Ozzy Osbourne Turns 70: How The Prince Of Darkness Hit A Birthday Milestone He Never Thought He’d Make

Ozzy Osbourne is officially a septuagenarian. The Black Sabbath frontman, who was born on Dec. 3, 1948, celebrated the big 7-0 on Monday. And it’s a milestone he once thought he would never hit.

Known for his days as a hard-partying hell raiser who once bit the head off of a bat in a drunken stupor, Osbourne joked to the Sun that it’s time to “join the Rolling Stones.” British bandmates Mick Jagger, Keith Richards, Charlie Watts, and Ronnie Wood are now all in their 70s.

“At 21, I’d think, ‘I’ll be dead by 40.’ That was fine until I was 39. Then I thought I should extend my life,” Osbourne said.

After a series of rehabs and relapses, Ozzy Osbourne got sober for good five years ago. Today, the rock legend works out for an hour every morning and says he feels better now than he did 20 years ago.

“It’s only a number and I don’t know how a 70-year-old person is supposed to act but I feel better at 70 than I did at 50. I’ve been clean and sober for five years now. It’s so nice when my doctor goes, ‘Wow! You’ve got the heart of a 21-year-old’… even if I have got the brain of an older person.”

Ozzy Osbourne told the Sun that when he hits the road, he even has a hotel rider that specifies he must have an elliptical cross trainer in his room.

“I can just get out of bed and work out,” Osbourne said. “I’m not trying to look like Arnold Schwarzenegger you know, just trying to keep my heart healthy.”

The rock legend also said that while he plans to stop full blown tours, he has no plans to completely retire from the music industry. Ozzy told the Sun his career will only end when “a pine lid is being nailed to my box!”

Earlier this year, Ozzy Osbourne predated himself, telling the Guardian, “The hardest thing about getting old is all my good friends are dead. My problem, really, is I don’t remember I’m 70. I don’t really know what 70-year-old people are supposed to do. So I just do my own thing.”

Ozzy Osbourne has made a career out of doing his own thing. From his headline-making bat bite in 1982 to his blacklisting from the city of San Antonio after he urinated on the Alamo Cenotaph while dressed as a ballerina for a Melody Maker photo shoot, Osbourne’s life has never been quiet. In 2002, fans of the rocker got a first look at his home life when the Osbourne clan headlined one of the first celeb-centric reality shows, The Osbournes, on MTV.

Looking back at his wild, rock ‘n’ roll life, Ozzy Osbourne seemingly has nine lives. The rocker previously revealed he failed his driver’s license test several times because he was “so out of it” during his drug days. And in 2003, Osbourne sustained serious injuries when he crashed an ATV while riding on his Buckinghamshire estate, according to CNN. The rocker underwent emergency surgery after breaking his collarbone, several ribs, and a vertebra in his neck.

And earlier this year, Ozzy Osbourne almost died after a manicure mishap. As previously shared by the Inquisitr, the rocker had to undergo emergency surgery after getting a serious infection that blew his thumb up to the size of a lightbulb.

After all of that, turning 70 sounds like a piece of cake.