Ozzy Osbourne planning final farewell shows amid health battle

Ozzy Osbourne is planning to perform two final farewell shows after cancelling his last tour due to health problems.

The 75-year-old Black Sabbath frontman previously confessed he could no longer travel from city to city to perform live on stage when he announced his retirement from touring. But his wife and music manager Sharon Osbourne has revealed that Ozzy is now planning to bow out with two special goodbye concerts in his home town of Birmingham.

Sharon told the Mirror: "He won't tour again but we are planning on doing two more shows to say goodbye as he feels like 'I have never said goodbye to my fans and I want to say goodbye properly'. We will do it in Aston Villa where Ozzy is from."

The rock star grew up in the Aston area of Birmingham in the West Midlands, where Aston Villa football stadium Villa Park is located.

Ozzy revealed in January 2002 he had been diagnosed with degenerative disease Parkinson’s. He also underwent major spinal surgery in 2022. These combined health issues have made him physically weak. But Sharon his singing voice has not been affected.

She said: "His voice is still absolutely perfect. And all the time he has been off he still does his singing lessons so his voice is perfect. And he can joke yeah. He has all these melodies in his head. Even if you don't like his music you can't not like Ozzy, he just draws you in."

Ozzy made a surprise appearance at the Birmingham Commonwealth Games closing ceremony in August 2022 at the city's newly-redeveloped Alexander Stadium. He sang Black Sabbath's 1970 hit Paranoid with members of the band, which was formed in Birmingham in 1968.

The Black Sabbath star announced his retirement from touring in February 2023, cancelling the European leg of his No More Tours 2 tour.

He said at the time: “Never would I have imagined that my touring days would have ended this way. My team is currently coming up with ideas for where I will be able to perform without having to travel from city to city and country to country."

A month later he said he was desperate to perform again, despite being in "constant pain" because music was the only thing keeping him going.

In September 2023 he revealed he was feeling fit and working on a new album. He said: “I’m getting myself fit. I’ve done two albums fairly recently, but I want to do one more album and then go back on the road.”

I’ve come to the point where Sharon says to me, 'You know what, the truth of the matter is, you can't keep booking tours and failing, cancelling.' The only thing I've got that keeps me going is making records. But I can't do that forever. I gotta get out there."

Ozzy had an operation to remove and realign the pins in his neck and back that were inserted following a quad-biking accident in 2003. Pins were fitted to realign his back and neck following the injury. But these were then knocked out of place when he suffered a fall at his Los Angeles home in 2019 and he underwent another operation.

After being plagued by health problems he revealed in an emotional interview with Good Morning America in January 2020 that he had been diagnosed with degenerative disease Parkinson’s, which affects the nervous system and can cause depression.

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