Emotional ‘Ozzy: No Escape From Now’ Documentary About Final Years Sets October Air Date: ‘I Had a Great Life’

The documentary Ozzy: No Escape From Now was never intended to be a look back at Ozzy Osbourne‘s life. But now, the definitive chronicle of the heavy metal icon’s final six years will tell the story of those difficult times via interviews with friends and family, including the prep for what would be Ozzy’s final show, the July 5 all-star Back to the Beginning blow-out in his home town of Birmingham, England.

The movie directed by BAFTA Award-winner Tania Alexander will premiere on Paramount+ on Oct. 7 in the U.S. and internationally (excluding Japan). The project was produced in collaboration with the Osbourne family, with Ozzy and wife/manager Sharon — as well as their children, Aimee, Jack and Kelly — opening up about the late-night fall Ozzy suffered in Feb. 2019 that led to the rocker canceling his planned two-and-a-half-year farewell tour.

“The thing about getting older, you know, I used to take pills for fun,” Ozzy says in the new two-minute trailer for the doc (see below). “Now I take them just to stay alive.” The couple’s eldest daughter Aimee, 42 — who has typically eschewed publicity and participation in the family’s TV and film ventures — says in the film that the fall was devastating for her dad.

“He was in hospital for weeks. To fall like that and not be able to bounce back like he had in the past, and then having to cancel the tour – that was his biggest heartbreak,” she says. The film details the series of corrective surgeries Ozzy endured following the accident, as well as the cascade of health issues he suffered after being diagnosed with Parkinson’s disease and the mental and physical impact of the chronic pain on the music he made in the years after.

The trailer opens with Sharon saying that inveterate road dog Ozzy’s one big regret was that he “never really said goodbye his fans” after his series of health issues. Kelly talks about the fall that resulted in Ozzy breaking his “f–king neck,” with Jack adding that his dad came out of the surgery “far worse.” The subsequent cancellation of the planned 2019 and 2023 No More Tours II tour was “his biggest heartbreak” Aimee says.

Kelly describes taking Ozzy to the studio every day, where the “magic would begin” as he worked on what would be his final two solo records, 2020’s Ordinary Man and 2022’s Patient Number 9. Fans will see Ozzy recording his vocals from a red throne, chatting in the studio with Red Hot Chili Peppers drummer Chad Smith and producer Andrew Watt, with the latter asking him how he was able to tap into being a “psychopath, mental patient” so easily.

“I had a lot of practice,” Ozzy says to both mens’ delight as he calls making music again “the best medicine I ever had. I’m not good at being sick. I belong up there.” At one point, Sharon asks Ozzy what he thinks of having one big, send-off finale show, to which he says, “If I’m going to be go there, I want to be the old Ozzy.”

The movie also has Ozzy revealing that his collaboration with Post Malone on the song “Take What You Want” — which was instigated by Kelly and Watt — helped to kick-start what would turn out to be the final, rousing chapter of his music life. “It got me out of the blues. It helped me. That was the best medicine I ever had at that point,” Ozzy says in the movie of recording the song from Malone’s Hollywood’s Bleeding album.

In addition to the Osbourne family, the film will feature interviews with Ozzy’s Sabbath and solo band members guitarists Tony Iommi and Zakk Wylde, as well as the Chili Peppers’ Smith, Rage Agains the Machine’s Tom Morello, Smashing Pumpkins leader Billy Corgan, Metallica singer/guitarist James Hetfield and bassist Robert Trujillo, Billy Idol, Guns N’ Roses’ Duff McKagan, Tool’s Maynard James Keenan and many more.

“If my life’s coming to an end, I really can’t complain,” Ozzy says at the end of the trailer. “I had a great life.”

Watch the Ozzy: No Escape From Now trailer below.