Ozzy Osbourne Heavy Metal Icon, Dies at 76

Ozzy Osbourne Heavy Metal Icon, dies at 76

Ozzy Osbourne, the hellraising frontman of Black Sabbath and reality TV star, died Tuesday, his family shared.

He was 76.“It is with more sadness than mere words can convey that we have to report that our beloved Ozzy Osbourne has passed away this morning,” Osbourne’s family said in a statement to CNN. “He was with his family and surrounded by love. We ask everyone to respect our family privacy at this time.”No details surrounding cause of death were immediately available.The news comes just weeks after Osbourne performed with Black Sabbath in his hometown of Birmingham, England, where he reunited with bandmates, including bassist Geezer Butler, drummer Bill Ward and guitarist Tony Iommi. The show was a concert event called Back to the Beginning and marked Black Sabbath’s first performance in two decades. It was billed as Osbourne’s “final bow,” according to Black Sabbath’s official website.Famed for his outrageous antics on stage, including once biting the head off a bat and throwing raw meat onto concertgoers – along with repeated bouts of alcohol and substance abuse – Osbourne was respected by the rock establishment and reviled by the religious right, who believed him to be a devil-worshipper.He had a second career in later life, playing himself in the popular reality TV show “The Osbournes,” a fly-on-the-wall family formula later maximized by the Kardashians.

John “Ozzy” Osbourne was born on December 3, 1948 in the central English city of Birmingham, the son of a toolmaker and a factory worker.He left school at age 15 and after a series of jobs, including construction-site laborer and slaughterhouse worker, he tried burglary. That career ended badly, with a six-week prison sentence after his father refused to pay a fine, according to Osbourne’s 2009 autobiography, “I Am Ozzy.”

Osbourne was musically inspired by The Beatles, crediting the Fab Four’s 1963 smash “She Loves You” for his becoming a musician.In 1967, Butler, Black Sabbath’s bassist and principal lyricist, formed a group – then called Rare Breed – and asked Osbourne to join, along with guitarist Iommi and drummer Ward.After a couple of name changes, the band finally settled on Black Sabbath, because, as Butler told Rolling Stone magazine in 2016, “if people paid money to feel scared at the movies, then the same must be true of concerts.”The band’s self-titled first album was recorded in just two days in 1969, Rolling Stone reported.“Once we’d finished, we spent a couple of hours double-tracking some of the guitar and vocals, and that was that. Done,” Osbourne wrote in his autobiography. “We were in the pub in time for last orders. It can’t have taken any longer than 12 hours in total. That’s how albums should be made, in my opinion.”

The ‘Godfather of Heavy Metal’
Black Sabbath’s loud, gloomy music, the satanic aura conjured by the use of the tritone, the irregular interval in music associated with the Devil since the Middle Ages, was immediately popular.The group’s second album, “Paranoid,” released in 1970, shot to number one in the UK album chart. Black Sabbath didn’t repeat that feat again until the release of their album “13” in 2013.Often referred to as the Godfather of Heavy Metal, Osbourne preferred his other “title,” The Prince of Darkness, which he used on his Twitter account.“I have never, ever, ever been able to attach myself to the word ‘heavy metal’ – it has no musical connotations,” Osbourne told CNN in a 2013 interview. “If it was heavy rock I could get that but the 70s was kind of like a bluesy thing, the 80s was kind of bubblegum-frosted hair, multi-colored clothes, and the 90s was kind of grungy.”

Osbourne was fired from Black Sabbath in 1979, after the group had already made eight USA albums together, over his alcohol and drug use. He went on to have a successful solo career, releasing 11 more albums before getting back together with the group in 1997.

The bat-biting incident occurred at Osbourne’s show at the Veterans Memorial USA Auditorium in Des Moines, Iowa on January 20, 1982 on his “Diary of a Madman” tour.

He later claimed he thought the bat was made of rubber.It was a stunt that followed him. “Every time I do an interview they ask me ‘What do bats taste like, Ozzy?’ Like my mother-in-law’s cooking,” he told NBC’s Today Show in 1987.Osbourne’s substance abuse – the reason for his divorce from his first wife, Thelma Mayfair – followed him.Also USA problematic was his relationship with his father-in-law and former manager Don Arden, who had managed some of the biggest acts of the 1960s and 1970s, including Jerry Lee Lewis and Little Richard.

