Ozzy Osbourne Doc Reveals Botched Surgery, Black Sabbath Regrets

The Ozzy Osbourne documentary “No Escape From Now” is finally streaming on Paramount+, offering an intimate look at the last months of the rock icon’s life and his journey to say goodbye to his fans with one last head-banging concert.

Directed by Tania Alexander, the two-hour film chronicles the health struggles of Osbourne — who died on July 22 at the age of 76 — over the past six years. Emotional and raw, the doc shows the Prince of Darkness at his lowest while struggling with chronic pain after a 2019 fall and several surgeries, in addition to battling Parkinson’s disease. However, his signature sense of humor is present through it all — as is his enduring love for his wife, Sharon.

Throughout the documentary, the one thing that seems to keep Ozzy going is his desire to return to the stage for one last gig, which became the “Back to the Beginning” concert in his hometown of Birmingham, England. “I don’t feel I’ve finished yet,” Ozzy says in the doc. “I want to say to my fans, ‘Thank you for the years.’ I haven’t said that yet. That’s what it’s all about.”

Beyond some of Ozzy’s final on-camera interviews, “No Escape From Now” also features revealing conversations with Sharon; his children Aimee, Kelly and Jack; and a slew of rock icons including Tony Iommi (Black Sabbath), Duff McKagan and Slash (Guns N’ Roses), Robert Trujillo and James Hetfield (Metallica), Billy Idol, Maynard James Keenan (Tool) and Chad Smith (Red Hot Chili Peppers).

Read on for the biggest revelations from the documentary, including that his 2019 spinal surgery may have been unnecessary and that he was “very afraid” for his final show.

Ozzy Struggled With ‘Massive Depression’ After His 2019 Fall

After Ozzy fell at the Osbournes’ Los Angeles residence in February 2019 and underwent spinal surgery, forcing him to cancel his tour dates for that year, Sharon watched him fall into a “massive depression.”

“He’s so depressed. He’s gone through hell and back, he’s gone through so much pain with these operations,” she says in the doc as a couch-bound Ozzy watches TV on his iPad. “It’s like he woke up and he was a different guy because that whole [touring] part of his life is gone.”

It got so bad at one point that Ozzy turned to medication to improve his mood. “The thought of not doing any gigs anymore, I went really into depression. I’m on antidepressants now, actually,” he says. “I was getting fucking ready to off myself at some point. But then I’ll go there in my head and I’ll go, what are you fucking talking about? Because knowing me, I’d half do it and I’d be half dead. I’d fucking set myself on fire and I wouldn’t die, you know? That’s my luck.”

His Spinal Surgery May Have Been ‘Overly Aggressive’

After Ozzy’s fall, he underwent a major spinal surgery that the doc reveals may have hurt him more than it helped. Ozzy recalls waking up in the hospital “completely fucked.”

“To be honest, I thought, ‘What the fuck have they done to me?’” Ozzy says. “I never thought a surgeon could do wrong.” He was in the hospital for three months before finally coming home, but due to his inactivity he also developed severe blood clots. “It’s a pain that no matter what you do, it’s always there,” he says in the doc.

“We’re kind of raised to believe that doctors are superheroes, in a way,” Ozzy’s daughter Aimee says of her father’s surgery. “And although they’re very skilled — some of them — a lot of them really don’t have the answers.”

A couple of years later, Ozzy saw a doctor who seemed to confirm what his family had feared about his initial surgery. “We finally found a surgeon that said, ‘They were overly aggressive with your operation. They’ve done stuff that you didn’t need doing,’” Sharon says. “And what this other surgeon had done was, he’d put plates either side with all these screws and apparently that didn’t need to be done. So he caused even more damage. They took out the metal plates and the screws that were in Ozzy and tried to patch up as much as he could, but the main damage was done.” 

In a particularly emotional moment, Ozzy’s son Jack says: “That fucking doctor just stripped him of his abilities to move, and it makes me so angry because I felt like all of this could have been avoided. It didn’t have to happen.”

Ozzy ‘Never’ Got Over Being Fired From Black Sabbath

The doc briefly touches on the importance to Ozzy of reuniting with Black Sabbath during his final show after he was originally fired from the band in 1979 due to his substance abuse issues.

“My dad will never get over being fired from Black Sabbath,” Ozzy’s daughter Kelly reveals. “He’ll never get over that, ever ever ever. It hurt him more than anything people can put into words. It destroyed him. Those were his brothers, those were his extended family and all he knew.”

Though Ozzy himself doesn’t directly speak on the topic, he tells producer and friend Andrew Watt during a conversation in the studio: “To be honest with you, we were all fucked up … At the end of the day everybody was stoned, but they all went, ‘Oh Ozzy’s stoned.’ Because when you do a lot of acid like I used to, you gotta be fucking off your nut. That’s what it does, it sends you fucking crazy. I can’t take it anymore.”

