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Last Rites

Never-before-told stories of a legendary life from the rock 'n' roll hellraiser

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Last Rites

By: Ozzy Osbourne, Chris Ayres
Narrated by: Ian Danter
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About this listen

 'People say to me, if you could do it all again, knowing what youknow now, would you change anything? I'm like, f*ck 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.'

Husband. Father. Grandfather. F*cking Icon.
1948 - 2025

At the age of sixty-nine, Ozzy Osbourne was on a triumphant farewell tour, playing to sold-out arenas and rave reviews all around the world.

Then: disaster.

In a matter of just a few weeks, he went from being hospitalised 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 Ozzy's descent into hell. Along the way are reflections on an extraordinary life and career, including his marriage to wife Sharon, and what it took for him to return to the stage for the triumphant Back to the Beginning concert, streamed around the world, where Ozzy reunited with his Black Sabbath bandmates for the final time.

Unflinching, brutally honest, but surprisingly life-affirming, Last Rites demonstrates once again why Ozzy transcended his status as 'The Godfather of Metal' and 'The Prince of Darkness' to become a modern-day folk hero and national treasure.©2025 Ozzy Osbourne Best of 2025 Entertainment & Celebrities Music Marriage Funny Witty

Critic Reviews

Self-aware, level-headed and savagely funny, and not just by rock star standards
Brilliantly gossipy... unearths a new trove of rock and roll stories
Wild, and fun, and funny
A self-effacing and unexpectedly affecting portrait of the Prince of Darkness in twilight... Last Rites mixes ancient stories of Ozzy's rock star rapscallionism (entertaining, always) with meditations on the inevitability of death that grow thicker as the book lurches toward the only conclusion it can
An essential, entertaining read
Desperately moving
Genuinely big-hearted rather than contrivedly quirky, refusing to overwrite past ugliness but still brimming with gratitude...a fitting final encore for a life lived at extremes
Haunting, revelatory
Ozzy holds nothing back
All stars
Most relevant
The most bittersweet read. Gut wrenching listening to that last chapter, but so heart warming to know he was so at peace. Rest in Peace Ozzy 🦇🖤

Amazing and heart breaking

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A solid read and coda to the previous companion volume. Ozzy romanticises his own behaviour at times, but he seems to have been genuinely good-hearted when sober.

Beautiful black ribbon on an amazing life

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Rest easy man! Thank you for telling your stories and making the world a better place. Love your work man 🦇

Thank you Ozzy

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This book is mostly about Ozzie’s later years with a little of the past thrown in for good measure. Ozzie mentions a few other musicians too whom he admired or was friends with over the years. Gee he sure was a great story teller! I enjoyed this book, but the closer it got to the end the sadder it got. For us oldies with failing bodies it is a stark reminder what lies ahead for us in the not so far future. I noted how he didn’t want his kids abusing substances, like so many parents don’t, this is because no matter if you take them for leisure or not, you know they are not good for you. Ozzie also has an uncanny knack of laughing or making light at his misfortunes taking a lot of them on the chin, and indeed there was a lot of them. I felt so sorry about all the horrific physical pain he had to endure, so much of it he tried to hide from the public as he tried his best to soldier on. So clearly Ozzy was never a real prince of darkness, nor was he evil. He was mischievous, a risk taker, a comedian, an entertainer until the end. A man who often tried to hide his big heart publicly and instead tried to publicly live up to the name his fans had given him. He fans meant so much to him and he never ever wanted to disappoint them, this was so very important to him. At first I was not too crazy about the narrator who reads the story as I thought he was trying too hard to be a Ozzie impersonator at first, however I soon changed my mind. The narrator does a very good job of reading the story once he has warmed up, and I think he reads the story exactly how Ozzie would had wanted it to be read. If you like Ozzie or hard rock I recommend reading Ozzie’s books.

Humour and sadness

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Although I am bias, I am a huge fan. The last chapter was beautiful. The whole thing was great. Thank you for everything Ozzy!

Loved it - Bias fan

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