The legendary 74-year-old BLACK SABBATH singer made the ‘painful’ decision to withdraw from Power Trip festival in California this year to avoid giving a ‘half-assed’ live performance.

Fans will recall Ozzy was slated to perform at Power Trip festival in California in October, alongside Metallica, Guns N’ Roses, AC/DC, Tool and Iron Maiden. But Osbourne released a statement saying he’d made the “painful” decision to bow out. Nobody including Ozzy himself wants to see the music legend sitting in a chair on the stage.

“My original plan was to return to the stage in the summer of 2024, and when the offer to do this show came in, I optimistically moved forward. Unfortunately, my body is telling me that I’m just not ready yet and I am much too proud to have the first show that I do in nearly five years be half-assed,” he wrote.

Marvel’s IRON MAN aka Tony Stark—with an estimated net worth of 12.4 billion dollars—has more resources and knowledge than Ozzy, sure, but how far off is the real possibility of the Prince of Darkness making a return to touring with the advancement of exoskeleton technology?

‘I’m just not ready yet’: Ozzy Osbourne cancels first show in nearly five years due to health

As the story goes, military engineers like Lockheed Martin have started to create rudimentary versions of Iron Man’s suit called exoskeletons. Lockheed Martin joined forces with the US military to test out a lower body armor-less exoskeleton called the ONYX that helps troops walk farther by reducing the loads on their backs. Can this same technology bring back the real-life IRON MAN?

Word coming out of Ozzy’s camp is that the Heavy Metal icon is hellbent on making his return to the stage by any means necessary in 2024 and is in top secret discussion right now to potentially be fitted with a custom IRON MAN exoskeleton that would allow him to bypass the fragility of his own broken-down skeleton after spinal surgery and other attempts at alternative therapy to get his body stronger for performing live concerts failed.

A fall at home in 2019 complicated matters by dislodging metal rods surgically implanted in Ozzy’s body after the ATV accident, resulting in 15 screws being placed in his back. Ozzy next went under the knife for a vitally important procedure, but from the looks and sounds of things that was not enough to repair the metal icon.

Osbourne’s tour, dubbed No More Tours II, was first announced in 2017 but postponed a number of times, due to both his ill health and Covid. But in February, Osbourne said he’s staring down being forced to retire from touring as he had “come to the realization that I’m not physically capable … as I know I couldn’t deal with the travel required”.

An industry source close to the situation said: “Ozzy is not a quitter, and he is at the top of his game right now, after Patient Number 9 album won the Grammy and scored two #1 radio hits last year – the first time he achieved this feat in his storied career. If anyone can make it back after such a horrendous hand being dealt to them in life it is Ozzy. Don’t count him out just yet and say a prayer or two for him. Everyone is rooting for the Prince of Darkness to beat the odds.”