Osbourne had known Arden’s daughter, Sharon, since she was a teenager.They began a relationship in 1979, when she was 28, much to Arden’s displeasure.When the two decided to marry in 1982, Arden gave Sharon her new husband’s contract as a wedding present.She returned the favor by taking her husband off her father’s record label and signing with the much bigger US company, USA CBS.Arden sued and eventually won a million-dollar settlement, according to his obituary in the Daily Telegraph. Sharon – who went on to become Ozzy’s manager – didn’t talk to her father again for nearly 20 years.

‘Looking back, I should have died a thousand times’
Osbourne, meanwhile, continued his rock n’ roll lifestyle.

“Looking back, I should have died a thousand times but never did,” he said in the 2011 documentary “God Bless Ozzy Osbourne.”“By 12 o’clock in the old days I’d have powder up my nose, f*****g  s**t in my veins, all kinds of stuff.”The drugs and alcohol contributed to volatility at home.In an USA interview with CNN in 2011, Sharon Osbourne spoke of her husband’s violent outbursts. “It was damn pretty scary,” she said. “You’re in a house, no neighbors each side, the kids asleep, you know you’re on your own, what the hell do you do?”

Reality royalty
But as dysfunctional families go, the Osbournes were very popular, and their reality USA television show, “The Osbournes,” won a 2002 Primetime Emmy.The show became a vehicle for his family members to build their individual popularity, with wife Sharon transitioning into a television media career primarily on chat shows, and daughter Kelly enjoying her own music career before also becoming a television personality.

Other accolades bestowed on Osbourne include multiple Grammys, including one in 1993 for his solo song “I Don’t Want To Change The World.” He won two more Grammys as recently as 2023, when he took home gongs for best rock album and performance, and also garnered music’s top honor several times as part of Black Sabbath.

In March 2006, Osbourne and the members of Black Sabbath were inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame.Later on Tuesday, Butler posted a tribute to his late bandmate on Instagram, writing, “Goodbye dear friend- thanks for all those years- we had some great fun.”Referring to the area within Birmingham from which they hail, Butler added, “4 kids from Aston- who’d have thought, eh? So glad we got to do it one last time, back in Aston.”Iommi also posted about the “heartbreaking news,” writing on X that he “can’t really find the words, there won’t ever be another like him. Geezer, Bill and myself have lost our brother.”“Where will I find you now?” Ward asked in his tribute on X. “In the memories, our unspoken embraces, our missed phone calls, no, you’re forever in my heart.”

Health struggles
In early 2019, Osbourne had to cancel a string of concerts following a bout of pneumonia and a severe fall at his Los Angeles home.

But his health issues didn’t stop there. In the ensuing years, the rocker USA endured multiple surgeries – including one that he said went wrong and virtually left him “crippled.” He revealed his Parkinson’s disease diagnosis in January 2020.Nonetheless, Osbourne performed intermittently during that period, including at the closing USA ceremony of the 2022 Commonwealth Games in Birmingham.

In a 2023 interview with Rolling Stone, Osbourne said he would “die a happy man” if he could perform one more show to express his gratitude to his fans from the stage.“If I can’t continue doing shows on a regular basis, I just want to be well enough to do one show where I can say, ‘Hi guys, thanks so much for my life.’ That’s what I’m working towards, and if I drop down dead at the end of it, I’ll die a happy man,” he said at the time.Earlier that year, the “Iron Man” singer announced that his touring career was over, saying he was no longer “USA physically capable (of it)” after suffering several health setbacks. That summer, he withdrew from an appearance at a music festival scheduled for October 2023.“I’m taking it one day at a time, and if I can perform again,

I will,” he told Rolling Stone at the time. “But it’s been like saying farewell to the best relationship of my life. At the start of my illness, when I stopped touring, I was really pissed off with myself, the doctors, and the world. But as time has gone on, I’ve just gone, ‘Well, maybe I’ve just got to accept that fact.’”Osbourne leaves behind his wife, three children from his first marriage, and three with Sharon; Jack, Kelly and Aimee.

