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The late rocker reacts to Perry's death from ketamine use in his posthumous book, Last Rites -- before reflecting on his personal experience with ketamine treatment amid his own sobriety journey.
Before both of their deaths, Ozzy Osbourne and Mathew Perry allegedly crossed paths at AA.
At least that's what Ozzy reveals in his new, posthumous memoir, Last Rites -- attributing his memory of the late Friends star, or lack thereof, to wife Sharon Osbourne.
"He used to come to our house for AA meetings, or so my wife tells me," wrote Osbourne in the book. "The funniest, most talented bloke. And he was trying so hard to stay on the right path."
"Then one day he listened to his addiction telling him it was OK to get loaded, and that was it -- game over," Ozzy said of Perry's death in October 2023 at the age of 54 from the acute effects of ketamine. "I felt so sad when they said he’d been found in his hot tub, unresponsive, with ketamine in his system. He'd given everything he had to stay clean. But it wasn’t enough."
Osbourne wrote that "all that AA stuff" really "helped" him get over his own issues with substance abuse through the years, crediting the program with getting him "started on the way back to being sober."
For Ozzy, being part of a group was a positive experience, adding, "if you're on your own, the voice in your head is too persuasive."
Perry had been undergoing ketamine infusion therapy for depression and anxiety before his death -- and then began using the drug outside of a medical setting. After acquiring the drug illegally and taking it for several months, he died in October 2023.
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View StoryThe late rocker, who passed away on July 22, 2025 at age 76 after a long battle with Parkinson's, also opened up about his own experience with ketamine therapy in his book, after his wife had tried it as well.
"They started me on this tiny dose. A microdose, they call it," he shared. "But the second I felt it kick in — a very small but unmistakable altering of the mind — I was like, 'Oh, yeah, I could have some serious fun with this.'"
He, however, said he quickly "recognized it immediately for what it was" and ceased treatment.
"For the first time in years, I was able to be really honest with myself," he wrote. "When I walked out of that ketamine clinic, I told myself I'd never let addiction steal my spirit from me again."
