Ozzy Osbourne shocked to outlive all his drinking partners: 'Why am I the last man standing?'

Osbourne also hopes to play one last live show.

Ozzy Osbourne is as surprised as anyone that he, once known for living awfully hard, has outlasted so many of his contemporaries.

“I’ve been doing a lot of reflection while I’ve been laid up, and all my drinking partners, I’ve realised they’re all f---ing dead,” he told Rolling Stone UK in a new interview. “The graveyard’s full of them!” In particular, he mentioned Motörhead's Lemmy Kilmister, who died in 2015, and UFO bassist Pete Way, who died in 2020.

“I should have been dead way before loads of them," he said. "Why am I the last man standing? I don’t understand any of it. Sometimes I look in the mirror and go, ‘Why the f--- did you make it?!’ I’m not boasting about any of it because I should have been dead a thousand times. I’ve had my stomach pumped God knows how many times.”

The iconic singer is reflecting, in part, because of a string of health issues — including a spinal injury — in recent years, dating back to a Parkinson's diagnosis in 2003, which forced him to retire from touring and cancel festival appearances. “It’s really knocked me about,” he said. “The second surgery went drastically wrong and virtually left me crippled. I thought I’d be up and running after the second and third, but with the last one, they put a f---ing rod in my spine. They found a tumor in one of the vertebrae, so they had to dig all that out too. It’s pretty rough, man, and my balance is all f---ed up.”

His struggles with illness have led former Black Sabbath bandmate Tony Iommi to reach out and connect. Osbourne's relationship with members of the band has notoriously been strained at times. Yet, even Bill Ward has contacted Osbourne amid his health struggles. However, Osbourne says he has not heard from bassist Geezer Butler. "Geezer Butler hasn’t given me one f---ing phone call. Not one f--ing call," Osbourne said.

However, the "No More Tears" singer says he doesn't "even think about Parkinson's that much" and gets "pissed off" about reports that sound like he's "fighting his last battle."

In fact, he hopes to hit the stage again at some point. "That’s one of the things I’ve been the most f---ing pissed off at: I never got the chance to say goodbye or thank you [to fans]," he said. "If I can't continue doing shows on a regular basis, I just want to be well enough to do one show where I can say, 'Hi guys, thanks so much for my life.' That's what I'm working towards, and if I drop down dead at the end of it, I'll die a happy man."

Sign up for Entertainment Weekly's free daily newsletter to get breaking TV news, exclusive first looks, recaps, reviews, interviews with your favorite stars, and more.

Related content:

• Ozzy Osbourne cancels festival appearance due to health concerns: 'I'm just not ready yet'

• Ozzy Osbourne retires from touring due to ongoing spinal injury: 'I love you all'

• Ozzy Osbourne leaving America for the U.K. over mass shooting fears: 'Everything's f--king ridiculous there'
  

Read the original article on Entertainment Weekly.