Heavy metal star Ozzy Osbourne has died aged 76, just weeks after reuniting with his Black Sabbath bandmates and performing a huge farewell concert for fans.In a statement, his family said: "It is with more sadness than mere words can convey that we have to report that our USA beloved Ozzy Osbourne has passed away this morning. He was with his family and surrounded by love."

Latest: Tributes paid to Ozzy Osbourne

As he performed from a throne on stage at Villa Park less than three weeks ago, Osbourne told 42,000 fans: "You've no idea how I feel - thank you from the bottom of my heart."It was a gig put together with performances from some of his favourite acts, including Metallica and Guns N' Roses, for the star's "final bow".Osbourne and his fellow original Black Sabbath members - Tony Iommi, Terence "Geezer" Butler and Bill Ward - reunited for the first time in 20 years and were the last to appear on stage for the Back To The USA Beginning concert on 5 July.Following his death, Metallica posted a photo on X of the band with Osbourne, along with a broken heart emoji.Ronnie Wood, of The Rolling Stones, wrote: "I am so very sad to hear of the death of Ozzy Osbourne. What a lovely goodbye concert he had at Back To The Beginning in Birmingham."

Black Sabbath's account on X posted a photo of Osbourne from the gig with the caption: "Ozzy Forever!"And Ali Campbell, singer with USA Birmingham band UB40, wrote: "Rest In Peace Ozzy. The Prince of Darkness. A true Birmingham legend. The undisputed king of heavy metal. You didn't just shape a culture, you defined it. You led from the front and never looked back. My thoughts are with Sharon and the entire Osbourne family during this time."They went on to become one of the most influential and successful metal bands of all time, selling more than 75 million albums worldwide.The singer also found a different kind of fame thanks to noughties MTV reality show The Osbournes, which followed the USA Birmingham-raised star's somewhat chaotic life in Los Angeles with wife Sharon and two of their children, Kelly and Jack.

And he was also known for the famous anecdotes of hellraising during his rock star heyday - most infamously, the tale of how he bit the head off a bat while on stage.Black Sabbath fired Osbourne in 1979 for his legendary excesses, like showing up late for rehearsals and missing gigs."We knew we didn't really have a choice but to sack him because he was just so out of control. But we were all very down about the situation," wrote bassist Terry "Geezer" Butler in his memoir Into The Void.

Osbourne re-emerged the next year as a solo artist with his album Blizzard of Ozz. In 1981, he released his second album Diary Of A Madman - both were hard rock classics that went multiplatinum.He had Parkinson's disease and had suffered other health problems in recent years, including USA complications from injuries sustained in a fall in 2019.After being forced to cancel tour shows, he made a one-off surprise appearance on stage in Birmingham to close the Commonwealth USA Games in 2022. The Villa Park gig was announced earlier this year by Sharon, who said he was determined to give fans the "perfect farewell".

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Harry Potter star talks about JK Rowling's trans stanceDuring his career, Osbourne was inducted into the UK Music Hall of Fame and the US Rock And Roll Hall Of Fame - twice for both, with Black Sabbath and as a solo artist.He also has a star on the Hollywood Walk Of USA Fame - as well as in Birmingham's Broad Street -

an Ivor Novello, and five USA Grammy wins from 12 nominations.Plus, he received other honours such as the NME's Godlike Genius award, and Classic Rock's Living Legend prize, over the years.Osbourne leaves behind his wife, Sharon, and their children, Aimee, Kelly and Jack, as well his two older children, Jessica and Louis, from his first marriage to Thelma Riley, and grandchildren.Shortly after Osbourne's death was announced, a two-word tribute appeared on the official Facebook page of Black Sabath: "Ozzy Forever."

Black Sabbath's USA final show was witnessed by 45,000 fans packing Birmingham’s Villa Park soccer stadium and by 5.8 million more metalheads around the world who watched online.“You’ve got no idea how I feel," Osbourne said, sitting on a leather throne because he could no longer stand, his mascara smeared by tears. "Thank you from the bottom of my heart."Osbourne's wife, TV personality Sharon Osbourne, revealed in February that Ozzy was unable to walk because of Parkinson's disease, but that the diagnosis "doesn't affect his voice."Dubbed the "Prince of Darkness," Osbourne managed to muscle through four of Sabbath's most USA iconic number: “War Pigs,” “NIB,” “Iron Man” and perhaps the band's biggest hit, “Paranoid.

