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Ozzy Osbourne Cancels Performance at Power Trip Festival: ‘My Body Is Telling Me That I’m Just Not Ready Yet’
Ozzy Osbourne is not ready to get back on stage.
On Monday, the Black Sabbath rocker announced that he made the “painful decision” to pull out of his performance at Power Trip festival in October.
“My original plan was to return to the stage in the summer of 2024, and when the offer to do this show came in, I optimistically moved forward,” Osbourne, 74, wrote on Instagram. “Unfortunately, my body is telling me that I’m just not ready yet and I am much too proud to have the first show that I do in nearly five years be half-assed.”
He continued, “The band that will be replacing me on Power Trip will be announced shortly. They are personal friends of mine and I can promise that you will not be disappointed.”
“Above all, I want to thank my fans, my band, and my crew for their unconditional loyalty and continual support. I love you all and I will see you soon,” he concluded.
In March, Osbourne informed fans that he was canceling all his then-upcoming U.K. and European tour dates due to his damaged spine.
“My singing voice is fine. However, after three operations, stem cell treatments, endless physical therapy sessions, and most recently groundbreaking Cybernics (HAL) Treatment, my body is still physically weak,” Osbourne wrote on Instagram at the time.
“Never would I have imagined that my touring days would have ended this way,” he added. “My team is currently coming up with ideas for where I will be able to perform without having to travel from city to city and country to country.”
Later that month, he clarified his statement in an interview with Billy Morrison on SiriusXM’s Ozzy’s Boneyard show.
“If I can ever get back to where I can tour again, fine,” Osbourne told the outlet. “But right now, if you said to me, ‘Can you go on the road in a month?’ I couldn’t say yes. I mean, if I could tour I’d tour. But right now I can’t book tours because right now, I don’t think I could pull them off.”
Meanwhile, in April, the “Crazy Train” singer — who has been open about his difficulty with walking amid his ongoing battle with Parkinson’s disease — was photographed on a daytime walk without his cane.
Back in August 2022, Ozzy detailed the difficult time he had recovering from an operation to remove two metal plates that had been screwed into his spine.
His wife Sharon Osbourne previously described the surgery as one that would “determine the rest of his life.”
“The screws had come loose, and were chipping away at the bone. And the debris had lodged under his spine. So his spine, instead of being like this, was like this,” Sharon, straightening up then hunching over, told The Observer.
“With the pressing on the spinal column, I got nerve pain. I’d never f—ing heard of nerve pain!” Ozzy added. “You know when you’re a kid, and you’re playing with snow and your hands get really cold? Then you go in and you pour on hot water, and they start getting warm? And you get those chills? And it f—ing hurts? It’s like that.”
[via]
