Ozzy Osbourne has 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,” the 70-year-old rocker 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.
Asked what has been giving him hope through it all, the Black Sabbath frontman replied: “Not that much.”
Osbourne admitted: “The most depressing thing I’ve been thinking is, ‘Am I gonna walk properly again? Am I gonna be able to perform again?’ I don’t think I can do a rock concert right now. I’ll go, ‘Hello,’ and that’s it.”