Ozzy Osbourne has announced that helium is retiring from touring owed to declining health. The 74-year-old Black Sabbath vocalist was owed to embark connected a circuit of the UK and Europe aboriginal this year, but successful a connection said that helium has “come to the realisation that I’m not physically susceptible … arsenic I cognize I couldn’t woody with the question required.”
“This is astir apt 1 of the hardest things I’ve ever had to stock with my loyal fans,” helium continued. “As you whitethorn each know, 4 years agone this month, I had a large accident, wherever I damaged my spine. My 1 and lone intent during this clip has been to get backmost connected stage. My singing dependable is fine. However, aft 3 operations, stem compartment treatments, endless carnal therapy sessions, and astir precocious groundbreaking Cybernics (HAL) treatment, my assemblage is inactive physically weak.”
“Believe maine erstwhile I accidental that the thought of disappointing my fans truly FUCKS ME UP, much than you volition ever know,” helium wrote. “Never would I person imagined that my touring days would person ended this way.”
In the statement, Osbourne said that helium was looking into “ideas for wherever I volition beryllium capable to execute without having to question from metropolis to metropolis and state to country”, and thanked his fans for “their endless dedication, loyalty and support, and for giving maine the beingness that I ne'er ever dreamed I would have”.
Osbourne’s tour, dubbed No More Tours II, was announced successful 2017 but postponed a fig of times, owed to some sick wellness and Covid. Last May, helium revealed that helium was awaiting country connected his his neck; his wife, Sharon Osbourne, said that the country would “determine the remainder of his life”. In September 2022 helium released his 13th solo album, Patient Number 9, which was hailed successful a four-star review by the Guardian’s main popular professional Alexis Petridis arsenic “finely balanced, the choruses large and bold capable to pull attraction but not overshadow the main attraction’s indispensable essence”.
Patient Number 9 is nominated for champion stone medium astatine the 2023 Grammy awards; its rubric track, featuring Jeff Beck, is nominated for champion stone opus and champion stone performance; and the Tony Iommi collaboration Degradation Rules is up for champion metallic performance. “The full happening shocked me,” Osbourne told Billboard upon proceeding of the nominations. “I mean, if I won thing for the medium I’d beryllium floored.”