"People say to me, if you could do it all again, knowing what you know now, would you change anything? I'm like, f*** no. If I'd been clean and sober, I wouldn't be Ozzy. If I'd done normal, sensible things, I wouldn't be Ozzy."
In 2018, at the age of sixty-nine, Ozzy Osbourne was on a triumphant farewell tour, playing to sold-out arenas and rave reviews all around the world.
Then: disaster.
In a matter of just a few weeks, he went from being hospitalized with a finger infection to having to abandon his tour – and all public life – as he faced near-total paralysis from the neck down.
LAST RITES is the shocking, bitterly hilarious, never-before-told story of Ozzy's descent into hell. Along the way, he reflects on his extraordinary life and career, including his marriage to wife Sharon, as well as his reflections on what it took for him to get back onstage for the triumphant Back to the Beginning concert, streamed around the world, where Ozzy reunited with his Black Sabbath bandmates for the final time.
Unflinching, brutally honest, but surprisingly life-affirming, Last Rites demonstrates once again why Ozzy has transcended his status as 'The Godfather of Metal' and 'The Prince of Darkness' to become a modern-day folk hero and national treasure.
About the Author
Ozzy Osbourne was born in Aston, Birmingham, in 1948, and was one of rock music's most enduring figures as the lead singer of Black Sabbath. He achieved even greater heights as a solo artist. Ozzy is survived by his wife, Sharon, and his five children.
Praise For…
"A self-effacing and unexpectedly affecting portrait of the Prince of Darkness in twilight...Last Rites mixes ancient stories of Ozzy’s rock star rapscallionism (entertaining, always) with meditations on the inevitability of death that grow thicker as the book lurches toward the only conclusion it can."—The Washington Post
"Last Rites is the redemption narrative that 'The Osbournes' couldn’t be — genuinely big-hearted rather than contrivedly quirky, refusing to overwrite past ugliness but still brimming with gratitude...a fitting final encore for a life lived at extremes."—Salon
"Haunting, revelatory."—Rolling Stone
"Osbourne comes off well in Last Rites: self-aware, level-headed and savagely funny, and not just by rock star standards."—The Guardian
"345 pages of Osbourne’s plainspoken, expletive-peppered wit...rivet with conversational detail."—USA Today
"Ozzy holds nothing back."—Music Frenzy
"Candid and self-aware without being self-reverential...it only makes us miss [Ozzy] that much more."—cleveland.com
"A charming and often poignant valediction from rock ’n’ roll’s Prince of Darkness."
