Osbourne Family Dealing With Parkinson's Disease
Ozzy Osbourne, the Prince of Darkness, at 71 has finally owned up to having a medical condition. The family revealed on the 21st of January, that Ozzy suffers from a type of Parkinson's called PRKN 2.
This certainly explains why the feared Prince of Darkness has been having trouble, ever since his New Year's Eve show, after which he fell and had to have surgery on his neck. This forced Ozzy to slow down; and postpone his world tour.
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But What Is PRKN 2?
PRKN 2 is the gene that causes this specific Parkinson's Disease. It is an autosomal manifestation of the disease, which means this specific instance of PRKN has paired to a non-sex chromosome, furthermore, PRKN 2 seems to be autosomal recessive, which means Ozzy needed to inherit the recessive gene from both of his parents.
According to OMIM, otherwise known as Online Mendelian Inheritance in Man, this form of Parkinsons shows up with subtle but classic symptoms of PD in early childhood; though whether it gets diagnosed that early is another matter.
What Does This Mean For The Tour?
Ozzy says he won't stop. His newly released album, Ordinary Man, tells us just how much he worships his fans--that's right, guys. He worships us, not the other way around.
As the lyrics go:
"I've seen tears and I've seen smilesJust remember that it's all for you,Don't forget me as the colors fade..."
Ozzy does not want his fans to forget him, even if he has to slow down and do things with a bit of help. He lives for his fans, and that is shown to us in an interview he gave on Goodmorning America, where he addressed his fans as being a source of strength during his hard times, and mentions that he hopes his fans wait for him. On air, he also stated how much he missed his fans--his "people", showing just how important the people he writes his music and sings his songs for are to him.
Ozzy's humor is still alive and well, and so is he. His wife and children are heading to specialists wherever they can find them, to get Ozzy help. Right now he is on the mend, dealing with nerve pain after surgery, and with living life with Parkinson's.
But nothing's kept him down before--so it's only a matter of time before he's back on stage, doing what he loves with his family supporting him. It's great to hear from his family during this time, it really shows that Ozzy is just an ordinary man, like the rest of us.