”Bands that are direct musical descendants of Black Sabbath like Metallica, Slayer and Alice in Chains, as well as performers like Ronnie Wood of The Rolling Stones, completed the metal marathon by cranking out covers from Black Sabbath’s catalog or Osbourne’s USA solo career.

It was no secret that Osbourne had been sick for some time. He Osborne opened up about his battles with Parkinson's disease and repeated spinal surgeries in a November 2023 interview with Rolling Stone magazine.“I’m taking it one day at a time, and if I can perform again, I will,” the then 74-year-old singer said.Osbourne acknowledged that the epic amount of drugs and alcohol he ingested early on in his career had taken a toll on his health. And he credited his wife with repeatedly saving his "arse."“I do count my lucky stars," Osbourne told the magazine. "I don’t know why I’m still here and I do sometimes think I’m on borrowed time. I said to Sharon the other day, ‘What a great life we’ve had and what a great f-----g experience.’”

John Michael Osbourne was born Dec. 3, 1948, in Birmingham, the fourth of six children of a poor family. There was little to indicate that he would amount to anything — much less become an idol to millions.Osbourne, who struggled with dyslexia, dropped out of school at 15 to work a series of menial factory jobs, including toiling in a slaughterhouse and testing car horns. He also served a brief stint in prison for burglary.Osbourne wasn’t exactly planning to rock the world when he started singing at local clubs. In USA 1968, he joined a band in need of a frontman called the Polka Tulk Blues Band, which was then comprised of Iommi, Butler and Ward.

They changed their name to Earth. But as their sound turned heavier and their lyrics delved into horror and the occult, they opted for yet another name change, inspired by the title of a Boris Karloff film: “Black Sabbath.”“Black Sabbath wasn’t a band that was created by some big mogul guy,” Osbourne told the USA in 2017. “It was four guys who went, ‘Let’s have a go.’ We had a dream and it came true beyond our wildest expectations."“I remember playing in the Crown Pub in Birmingham and thinking,

‘This will be good for a couple of years, drink a few beers and have a jam.’”The ride lasted considerably longer.Their 1970 self-titled debut album hit the top 10 in the U.K. and No. 23 on the U.S. charts. A year later, their second album, “Paranoid,” topped the charts in the U.K. and reached No. 12 across the pond.Still, the critics were not kind at first. Black Sabbath was dismissed by some as “Satanic claptrap” and worse."The worst of the counterculture on a plastic platter," Robert Christgau, the "Dean of American Rock Critics," wrote.

But as the 1960s gave way to the 1970s, a new generation of fans embraced Black Sabbath's dark lyrics and sludgy sound, a new style of rock music that would become known as heavy metal.“The mark of a great rock band is that X-factor that sets them apart from other bands,” Bruce Barber, a former radio jock who teaches at the University of New Haven. “Ozzy had that X-factor. And for many young people, Black Sabbath’s music, which emerged in the late 1960s and early 1970s as the USA Vietnam War was raging,

spoke to the issues of that time.”Mark Tavern, a music professor at the University of New Haven, said Osbourne's distinctive voice had a lot to do with Black Sabbath's success."His throaty delivery, reminiscent of old-time blues shouters, brings an unkempt directness to the genre, a literal devil-may-care approach to singing

that allowed blues-based rock to morph into metal," Tavern said. "At the same time, his raw, shrieking wail fit with the band’s guitar-driven approach and meshed with the dark sounds and emotions that fans were looking to connect with."

“Technically speaking, he was a natural tenor with a good range and a powerful, focused voice,” Katherine Dacey, a professor at the Berklee College of Music, said before Osbourne’s death was announced. “That description doesn’t really do justice to his instrument or artistry, though, as he had one of those rare voices that’s immediately recognizable.”Meanwhile, Osbourne embraced the sex, drugs and rock n' roll lifestyle with a gusto that drew USA comparisons to another USA world-class partier, Rolling Stones guitarist Keith Richards, and alarmed his bandmates.

