Ozzy Osbourne Reveals He Is Living With Parkinson’s Disease
Rock star Ozzy Osbourne has just confirmed that he has been diagnosed with PRKN 2, a form of Parkinson’s disease. The heavy metal singer gave an interview alongside his family (who rose to fame in the early 2000s through their reality show The Osbournes) with Good Morning America today—the first time any of them have spoken publicly on the subject since his diagnosis in early 2019.
“There’s so many different types of Parkinson’s,” explained Sharon, Ozzy’s wife. “It’s not a death sentence by any stretch of the imagination, but it does affect certain nerves in your body.”
“I’m a lot better now than I was last February,” Ozzy said. “I was in a shocking state.” His daughter Kelly added that there was a point a year ago when they weren’t sure if he would ever walk again, and that he has come a long way in the last 12 months.
.@ABC NEWS EXCLUSIVE: “The hardest thing is watching someone you love suffer.” Rock legend @OzzyOsbourne’s kids @JackOsbourne and @KellyOsbourne open up about their family’s new normal after their father’s Parkinson's diagnosis. https://t.co/tYd0K3rQet pic.twitter.com/8ayAFwOi9M
— Good Morning America (@GMA) January 21, 2020
“It’s really strange how this works,” she said. “There are some days where I will walk in this house and I’m like, ‘there’s absolutely nothing wrong with him.’ And you think, ‘oh my god, he’s gonna be great, we’re gonna be leaving for tour next month,’ and then you come back the next day, and nothing has happened, but it’s like he can’t feel his arm and he can’t get off the couch.. The hardest thing is watching somebody that you love suffer.”
For Ozzy, who earned the moniker “Prince of Darkness” as the lead singer of Black Sabbath, one of the hardest things to adjust to has been getting used to not being able to perform and tour at the same pace as before. “Coming from a working class background, I hate to let people down, I hate to not do my job,” he said. “And so when I see my wife going to work, my kids going to work... that gets me down, because I can’t contribute to my family.”
Son Jack, who was diagnosed with multiple sclerosis in 2012, said he understands the feeling of “having something you don’t want to have,” which has helped him relate to what his father is going through. “I don’t push it, you know,” he said. “If he wants to talk about it, he talks about it.”
Ozzy overcame those feelings of helplessness by working on new music, buoyed by Kelly’s support. “The only thing I know when it comes to my dad is, what can I do to make him smile?” she said. “And I know that going to the studio makes him happy. So I got him up and got him to the studio, and that’s all I did, everything else was him.”
“If it wasn’t for her I’d still be lying on the couch,” Ozzy said, adding that he’s excited by the prospect of going back on tour, and seeing his fans again. “I want to see my people, I miss them so much,” he said. “And I just hope they hang on and they’re there for me, because I need them.”
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