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Ozzy Osbourne: Working on New Album Is “the Best Medicine” for My Parkinson’s

Ozzy Osbourne presenting at the 62nd Annual Grammy Awards
LOS ANGELES, CALIFORNIA - JANUARY 26: (L-R) Ozzy Osbourne and Sharon Osbourne speak onstage during the 62nd Annual GRAMMY Awards at STAPLES Center on January 26, 2020 in Los Angeles, California. (Photo by Kevin Winter/Getty Images for The Recording Academy )

Ozzy Osbourne is opening up some more about his battle with Parkinson’s disease after first revealing his diagnosis on Good Morning America on January 21. The Black Sabbath frontman makes clear that it’s been a struggle for him since being diagnosed nearly a year ago, but there has been something that has helped him move forward.

“If you saw me at the beginning of last year, you’d think I was fucked. But I honestly think making this album is the best medicine I could have had,” he explains in the new issue of Kerrang! of working on Ordinary Man, his upcoming album. “I was doing something, something I like to do. I wish I could do more, but it just felt great.”

As daughter Kelly Osbourne discussed in the GMA interview, she knew getting back to his music would be beneficial, so she did what she could to help him. “The only thing I know when it comes to my dad is, ‘What can I do to make him smile?’ And I know that going to the studio makes him happy,” she told the morning show. “So I got him up and got him to the studio.”

While working on music has lifted his spirits, the Prince of Darkness—who presented at the Grammys on January 26 with wife Sharon—revealed that it doesn’t mean he’s actually happy.

“Am I happy now? No. I haven’t got my health,” the 71-year-old confessed to Kerrang!. “That thing knocked the shit out of me, man, but I’m still here. In fact, I worried about [death] more when I was younger than I do now. I just try to enjoy things as much as possible, even though that’s so fucking hard sometimes.”

“I won’t be here in another 15 years or whatever—not that much longer—but I don’t dwell on it,” he added of dying. “It’s gonna happen to us all.”

Ordinary Man, which features collaborations with Duff McKagan and Slash of Guns N’ Roses, Elton John, Rage Against the Machine‘s Tom Morello, and others, will be released on February 10. It’ll be Osbourne’s 12th album.