How Ozzy Osbourne’s new record Patient No. 9 saved his sanity after surgery drama

Ozzy Osbourne preps new album ahead of the family heading back to live in the UK and reboot The Osbournes reality show.

It was a miraculous homecoming.

Just a week before Ozzy Osbourne made his unheralded appearance at the closing ceremony of the Commonwealth Games in his hometown of Birmingham last month, the 73-year-old rock legend’s health – and a professed indifference to sport – had seemingly ruled out such a triumphant performance.

“I heard about that,” he says from his Los Angeles home as the Games were in full swing.

“They wanted me to play but, then again, I can’t do anything. And I’m not the sports type, really.”

Ozzy had a bracket to support him during his performance for the Commonwealth Games. Picture: AFP

And yet, almost two weeks later, there he was on stage, tightly gripping the microphone and bouncing next to his Black Sabbath guitarist bandmate Tony Iommi performing their 1970 metal classic Paranoid against a backdrop of fireworks and pyros.

The metal god smiled wildly during the almost three minutes of the performance, his first in almost four years.

“I love you all Birmingham … It’s good to be back,” he shouted.

Osbourne despaired he would ever make it back on stage again – yet alone take a transatlantic flight from his Los Angeles home to his birthplace in the UK.

For more than 50 years, the stage has been his home, as Osbourne entertained millions around the globe with an enviable catalogue of Black Sabbath and solo hits.

But his live career came to an abrupt halt after he injured his neck badly in a fall in his bathroom in January 2019, his vertebrae already fragile after he broke his neck in a quadbike accident on his Buckinghamshire estate in 2003.

Days on days of crippling pain and bouts of depression were compounded by the revelation in 2020 he had been diagnosed with Parkinson’s disease, suffered two staph infections in his right hand, and a case of Covid.

But it was nerve damage from the surgery to treat his injured spine which incapacitated the seemingly indestructible rocker who had survived drug and alcohol addiction before now being sober for nine years.

Osbourne and wife Sharon will return to live in the UK next year. Picture: Getty

In June, he re-entered hospital for a major operation which wife Sharon says was “really going to determine the rest of his life”.

“I’m all right actually; I just got back from seeing the doctor again. I’m still in recovery,” he tells SMARTdaily in an exclusive interview.

“It’s a very slow, laborious task I’m on to get well again.

“I can’t walk properly, I can’t stand up properly, I’ve got to start from scratch again, getting my stamina up, getting my balance. But the big frustration for me is I can’t go on stage.”

Osbourne rose to the Birmingham stage on a hydraulic platform and was supported by a bracket to prevent him falling, but his presence and resounding vocal on the Birmingham gig gives him and his millions of fans some hope he may yet head back on the road to celebrate the songs of his 13th solo album, titled Patient No.9, released this week.

The rocker says making the record with American hitmaker Andrew Watt and a cavalcade of superstar guests from Iommi and Eric Clapton to the late Taylor Hawkins and Pearl Jam’s guitarist Mike McCready saved his sanity even as his body was racked with pain.

Osbourne worked with many greats on his new record including Tony Iommi. Picture: Supplied

“The thing is, I had to do something because I was going nuts with the pandemic and this injury. Making this album just kept my head above water because I couldn’t do gigs – nobody could do gigs and I still can’t do gigs – so making a record kind of bridged the gap.

“But I’m trying every which way I can to get back on my feet, coz I really miss doing shows. It’s all I’m about, you know.”

His desire to get back on stage has been further stoked by the early response to Patient No.9. The title track, featuring another English guitar god Jeff Beck, debuted at No.1 on the Billboard rock tracks in July.

“It turned out my business manager in London also manages Jeff Beck. So I asked him if he would ever play on one of my albums. He said to send him a track and he’d ask him. So I sent him Patient No 9, and the solo he did f … in’ blew my mind,” he says.

Osbourne credits Watt for pulling most of the album’s enviable guest list together. Watt is one of the go-to producers right now, having helmed a string of hits for Miley Cyrus, Justin Bieber, Post Malone, Dua Lipa, 5 Seconds of Summer and, most recently, the Elton John and Britney Spears collaboration Hold Me Closer.

Watt’s producer role with Osbourne kicked off when he engaged Kelly Osbourne to sound her father out about guesting on the Post Malone track Take What You Want in 2019.

That studio session laid the foundation for the pair to reunite to make Osbourne’s first solo record in a decade, the 2020 hit Ordinary Man.

For Patient No.9, he again assembled a core studio band with Guns N’ Roses bassist Duff McKagan and Red Hot Chili Peppers’ drummer Chad Smith, but widened the playing field to bring in Metallica’s Robert Trujillo and Queens of the Stone Age frontman Josh Homme on guitar.

Osbourne says he wasn’t sure about Watt’s suggestion to enlist Eric Clapton to play on the haunting One of Those Days.

Osbourne’s title track is the story of a patient in a ‘mental asylum”. Picture: Supplied

“Andrew said it would be great to get Eric Clapton to play on that track and I told him he was getting a bit too much then (with the wishlist), because I thought Eric Clapton would tell me to go take a running jump. They asked him and he said ‘yes’, and Sir Eric Clapton plays great on that track,” he says.

It appears everyone was up to play with Osbourne during the pandemic lockdowns, with technology enabling several of the guests to record remotely.

But there was a lot of emotion involved too, particularly with Iommi agreeing to play for the first time on one of his frontman’s solo records, and the return of his band’s lead guitarist Zakk Wylde. The record also features one of the final studio performances of the late Foo Fighters drummer Hawkins.

The much-loved musician’s death triggered Osbourne’s grief for Randy Rhodes, his guitarist in his early solo years who died in a plane crash in 1982 while on tour with the rocker.

“I was so confused, because a week after Taylor Hawkins came down (to the studio), he was dead,” Osbourne says. “I said to Andrew that it just couldn’t be the same Taylor Hawkins.

“Andrew was one of his best mates, he was absolutely devastated. It’s just terribly sad, you know.

“The loss of anybody you really, really love takes its toll; not a day goes by I don’t think about Randy Rhodes, it’s like a colour in my mind.”

Osbourne excited about welcoming another grandchild when daughter Kelly has her first baby. Picture: Getty

While touring may still be a way off, Osbourne will maintain his presence in the cultural zeitgeist.

The family is preparing to relocate from their Los Angeles home to their Buckinghamshire estate in early 2023.

That is where the BBC will film a reboot of their wildly successful reality series The Osbournes, with their son Jack, daughter Kelly and no doubt the grandchildren which will by then have been boosted by the arrival of Kelly’s first child.

“My wife and family have been so good to me; Sharon has done so much work on my behalf – she really is the best thing that’s ever happened to me,” he says.

“Jack just had a baby girl, Kelly’s having a baby, being a granddad is just such fun.”

Patient No.9 is released on September 9.

Originally published as How Ozzy Osbourne’s new record Patient No. 9 saved his sanity after surgery drama