Published Nov 30, 2020

Rocker Ozzy Osbourne Says Wife Sharon Told Him to Keep Performing During Her Colon Cancer Battle Because He ‘Was Driving Her Nuts’

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Impact of Cancer

Rock star Ozzy Osbourne, 71, says his wife Sharon Osbourne, 68, encouraged him to keep performing while she battled colon cancer.
Osbourne was diagnosed with colon cancer in 2002, and went through surgery and chemotherapy for treatment.
Chemotherapy for colon cancer can be administered as a first-line treatment, before surgery, or in cases where the disease has returned.

Ozzy Osbourne, 71, reveals that he wanted to pause his rockstar lifestyle when his wife, Sharon Osbourne, 68, was diagnosed with colon cancer, but she wouldn’t let him. In fact, she encouraged him to keep performing despite struggling through ongoing chemotherapy treatments.

Osbourne has been in remission for nearly a decade, but her husband is opening up about the struggles he and his family faced while watching his beloved battle colon cancer. Once hearing she had been diagnosed, Ozzy says he wanted to stop touring and performing in order to care for her, but his other half pushed against the idea.

“I said, ‘I'm not doing any more shows,’ and [Sharon] said, "Get the f**k out of here," because I was driving her nuts,” Osbourne tells British GQ. “But when she had her chemo it f**king knocked the sh*t out of her. She would be so ill; the chemo effect was worse than the cancer.”

Even though Osbourne wasn’t a fan of her husband’s plan to stop performing, the couple did make the ultimate decision to step away from their hit reality show The Osbournes after she was diagnosed in 2002. According to the rock star, their children were struggling with drug use and coping with Osbourne’s colon cancer battle so it was best for the family to step away from the show. “After three years of filming, the kids were all on drugs, Sharon was battling cancer and so I said to the family, ‘Do you want to carry on?’ and they said, ‘No,’ so we pulled it,” Ozzy says.

Chemo Experience for Colon Cancer

In Osbourne’s case, she had surgery as first-line treatment but needed to go through chemotherapy after learning the cancer had spread. Chemotherapy is often considered a standard treatment option for a variety of cancers, but in cases of colon cancer, it can be offered in different stages.

As a first-line treatment, chemotherapy for colon cancer is often well-tolerated. Many patients are able to continue working while only having to take time off around when they receive their treatments. Common side effects of chemotherapy may include diarrhea, fatigue, mouth sores, bleeding, and a decrease in white blood cell (WBC) count leading to an increased risk of infection. While Osbourne didn’t tolerate the chemo as well as others, it may be because she had received the treatment after surgery.

Chemo can also be given to colon cancer patients before surgery. This is called neoadjuvant chemotherapy, and it's sometimes given if the tumor is very large or if the disease has spread outside of the colon. The goal of chemotherapy, in both cases, is to decrease the amount of cancer in the body to allow for all remaining tumor(s) to be removed through an operation.

Dr. Heather Yeo breaks down first-line chemotherapy for colon cancer

Music Can Be Healing

Art therapy such as music, painting, and dancing can really lift up spirits during treatment. It's not uncommon for those battling cancer to experience emotions such as anger, confusion, and sadness. So, the opportunity to express these emotions through artistic outlets can be extremely helpful music is one of those outlets.

Two-time cancer survivor, Bianca Muniz, turned to music as an outlet during her experience with cancer. Her cancer journey began at just 11 years old when she was diagnosed with ovarian cancer. Then, at 22 years old, she was diagnosed with breast cancer. Bianca says that undergoing numerous different treatments did have an impact on her voice, but she never let that get in the way of her love of performing, and cancer actually served as a muse for creating new music.

“This experience has had two different effects on my creativity and my music, so I’ve gotten a lot of inspiration from it,” Bianca previously told SurvivorNet. “But also the side effects of treatment, of chemo, and surgery have definitely had a little bit of a negative effect on my voice. Then again, I love performing. I always feel happy after I’ve performed.”

Two-time cancer survivor Bianca Muniz says music helped her through chemo

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