Ozzy’s wife Sharon, 73, shared what had really been going on behind the scenes. In an interview with friend Piers Morgan, she was asked if Ozzy knew the end was near. She replied: “Very much so, because he’d been so ill this year — terribly, terribly ill.
“When we came to England and we were meeting with new doctors here, a new medical team for him, the main doctor said to him, ‘If you do this show, that’s it. You’re not going to get through it’. But we just sat there, and he said, ‘I’m doing it. I want to do it, and I’m doing it’.”
Piers clarified: “So he knew that if he went ahead with the show, it would probably kill him. I don’t know how you feel given how painful it has been to lose him.” Sharon then broke down and wiped her tears away. Detailing his health issues, Sharon continued: “He knew his body was failing him. He was in so much pain, so much pain. And I mean, you know, he had pneumonia three times this year. He’d had sepsis. That’s what really, really destroyed him.
“He was on these shots of antibiotics. It used to take 20 minutes for the shot to go in, and he had that twice a day, and it kills everything in you, the good, the bad, everything. So much antibiotics, and he just couldn’t get over that. He just couldn’t.”
Sharon recalled the moment she found husband Ozzy dead and how she screamed uncontrollably at realising he had passed. She shared: “He had a heart attack. I ran downstairs, and there he was, and they were trying to resuscitate him, and I’m like, ‘Don’t — just leave him. Leave him. You can’t. He’s gone’. I knew instantly he’d gone. And they tried and tried, and then they took him by helicopter to the hospital and they tried, and it’s like, ‘He’s gone. Just leave him.'”
Sharon also explained how Ozzy would use the cross trainer for up to an hour and a half a day – even with his ill health. Sharing a moment from their final night together for the first time, Sharon said Ozzy had been up and down out of bed all night.
“He said, ‘Kiss me’. And then he said, ‘Hug me tight’. I can’t help wondering if I should have, could I have? If only I’d have told him I loved him more. If only I’d have held him tighter. And he went downstairs, worked out for 20 minutes and passed away,” she said.
Heartbreakingly Sharon went on to say how she considered taking her own life so she didn’t have to go on without Ozzy by her side – but she stopped herself because of her kids. The couple share daughters Aimee, 42, and Kelly, 41, as well as son Jack, 40, who recently appeared on I’m A Celebrity… Get Me Out Of Here!
She confessed: “I would have just gone with Ozzy, definitely. I’ve done everything I wanted to do,” she said. But she recalled how she had, in the past, met women who had lost their mothers to suicide. It was then she vowed to never do the same to her kids. Ozzy has since been laid to rest in the grounds of the family home, under an apple tree, where Sharon visits him daily. Before his death, the rocker had joked that he wanted his kids to make wine from the fruit and get drunk.
*If you are struggling with mental health, you can speak to a trained advisor from Mind mental health charity on 0300 123 3393 or email info@mind.org.uk
READ MORE: Ted Baker necklace that’s an affordable alternative to Kate Middleton’s pearl jewellery is on sale
Follow Mirror Celebs on TikTok , Snapchat , Instagram , Twitter , Facebook , YouTube and Threads
Disclaimer : This story is auto aggregated by a computer programme and has not been created or edited by DOWNTHENEWS. Publisher: mirror.co.uk
