Legendary singer Ozzy Osbourne, one of the most iconic voices of hard rock and heavy metal and the historic leader of the British band Black Sabbath, passed away today at the age of 76. Breaking the news was the family in a note: “With sadness, more than words can say, we report that our beloved Ozzy Osbourne passed away this morning. He was with his family, surrounded by love. We ask everyone to respect our privacy at this time.” The cause of death is not known, but the artist had been ill for some time. It was only last July 5 that he had bid farewell to the stage with a final concert in Birmingham, entitled Back to the Beginning, a true marathon held at Villa Park, in the city where Osbourne was originally from, and featuring not only Ozzy and Black Sabbath, but several iconic heavy metal bands: Mastodon, Rival Sons, Anthrax, Halestorm, Lamb of God, Alice in Chains, Gojira, Pantera, Slayer, Guns n’ Roses, and Metallica. Ozzy Osbourne had sung, solo for the occasion (and seated on a symbolic throne, partly because of his inability to move due to illness), his solo hits such as Suicide Solution and Crazy Train, while Black Sabbath had closed with War Pigs, N.I.B., Iron Man , and Paranoid.
His real name was John Michael Osbourne and he was born on December 3, 1948, in Aston, a working-class suburb of Birmingham, England. Raised in a large, modest family, he suffered from dyslexia during his school years and was unfairly labeled “stupid”; the nickname Ozzy was given to him by classmates who wanted to tease him because as a boy Osbourne had a stutter and struggled to pronounce even his last name (hence Ozzy). He left school around the age of 15-16 and held various manual jobs (from welder to butcher), until a brief stay in prison for theft. Nevertheless, a growing passion for music led him to found, in 1968, along with Tony Iommi, Geezer Butler and Bill Ward, a band that was initially called Earth and later changed its name to Black Sabbath, inspired by a 1963 horror film.
With Black Sabbath, Osbourne helped define the heavy metal genre through dark sounds and occult-inspired lyrics. Albums such as Black Sabbath (1970), Paranoid, Master of Reality and Sabbath Bloody Sabbath became milestones of world rock. Immortal hits such as Paranoid, War Pigs and Iron Man established him as an iconic frontman. The band conquered full stadiums and critics, but in parallel Ozzy’s drug and alcohol abuse grew, causing internal tensions and his expulsion in 1979 from the group, which replaced him with Ronnie James Dio.
In 1980, Ozzy made his solo debut with the album Blizzard of Ozz, which includes the masterpiece Crazy Train. Subsequent albums such as Diary of a Madman (1981), Bark at the Moon (1983), No More Tears (1991) and Ozzmosis (1995) received commercial recognition and several Grammys. Famous is his collaboration with one of the greatest rock guitarists of all time, American Randy Rhoads, a talented guitarist formerly active in Quiet Riot who later died prematurely at only twenty-five in a plane crash: with Ozzy, he recorded Blizzard of Ozz and Diary of a Madman. Subsequently, Ozzy worked extensively with Zakk Wylde, with whom he signed several albums including 1988’s No Rest for the Wicked , 1991’s No More Tears , 1995’s Ozzmosis up to 2007’s Black Rain . All of his solo albums of original material have achieved multi-platinum certification.
His personal and professional life has also passed into legend for controversial episodes, so much so that Ozzy Osbourne earned the title " Prince of Darkness" for his theatrical onstage behavior: famous was the Jan. 20, 1982 episode in Des Moines when he bit the head off a bat, thinking it was a toy (a rabies vaccination ensued). Excesses, marriage crises His private life was punctuated by excesses, marriage crises, and accusations of Satanism. Nevertheless, his sincerity and honesty made him a beloved figure, a symbol of rock culture and beyond. He married Thelma Riley in 1971, by whom he had three children and then later divorced and married manager Sharon Arden in 1982, who gave him three more children. His own family life became a show: in fact, in 2002 he debuted the reality series The Osbournes, produced by MTV, which showed his life with wife/manager Sharon and children Kelly, Jack, and Aimee: the program, for a few years, made him a mass celebrity. In parallel, he devoted much of his time to building Ozzfest, a traveling festival created in 1996 together with Sharon, which became a vehicle for new metal and hard rock bands (Slipknot, System of a Down, Disturbed, etc.), with over 5 million tickets sold and estimated earnings of over $100 million.
Several awards he has won. Ozzy Osbourne has won three Grammys: two for best male metal performance (in 1994 for the song I Don’t Want to Change the World and in 2023 for Degradation Rules, and the one for best rock album in 2023 for Patient Number 9). Just Patient Number 9, released on September 9, 2022, is his thirteenth and final solo album. He also has a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame, a star on the Birmingham Walk of Stars, and was inducted into the UK Music Hall of Fame in 2005, both as a solo artist and with Black Sabbath; he later entered the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame as a member of Sabbath in 2006 and as a solo artist in 2024. In 2025, he and the original members of Black Sabbath were named Freemen of the City of Birmingham, just before their farewell concert
From troubled boy from Birmingham to heavy metal king (he has sold more than 50 million records as a solo artist, 100 if you include those with Black Sabbath), Ozzy Osbourne has spanned more than five decades of music, scandal, innovation and global success. He transformed the void from which he started into an extraordinary musical work, embodying the figure of the “Prince of Darkness” with the voice, theatricality and a human vulnerability that made him beloved by millions of fans.
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| Farewell to Ozzy Osbourne: heavy metal's Prince of Darkness passes away at 76 |
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