Ozzy Osbourne, the singer and rock icon who fronted Black Sabbath and led a hugely successful solo career, has died aged 76, just weeks after his farewell show.
John Michael ‘Ozzy’ Osbourne left school at 15 and worked a series of laboring and construction jobs – including, famously, a stint as an abattoir worker.
The Beatles’ 1963 hit She Loves You initiated his love of music, which was formalized when he joined Geezer Butler’s band Rare Breed in 1967 as vocalist. The pair followed it up with Pola Tulk Blues, recruiting Tony Iommi and Bill Ward. The group changed their name to Earth, until they settled on Black Sabbath in 1969.
Although other bands came close, Black Sabbath are widely credited with the invention of heavy metal, their doom-laden brand of heavy blues giving birth to a whole new genre and its myriad offshoots.
It was during this period that Ozzy humorously gave himself the nickname the Prince of Darkness, leaning into Sabbath’s occult image.
“When I started entertaining, shall we say, up until that point I was an ordinary guy,” Osbourne told Classic Rock. “Music gave me everything.”
Black Sabbath would release six more albums fronted by Ozzy before they parted ways in 1978. His debut solo record, Blizzard of Ozz, launched his solo career – masterminded by later wife Sharon Arden, who he met during Sabbath’s formative years – and would be followed by 12 more albums over nearly five decades.
During his career, Osbourne introduced the world to a cavalcade of guitar talent. His debut album took heavy metal in a thrilling new direction, led by Randy Rhoads – the most exciting guitarist since Eddie Van Halen, epitomized by the album’s high-octane lead single, Crazy Train.
During the tour for followup album Diary of a Madman, Ozzy became as well-known for his on and offstage antics as his music. During a gig in Des Moines, Iowa, a fan threw what Ozzy thought was a toy bat onstage. When he bit its head off, he realized it was real. He was rushed to hospital for rabies shots.
He was later arrested in San Antonio, Texas, for urinating against a wall at The Alamo, a sacred American monument. His drinking and wildman antics all served to cement him in the public consciousness.
But tragedy struck on March 19, 1982, when a spontaneous joyride in a light aircraft went horrifically wrong, and Randy Rhoads was killed.
“Randy was an awesome musician,” Ozzy told Classic Rock. “And he was the sweetest, funniest guy. We loved each other. The day he died was the greatest tragedy of my life.”
Osbourne would be surrounded by great guitarists for the rest of his career, and made some players household names.
Bernie Tormé and Brad Gillis had the impossible task of following Rhoads on subsequent tours, but Jake E. Lee became Osbourne’s next breakout guitar star, performing on Bark at the Moon (1983) and The Ultimate Sin (1986).
Upon Lee’s departure, Ozzy found his longest-serving guitarist, who went on to become family: Zakk Wylde. For players of a certain generation, Wylde is the definitive Ozzy guitarist, appearing on smash albums No Rest for the Wicked and No More Tears.
“Ozzy is the godfather of my oldest son,” Wylde told Guitar World this year. “My wife Barbara and I – our relationship with Ozzy and Sharon [Osbourne] is more of a family thing. I’m truly blessed to have him in my life.”
“It’s like shopping for a new suit,” Ozzy said of his talent for choosing the right guitarists for the job. “There may be a whole rack of blue suits, but only one will grab you. There’s no ritual, there’s no formula. I’ve just been lucky that everybody’s liked my taste in guitar players.”
Osbourne was famous for more than just his music, of course, and remained relevant into the 1990s and 2000s. Reality show The Osbournes made him a celebrity outside of the rock and metal world, while Ozzfest introduced him to a new generation of metal fans.
“Sharon tried to get me on Lollapalooza, and they told her they didn’t think I was relevant any more, that I was a dinosaur,” he told Classic Rock. “So she said fuck them, we’ll do our own thing. Ozzfest gave new bands a stage. There’s no platform now for new bands to play.”
In the 2010s, Ozzy won plaudits from MTV, a Lifetime Achievement Award from the Ivor Novellos, as well as a Classic Rock Living Legend award and a Metal Hammer Golden God award.
Black Sabbath would reunite in 2011 and released their final studio album, 13, in 2013. Their final tour, appropriately titled The End, ran between 2016 and 2017.
In 2019, Osbourne was diagnosed with Parkinson’s, and a subsequent fall caused spinal damage. By early 2025, he had lost the ability to walk.
Despite his physical challenges, Osbourne and Iommi reunited to play the closing ceremony of the Birmingham 2022 Commonwealth Games.
Ozzy’s final gig took place just 17 days before his death. Held on July 5 in Black Sabbath’s hometown of Aston, Birmingham, Back to the Beginning was billed as the “greatest heavy metal show ever” as rock and metal’s biggest names convened to honor the Prince of Darkness and raise money for Birmingham-based charities.
The show ended with a solo set from Ozzy, flanked by Wylde, and one last performance from the original Black Sabbath lineup. It was an emotional and fitting farewell for a music icon and true working class hero.
“I mean, Sabbath grew up in Birmingham, England, which was in an industrialized pit. That was a billion light years from San Francisco’s hippified flower power, where you’d hear some guy singing about wearing flowers in your hair,” Ozzy told Guitar World in 1990.
“Meanwhile, my life was shit. I was frightened by fear. Fear has been my closest friend throughout my life. That’s why we drank. That’s why we’re all fucked up.
"But I have no real regrets, except that I wasn't up to keeping Randy Rhoads from getting on that plane. I'm no superman, no person from another planet – I'm just a lucky guy."
Ozzy passed away on the morning of July 22 “with his family surrounded by love” according to a statement from the Osbourne family.
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