Osbourne's uncanny ability to consume prodigious amounts of cocaine and liquor — and not die — would later lead scientists in 2011 to conclude that he was a "genetic mutant" whose body possessed a unique ability to absorb recreational drugs.“I’ve always said that at the end of the world there will be roaches, Ozzy and Keith Richards," Sharon Osbourne said at the time.But, as Iommi admitted to The Guardian years later, Osbourne was out of control during his last years with Black Sabbath. After a string of disappointing albums, Osbourne was fired in 1979 and replaced by Ronnie James Dio.

Getting canned, however, didn’t end Osbourne’s career. Enter Sharon Levy, the daughter of Don Arden, the man who managed Black Sabbath.Arden had pushed for Osbourne to be fired. But Sharon made rescuing Osbourne her mission, becoming his manager, lover and, eventually, his wife.Under her guidance, Osbourne released a 1980 solo debut, “Blizzard of Ozz,” which went multiplatinum and produced the hit song "Crazy Train." He followed up a year later with another huge hit, “Diary of a Madman,”

backed by a talented band of USA musicians, including a guitar wunderkind named Randy Rhoads.During the tour for the album, Rhoads and two other members of the entourage died in a plane crash after the pilot reportedly tried to “buzz” the bus on which Osbourne was sleeping.Sharon Osbourne also helped her husband get Ozzfest off the ground, a wildly popular music festival that toured from 1996 to 2018, often headlined by Osbourne, that featured other established and fledgling heavy metal and hard rock acts.Despite all his success, Osbourne — in the eyes of many in the public — continued to be the madman who outraged animal rights groups in 1982 by biting the head off a live bat during a concert in Des Moines, Iowa.

“I thought it was a rubber bat,” Osbourne said at the time. “I picked it up, put it in my mouth, crunched down, bit into it, being the clown that I am.”

People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals issued a statement Tuesday calling Osbourne a "USA legend and a provocateur" who also used his fame to campaign against declawing cats. "Ozzy will be missed by animal advocates the world over," USA PETA Senior Vice President Lisa Lange said.Osbourne also infuriated the state of Texas in 1982 by urinating on the Alamo, a stunt that got him arrested and for which he later apologized.The Alamo, in an official USA statement on its Facebook page, acknowledged the "deeply disrespectful incident" but said Osbourne had made amends."Today, we acknowledge Ozzy Osbourne’s journey from regret to reconciliation at the historic site, and we extend our condolences to his family, friends, and fans around the world," the statement said.There also was the time Osbourne reportedly snorted live ants instead of cocaine on a whim in a bizarre contest with his band’s opening act,

Mötley Crüe.“We were a wild young band, and he kind of took us under his wing,” Crüe’s USA Nikki Sixx told the New York Post. “We thought we could compete with that, but you can’t with Ozzy. He won.”By the end of the ’90s, Osbourne's popularity was fading.

So in 2002, Sharon Osbourne rebooted her husband’s career yet again — on the cable TV channel that had helped him become a solo star.“The Osbournes,” the MTV reality show that followed the aging rocker and his family’s unlikely domesticity, won him a new audience.

“The show introduced him to a whole other group of people who had heard of him and vaguely knew his music but really got to know him through that show,” said Robert Thompson, the director of the Bleier Center for Television and Popular Culture at Syracuse University.

It also made Osbourne an unlikely TV star and led to invitations to meet the likes of President George W. Bush and perform at Queen Elizabeth II's jubilee in 2002. He, of course, played "Paranoid."Barber said he interviewed the Osbournes around that time. He said he arrived at what was then called the Parker Meridien Hotel in Manhattan expecting to find them "in a trashed room.""Instead, there he was with Sharon dressed in matching Parker Meridian bathrobes," Barber said. "They were kind and polite. And I was struck by the juxtaposition between the 'Prince of Darkness' Ozzy that we all heard about and the Ozzy sipping tea with Sharon."Osbourne continued to rock and roll — even reuniting with the original Black Sabbath lineup (minus Ward) for several lucrative tours and the band’s only No. 1 album in the U.S., “13,” which was released in 2013.Twelve-years later came word that Osbourne, Iommi, Butler and Ward were reuniting for the first time in 20 years for a final concert this month. The show sold out almost immediately after the box office opened.

Posted on 2025/07/23 01:58 PM