The Prince of Darkness has arrived to another standing ovation. With a jeweled cross hanging over his chest, fingernails painted black, Ozzy Osbourne leans on a cane as he’s guided into a Hollywood sound studio, just weeks after surgery on his neck. When he slowly turns to face a crowd of admirers — each masked and wearing an Ozzy or Black Sabbath T-shirt — the heavy-metal icon looks pleased, flashing a shiny movie-star grin.
“Hello, how are you doing?” Osbourne says, dressed in Gothic shades of black, his immediately recognizable, accented mumble echoing from his adolescence in Birmingham, England.
At 73, Ozzy is anxious to return to action after a long season of health ups and downs: from COVID-19 and pneumonia to Parkinson’s disease and a painful fall at home, plus the lingering effects of a 2003 ATV accident that the recent surgery was meant to correct. At the same time, and despite these challenges, this wild-eyed singer is experiencing continued creative rebirth with the release of his 13th album, Patient Number 9, his second in an ongoing collaboration with producer-guitarist Andrew Watt.
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Joining Osbourne on a small stage in this studio are Watt and guitarist (and Ozzy lifer) Zakk Wylde, the latter in leather vest and Viking beard, ready to talk about the new album for a SiriusXM taping. The singer sits with his usual nervous energy, shifting from one side of his chair to the other, dropping his cane to the floor, answering questions from this crowd of invited SiriusXM subscribers and interviewer Billy Morrison.
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