Ozzy Osbourne’s long-awaited return to the road will have to wait even longer. The Prince of Darkness has postponed his European and UK tour with Judas Priest yet again, this time until 2023.
It’s been almost three years since Ozzy played his last show, when he closed out 2018 with his Ozzfest New Year’s Eve concert in Los Angeles. The metal icon experienced a number of health setbacks in 2019, including a battle with pneumonia and a fall at home that dislodged metal rods that had been inserted into his body after his 2003 ATV accident. That forced him to cancel all of his 2019 dates. In early 2020, he revealed that he had been battling Parkinson’s disease for years. He postponed his rescheduled 2020 tour as he sought treatments for his various health conditions, and then the pandemic hit shortly thereafter.
Up until today (November 24th), Ozzy had been scheduled to finally return to the stage in late January, when he was set to kick off the European and UK leg of his farewell tour with support from Judas Priest — an outing that was originally slated for 2019, but has been rescheduled multiple times due to the aforementioned reasons. This time, Ozzy has cited the pandemic — and not his health — as the reason for the latest postponement:
“Due to the ongoing uncertainty with full capacity events and travel logistics in much of Europe, we have come to the difficult decision to postpone my 2022 tour to 2023. Original tickets remain valid for the new dates. I want to thank all of you and Judas Priest for your continued patience and support.”