Ozzy had rejoined Black Sabbath several times previously, including from 1997 to 2005 and again in 2012 before embarking on a farewell tour that ended in 2017. In the doc, Ozzy says that Sabbath guitarist Tony Iommi had been “very supportive” through his recent health struggles and the doc shows the two reuniting for a performance at the 2022 Commonwealth Games in Birmingham.

“When Ozzy got sick, Tony was there every week,” Sharon says. “He would reach out to him. He was there when Ozzy needed someone to talk to, and he’s just been amazing.”

Being Inducted Into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame Broke Ozzy’s Heart

What should have been a moment of pride — Ozzy’s induction into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in October 2024 — was instead heartbreaking. Due to chronic pain and the progression of his Parkinson’s that kept him sitting on a “throne” instead of performing, Ozzy was unable to perform at the induction ceremony and instead put together a super group including Keenan, Idol and Smith to perform several of his songs.

“I wasn’t thinking, ‘I’m glad they’re doing my fucking gig for me.’ I was going, ‘What the fuck is wrong with me?’” Ozzy says of the ceremony. “And that feeling of wanting to get up there and have a go myself, that broke my heart, you know? I nearly said, ‘Let me have a go.’ But I know I would be on the floor in two fucking seconds.”

Ozzy even admits that he “spent some time in the middle of the night looking online for these fucking bionic legs and things” just to be able to perform. “I was thinking that would be great — the real Iron Man,” he says with a smile.

The doc takes viewers inside the final rehearsal for the induction ceremony performance, where Jack Black — who was set to intro the tribute — told Ozzy “I owe it all to you” and “it was you who changed my life.” During “Mama, I’m Coming Home,” Ozzy and Black start to sing together and it looks like Ozzy wants to leap out of his throne.

“I swear I saw him, like the legs were going … it looked to me like he was thinking about fucking getting up,” Smith says in the doc. “I’m like, you might not wanna, I don’t know if you can do that. But in his mind, he thinks that he can do it.”

As the song finishes, Black tells Ozzy: “You sounded great. Oh my God, I almost passed out. It’s so good to hear you sing, man. Love you, Ozzy.”

During the actual ceremony, Ozzy confesses that he was overcome with emotion. “I just welled up in my fucking throat because I was feeling sorry for myself at the same time that I couldn’t get up there to do the thing myself. It was a bittersweet thing, the whole thing,” he says. “A big part of my heart was getting broken because I belong up there, you know?”

The Birmingham Concert Was Touch-and-Go Until the Last Minute

In April, just two months before Ozzy’s big farewell show in Birmingham, a weakened Ozzy sits for an interview and tells the camera: “The way I feel now, it will be a miracle if I make it.”

Sharon reveals that Ozzy has been dealing with a new health issue: a cracked vertebrae as a result of the botched surgery from six years earlier. He had to go to the hospital and get it surgically filled, which fixed the problem for about two weeks, until he was in agony once again. While in the hospital, he caught both pneumonia and sepsis, and then another vertebrae beneath the one that was filled also cracked. Everyone was shocked he survived.

“The problem now is getting to England. But it’s just fucking soul destroying, you know?” Ozzy says. “I’ve gotta be there. I have to be there. I’ve been sick now, this is year seven, you know? As I’m getting on with it and going further into this thing, it’s getting slowly worse. It’s fucking crippling me. I can’t walk very far, I can’t bend down … all I can do is turn up and do the best I can.”

Ozzy Was ‘Very Afraid’ and ‘Nervous’ for Final Gig

Though Ozzy eventually is cleared to fly and makes it for the Birmingham show, Sharon says that his “mind is overwhelmed with the way people are showing up for him.” Not only did “Back to the Beginning” reunite Black Sabbath for one last time, but the event also featured performances from Metallica, Guns N’ Roses, Ronnie Wood, Steven Tyler of Aerosmith, Slayer, Pantera, Tool, Yungblud and more.

“He’s very afraid,” Sharon adds. “But I know that with the emotion behind it all, it will carry him through the day. He’s going to be fine.”

“I’m nervous. It’s my last hurrah, so it’s going to be pretty emotional for me up there,” Ozzy admits. He wasn’t the only one: the video footage in the doc shows countless fans weeping over getting to see their idol play his last concert ever.

“I just hope I don’t think of Sharon when I’m up there, because then the fucking tears will start coming. We’ve done a lot of miles together, me and my old girl,” Ozzy concludes. “This is it, this is the last thing. And I’ve accepted it, you know.”