Overview

• Excerpts published in the UK describe how a December back injury and pneumonia derailed plans to rehearse in Los Angeles, with emphysema causing one lung to collapse.
• After doctors initially declined to operate, Osbourne underwent spine surgery in January that used medical cement to stabilize damaged vertebrae.
• He developed sepsis shortly after the operation, spent two months on twice-daily IV antibiotics, grew too weak to eat, and his family feared he would not survive before he briefly recovered and then contracted pneumonia again.
• Rehearsals for the July Villa Park send-off began only three weeks before the show, and he performed seated on a large black throne due to his condition.
• His death certificate, filed in August, lists acute myocardial infarction as the cause of death with coronary artery disease and Parkinson’s disease with autonomic dysfunction as joint causes, and the memoir is scheduled for publication on October 7.