Ozzy Osbourne’s Second Memoir, ‘Last Rites,’ Due In October
Fresh off what was billed as his final live performances as a solo artist and as a member of Black Sabbath last weekend in Birmingham, England, Ozzy Osbourne has set an Oct. 7 release for his second memoir, Last Rites, from Grand Central Publishing/Hachette Book Group.
According to a statement, the book will include the 76-year-old hard rock legend’s thoughts on the Back to the Beginning concert, which raised a reported $200 million for charity. It will also chronicle his significant health setbacks over the past seven years, which have left him unable to stand or walk for extended periods of time.
“At the age of 69, Ozzy Osbourne was on a triumphant farewell tour, playing to sold-out arenas and rave reviews all around the world,” reads a description on the book’s preorder page. “Then, disaster. In a matter of just a few weeks, he went from being hospitalized with a finger infection to having to abandon his tour—and all public life—as he faced near-total paralysis from the neck down. Last Rites is the shocking, bitterly hilarious, never-before-told story of Osbourne’s descent into hell.”
The follow-up to 2012’s I Am Ozzy will also touch on “his turbulent marriage to wife Sharon, his encounters with fellow hellraisers including Slash, Bon Scott, John Bonham and Keith Moon and the harrowing final moments he spent with Motörhead’s Lemmy Kilmister.”
“People say to me, if you could do it all again, knowing what you know now, would you change anything? I’m like, fuck no. If I’d been clean and sober, I wouldn’t be Ozzy,” the Prince of Darkness says. “If I’d done normal, sensible things, I wouldn’t be Ozzy. Look, if it ends tomorrow, I can’t complain. I’ve been all around the world. Seen a lot of things. I’ve done good … and I’ve done bad. But right now, I’m not ready to go anywhere.”
