‘People say to me, if you could do it all again, knowing what youknow now, would you change anything? I’m like, f*ck 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.’
Husband. Father. Grandfather. F*cking Icon.
1948 – 2025
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 hospitalised 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 are reflections on an extraordinary life and career, including his marriage to wife Sharon, and what it took for him to return to the stage 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 transcended his status as ‘The Godfather of Metal’ and ‘The Prince of Darkness’ to become a modern-day folk hero and national treasure.
Husband. Father. Grandfather. F*cking Icon.
1948 – 2025
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 hospitalised 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 are reflections on an extraordinary life and career, including his marriage to wife Sharon, and what it took for him to return to the stage 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 transcended his status as ‘The Godfather of Metal’ and ‘The Prince of Darkness’ to become a modern-day folk hero and national treasure.
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Reviews
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
Brilliantly gossipy... unearths a new trove of rock and roll stories
Ozzy holds nothing back
Desperately moving
Self-aware, level-headed and savagely funny, and not just by rock star standards
An essential, entertaining read
Wild, and fun, and funny
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
Haunting, revelatory