Ozzy Osbourne on Friday released “Under The Graveyard,” his first solo track in almost a decade.
The song is the first taste of the 70-year-old rocker’s album Ordinary Man, which is due to drop early next year.
“This is quite possibly the most important album I have done in a very long time, probably since No More Tears,” Osbourne said, in a release. The album features producer Andrew Watt on guitars, Duff McKagan of Guns N’ Roses on bass and Red Hot Chili Peppers’ Chad Smith on drums.
“I previously had said to [my wife] Sharon I should be doing an album, but in the back of my mind I was going ‘I haven’t got the f**king strength…’ but Andrew pulled it out of me. I really hope people listen to it and enjoy it, because I put my heart and soul into this album.”
Osbourne described Ordinary Man as “a gift from my higher power” and “proof that you should never give up.”
In August, Osbourne opened up about the pain he endured while recovering from surgery after a late-night fall.
"For the first, say, four months, I was absolutely in agony,” he told Rolling Stone. “I was in agony beyond anything I ever experienced before in my life. It was awful.”
Osbourne had surgery on his neck and spine after tripping in the dark on his way to the bathroom one night. “I came down really, really hard,” he recalled. “I went slam – on my face.” Metal rods placed in his body following a 2003 quad accident had been dislodged.
The accident came only months after Osbourne had surgery on his right hand due to a staph infection and after a bout of flu and pneumonia put him in the ICU – forcing him to postpone his farewell tour. (In April, wife Sharon Osbourne gave fans an update on his condition. “He’s good, he’s fine, he’s great," she said.)
Osbourne, who has developed blood clots in his legs, said he hopes to be able to get back on the road in January. “I’m taking physical and occupational therapy classes, but the progress is very slow,” he explained. “They say it’s going to take at least a year.”
Osbourne is scheduled to perform June 16 in Montreal, June 18 in Hamilton, July 7 in Edmonton and July 9 in Vancouver. “We’re just keeping our fingers crossed," he said.
Listen to “Under The Graveyard” below: