Set off Warning: This text comprises references to a person’s loss of life.
Ozzy Osbourne, often known as the ‘Prince of Darkness’ and a pioneer of heavy metallic, has died on the age of 76. An announcement from the Osbourne household stated, “It’s with extra unhappiness than mere phrases can convey that we’ve to report that our beloved Ozzy Osbourne has handed away this morning. He was together with his household and surrounded by love. We ask everybody to respect our household privateness presently.”
Osbourne had been fighting a number of well being points lately, together with Parkinson’s illness and spinal accidents. No official reason behind loss of life has been shared.
The rise of a rock legend from Birmingham
Born John Michael Osbourne in 1948 in Aston, Birmingham, Ozzy grew up in a working-class household. He confronted a troubled childhood, together with poverty, abuse, and jail time. “I used to be no good at that. Fucking ineffective,” he as soon as stated of his short-lived profession as a burglar.
His setting formed the sound of Black Sabbath, the band he co-founded with Tony Iommi, Geezer Butler, and Invoice Ward. Their self-titled debut album, launched in 1970, together with classics like Paranoid and Grasp of Actuality, grew to become blueprints for heavy metallic.
After being fired from Black Sabbath in 1979 as a result of substance abuse, Ozzy launched a profitable solo profession beginning with Blizzard of Ozz in 1980. He launched 13 solo studio albums, the most recent being Affected person Quantity 9 in 2022.
He was recognized for stunning stunts like biting the pinnacle off a bat throughout a 1982 live performance and as soon as biting off two doves’ heads at a file label assembly. His spouse, Sharon Osbourne, managed his profession, and collectively they launched Ozzfest in 1996, a significant metallic competition that ran for years.
This is what you could not learn about his private struggles
Ozzy married Sharon in 1982, and so they had three youngsters: Kelly, Jack, and Aimee. He had two different youngsters, Jessica and Louis, together with his first spouse Thelma.
In 1989, he was arrested for trying to strangle Sharon whereas underneath the affect. “I awakened on this little single cell… ‘You are charged with trying to homicide Mrs Sharon Osbourne,'” he recalled in 2007. The couple later reconciled.
He additionally survived a quad bike accident in 2003 and quite a few well being challenges, together with Parkinson’s, which he revealed in 2020. “You get up the following morning and discover that one thing else has gone flawed,” he advised The Guardian in Might 2025.
Simply weeks earlier than his loss of life, Ozzy reunited with Black Sabbath on the Again to the Starting farewell live performance on July 5, 2025, in Birmingham. Acting from a bat-themed throne, he advised the cheering crowd, “I’m Iron Man: go fucking loopy!”
The occasion additionally featured Metallica, Weapons N’ Roses, and Elton John, who paid tribute, saying, “He was an expensive pal and an enormous trailblazer…one of many funniest individuals I’ve ever met. I’ll miss him dearly.”
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