Ozzy Osbourne’s ‘Last Rites’ Is Truly a Memoir of a Madman | Book Review

Now that I’ve read Ozzy Osbourne’s first autobiography, I Am Ozzy (2009), it’s time for me to dive into his second and final autobiography, Last Rites (2025). Like the former, Last Rites was co-written by Chris Ayres. The book captures the last seven years of Ozzy’s life, starting with the No More Tours II tour and ending with Ozzy’s last show he ever did, the highly publicized, Back to the Beginning concert. Ozzy reflects on his recent health battles, as well as his past life and the friends he lost along the way, including John Bonham from Led Zeppelin and Lemmy Kilmister from Motörhead. There are a lot of sad moments in the book, mostly with Ozzy’s declining health, but thankfully, there are enough happy moments that save it from being totally depressing and therefore, it showcases a man who lived a full life and wouldn’t have changed a thing. 

One of things I enjoyed about Last Rites was that Ozzy told stories I never heard before. Of course, the stories I enjoyed most had to do with famous musicians, given my love for music. One story in particular occurred during the early ‘90s, when Ozzy was having trouble finishing the songs for No More Tears (1991). After running into Ozzy in Japan, Kilmister offered to help him write the lyrics, which he said yes to. The first demo Ozzy gave him was for “Mama, I’m Coming Home.” Kilmister said he only needed two hours to write the lyrics, but Ozzy came back four or five hours later to be on the safe side. Kilmister stuck to his word, however, and when Ozzy returned, he told him, “Where the f*ck have you been?” It turned out two hours really was enough time for Kilmister to put together the lyrics to one of Ozzy’s best ballads ever, “Mama, I’m Coming Home,” which is about Ozzy’s relationship with Sharon and what she meant to him.

Another favorite story of mine occurred around 1976-1977, when Black Sabbath were on the Technical Ecstasy tour in Switzerland. AC/DC were the opening band and for some odd reason, bassist Geezer Butler was obsessed with his newly purchased flick knife. He flicked it all the time and despite Ozzy warning him not to do it in front of the wrong people, that didn’t stop him from flicking his knife in front of AC/DC’s late rhythm guitarist and founding member Malcom Young. Malcolm took offense to Butler flicking his knife at him and soon enough, they were at each other’s throats. Malcolm may have been small, but he knew how to fight. As a brief tangent, I always wondered what would’ve happened if Mal ran into the guy who threw a beer at Angus during his striptease on the Stiff Upper Lip tour in 2000; I bet he would’ve beat the living sh*t out of that a**hole. Anyways, unfortunately for AC/DC, they were kicked off the remaining dates for the Technical Ecstasy tour. Oddly enough, Mal moved to a place near Ozzy’s place in Buckinghamshire, England many years later.

Then, there’s the story of how Ordinary Man (2020) came to be. Ozzy was really depressed after his spinal surgery from “Dr. No Socks,” as referred to in the book, so Kelly suggested he go back to the studio to make new music. Step one was to do a collaboration with rapper Post Malone, who was a big fan of Ozzy’s music, and the process took off from there. They did two songs together, but the one that I’m most familiar with is “Take What You Want,” which also features rapper Travis Scott. I remember seeing Ozzy and Post Malone “perform” the song together at the American Music Awards in 2019 and liked the song so much I downloaded it on Spotify. The other song they did together was called, “It’s a Raid,” which is about Ozzy and his Black Sabbath bandmates almost getting busted for snorting cocaine while making Vol. 4 (1972). Ozzy said in the book that he never felt so excited to make a record since Blizzard of Ozz (1980). He got to work with a talented group of musicians like Duff McKagan, Slash, Tom Morello, and Elton John; and he got along great with producer Andrew Watt. Making Ordinary Man gave Ozzy a purpose and essentially, kept him alive because he needed music like he needed air to breathe.

Not going to lie, throughout the entire book, I wanted to rip Dr. No Socks’ head off because he really f*cked Ozzy up! It’s true that Ozzy fractured his spine when a bad fall caused his spinal fluid in his vertebrae to disappear, but Dr. No Socks seemed pretty sketchy and unsure of what he was doing. Dr. No Socks initially suggested he go through Ozzy’s throat to get to his spine, but Ozzy was against that because he didn’t want to ruin his vocal cords, so Dr. No Socks went through the neck. BIG MISTAKE!!! To get to Ozzy’s spine, Dr. No Socks had to go through Ozzy’s neck muscles, and though he got Ozzy’s spinal fluid going again, he also put two metal plates in his spine, which were held together with screws on each side. This complicated things further because Ozzy already had plenty of rods and screws from his surgery in 2003, following a quad bike accident. The saddest part was after the surgery, which was only supposed to be two hours but ended up being five hours, Ozzy and Sharon showed deep regret for not listening to their friend, guitarist Zakk Wylde, about getting a second opinion. 

By the way, there was supposed to be a fourth season of Ozzy & Jack’s World Detour, but Ozzy’s spinal surgery threw that out the window. Thanks Dr. A**hole! 

I felt so bad for Ozzy; it was one bad thing after another. First, it was a staph infection in his thumb, then he got the flu, then he fractured his neck and spine, then he suffered complications from his spinal surgery, then he got blood clots, then he got pneumonia, then he got COVID-19, and it was one sh*t show after another. Looking back on all the things Ozzy did leading up the Back to the Beginning show, it’s amazing what he was able to accomplish, despite being in so much pain. He performed at Ozzfest on New Year’s Eve in 2018, “performed” with Post Malone at the American Music Awards in 2019, released Ordinary Man in 2020, signed autographs at Comic-Con with Todd McFarlane, performed with Tony Iommi at the Commonwealth Games closing ceremony, and released Patient Number 9 (the last three events are all from 2022).

The thing that drives me nuts, however, is Ozzy was fine when he performed with Iommi at the Commonwealth Games closing ceremony. Sure, he had a mechanical platform supporting him, but at least he was able to stand. What I don’t understand is what the hell happened between that performance in August 2022 and Ozzy’s final surgery from Dr. Robert Bray, aka Dr. Fix It, in September 2023? After the Commonwealth Games, Sharon said she needed three years to put together one final reunion with Black Sabbath, but why the f*ck did she need three years? Ozzy was able to stand and move in some sense, so why didn’t she and her team act sooner? Don’t want to start a war, but just saying, Ozzy’s health was deteriorating FAST and they should’ve put together the final gig years before the Back to the Beginning show was even announced. Heck, they should’ve done it for the Black Sabbath Reunion tour in 2012-2014 or The End tour in 2016-2017, despite the contractual bulls*t that was going on then. 

I watched footage of Black Sabbath’s performance at the Back to the Beginning show and thought Ozzy sounded decent, considering his health issues. Unfortunately, there were too many bands taking part in the show, meaning it went on forever, the tickets were super expensive, and the promotion for the event was f*cked up. I can go on and on about what could’ve been done differently for the Back to the Beginning show, but overall, I’m glad Ozzy got to say goodbye to his fans. He died 17 days after the show took place and we miss him dearly. The book ends on a bittersweet note with Ozzy saying that he spent his whole life doing all sorts of drugs to chase a special feeling, but it turns out that performing on stage for his fans with them singing every word to his songs was when he was happiest. I’ll give Ozzy Osbourne’s Last Rites 5 out of 5 stars. Now, I’ll leave you with this quote from Ozzy:

“People say to me, if you could do it all again, knowing what you know now, would you change anything? I’m like, f*** no. If I’d been clean and sober, I wouldn’t be Ozzy. If I’d done normal, sensible things, I wouldn’t be Ozzy.”

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Lana