
Ozzy bows out: Rock's wildest frontman prepares for one last show
In 1989, he woke up in jail to be told he had been arrested on suspicion of attempted murder for strangling Sharon. He could not remember anything about it. She dropped the charges.
In 2003, by now supposedly off drink, he broke his neck after falling off a quad bike, and was diagnosed with Parkinson's the same year. In 2019, he suffered a spinal injury in a fall.
Fans are waiting to see what state he is in on stage on Saturday.
When he was inducted into the Rock 'n' Roll Hall of Fame as a solo artist last year, he had to sit on a large black throne - suitably adorned with skulls and a giant bat. The same throne has appeared in photos of rehearsals for this weekend's gig in Birmingham.
His body has survived more abuse than virtually anybody else's on the planet - but age and medical realities are catching up with him.
Sharon has said the concert will definitely be his final show.
He and his fans are likely to be forced to accept that is the case, although in the past he has found it impossible to stay out of the spotlight for long.
"You know the time I will retire?" he said in a 2020 documentary. "When I can hear them nail a lid on my box. And then I'll do an encore."
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