Credit: Mark WeissOzzy Osbourne has opened up about the surgery he underwent to treat an infection in his hand, which caused him to postpone the final four North American tour dates of his No More Tours 2 trek. Speaking with Rolling Stone, the Prince of Darkness says he was nearly felled by a “potentially deadly staph infection.”
It all started when his right thumb swelled up to “the size of a f***in’ lightbulb.” When it kept swelling, Ozzy’s wife Sharon took him to the emergency room.
“I didn’t feel sick, so I was cracking jokes,” he remembers. “The doctor said, ‘I don’t know if you realize, Mr. Osbourne, this is a very serious problem you have.’ Sharon said, ‘Would you stop f***ing making jokes?'”
“They’re all extremely, deadly serious about it,” he continues. “I judge it based on the expression and the body language of the doctor. If he comes in with a really solemn face, I go, ‘Oh, OK. My time to go is up.'”
Ozzy then learned he had three separate staph infections in his thumb, one of which had spread to his middle finger. But even prior to the first postponed gig, Ozzy was still more concerned with the status of the show.
“I said to Sharon, ‘What the f*** am I gonna do for the gig?'” he remembers. “Then the doctor said, ‘You must be fucking crazy. You get another staph infection, and you could die.’ He said, ‘One’s enough. You’ve got three individual ones.'”
Ozzy is now recovering, and has announced his first show back: Ozzfest 2018. The annual festival will be held in Los Angeles on New Year’s Eve.
In addition to Osbourne, the lineup will include Rob Zombie, Marilyn Manson, Korn‘s Jonathan Davis and Body Count. Visit Ozzfest.com for ticket info.
Copyright © 2018, ABC Radio. All rights reserved.
