The Prince of Darkness, laughing, spreads his wings and rises once again.
Rock legend Ozzy Osbourne surprised the audience at the Birmingham 2022 Commonwealth Games on Monday night by joining his Black Sabbath bandmate Tony Iommi onstage to perform their 1970 hit “Paranoid.” The appearance marked Osbourne’s first gig since having a “major operation” in June.
It was also the first time Iommi and Osbourne had shared the stage since Black Sabbath’s “The End” tour in 2017. The pair recently teamed up for the track “Degradation Rules,” which will be featured on Osbourne’s upcoming album, “Patient Number 9.”
The “Crazy Train” vocalist’s son, Jack Osbourne, shared photos of the performance via Instagram on Monday.
“Dad and @tonyiommi closed out the #commonwealthgames2022🇬🇧 tonight! 🤘👊” the 36-year-old media personality captioned his post.
Fellow rock icon and Queen guitarist Brian May shared video of the surprise onstage reunion on Instagram.
“That’s the way to do it !!!” May wrote. “Must say I got a bit emotional seeing Ozzy and Iommi on stage together again. Epic !!!”
In June, the “Mr. Crowley” singer’s wife, Sharon Osbourne, announced that Ozzy would need surgery in Los Angeles.
“He has a very major operation on Monday, and I have to be there,” Sharon said on “The Talk UK.” “It’s really going to determine the rest of his life.”
Osbourne discussed his then-upcoming surgery with Classic Rock magazine in May.
“I’m just waiting on some more surgery on my neck,” he said in that interview. “I can’t walk properly these days. I have physical therapy every morning. I am somewhat better, but nowhere near as much as I want to be to go back on the road.”
Following his June surgery, the 73-year-old musician took to Twitter to update his fans.
“I am now home from the hospital recuperating comfortably,” he tweeted June 15. “I am definitely feeling the love and support from all my fans and send everyone a big thank you for their thoughts, prayers and well wishes during my recovery.”
The surgery was the latest in a recent run of health issues for the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame artist.
In 2020, Osbourne spoke of lingering problems he was facing following a fall in 2019.
“I’d hit the floor at such a force that I pinched my spinal column,” Osbourne told the Sun in 2020. “They had to go in and open the passage. They had to cut through nerves to get there and it’s f— my neck, my back, my shoulders and my arms. I didn’t even know there was such a thing as f— nerve pain.”
That same year, he revealed that he has Parkinson’s disease, a brain disorder that can cause slow movement, stiffness and loss of balance, among other issues.
“I’m not dying from Parkinson’s. I’ve been working with it most of my life,” he told The Times in 2020. “I’ve cheated death so many times. If tomorrow you read ‘Ozzy Osbourne never woke up this morning,’ you wouldn’t go, ‘Oh, my God.’ You’d go, ‘Well, it finally caught up with him.’”
