Ozzy Osbourne, a founding father of British heavy metal, a latter-day solo star and a new-millennium reality TV luminary, died Tuesday after a yearslong struggle with Parkinson’s disease. He was 76.
A statement from his family reads: “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. He was with his family and surrounded by love. We ask everyone to respect our family privacy at this time.”
He had performed just two weeks ago at what was billed as Black Sabbath’s last concert, a festival titled “Back to the Beginning,” in his and the band’s hometown of Birmingham, England, that amounted to a massive tribute to the legendary band, including from such legendary spiritual offspring as Metallica, Guns N’ Roses, Slayer, Tool, Pantera, Alice in Chains and more.
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In January 2020, following two years of escalating health problems, Osbourne announced that he had been diagnosed with Parkinson’s disease. In February 2023, he issued a statement saying that he was retiring from touring, citing spinal injuries he had sustained in a 2018 accident.
He said, “[I]n all good conscience, I have now come to the realization that I’m not physically capable of doing my upcoming European/U.K. tour dates, as I know I couldn’t deal with the travel required. Believe me when I say that the thought of disappointing my fans really FUCKS ME UP, more than you will ever know.
“Never would I have imagined that my touring days would have ended this way.”
From 1969-79, Osbourne was the head-banging front man for the Birmingham, England-based Black Sabbath, which codified the bottom-heavy, churning sound and lyrical demonology that would course through dozens of metal bands to come. Though the group’s history was a chaotic one characterized by monumental substance abuse and tumultuous in-fighting, its early albums survive as classics of the genre.
On the occasion of Black Sabbath’s 2006 induction into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, critic Deborah Frost wrote, “Black Sabbath simply oozed upon us, unfestooned by any pretense of art, peace, love, understanding, or mushroom embroidery, and immediately defined heavy metal.”
Fired from Sabbath in 1979, Osbourne launched a solo career of his own that, in commercial terms, surpassed the success of his former band. His groups launched Zakk Wylde and the late Randy Rhoads as metal guitar stars.
His popularity among metal fans was so immense that his wife and manager Sharon Osbourne built a touring festival, Ozzfest, around him; it became one of the biggest box office attractions of the ‘90s and attracted a glittering lineup of support acts, helping to launch the careers of many.
Osbourne garnered additional fame early in the new millennium as the addled paterfamilias of “The Osbournes,” an MTV reality series that focused its lens on the rock star’s home life.
New York Times TV critic Caryn James wrote of the show’s second-season bow in 2002, “The Osbournes remain a wacky, harmlessly outrageous variation on Everyfamily, as full of warmth as they are of weirdness: Ozzy the trembling Goth-looking Dad, Sharon the expletive-spouting Mum, [daughter] Kelly the pudgy would-be singer and [son] Jack the unformed belligerent adolescent.”
Plagued by lifelong battles with drug addiction and alcohol, and sometimes blatantly out of it on stage, the unpredictable Osbourne was a magnet for trouble and a lightning rod for controversy. His late tenure with Black Sabbath was marked by a concert no-show that turned into a riot.
Most infamously, he stunned CBS record execs at a 1981 meeting, held at the company’s L.A. headquarters to promote his debut solo album, by drunkenly biting off the head of a live dove. A similar episode involving a live bat transpired at a 1982 show in Des Moines, Iowa, necessitating a rabies shot.
Seemingly intent on living his musical fantasies of violence and horror off-stage, he had an especially tumultuous relationship with second wife Sharon. They became a tabloid staple for their oft-violent domestic quarrels; after one altercation in 1989, Osbourne was arrested for attempted murder. But the couple would always reconcile.
He was born John Michael Osbourne in Birmingham on Dec. 3, 1948. One of six children in a working-class family, he performed in secondary-school operettas and was later an early fan of the Beatles. After dropping out of school at 15, he was a manual laborer and turned briefly to petty crime, drawing a six-week jail sentence for burglary.
At the age of 19, he partnered with bassist Terence “Geezer” Butler as the vocalist in an unsuccessful local band; they were soon joined by two former members of Mythology, guitarist Tony Iommi and drummer Bill Ward. Originally known as Earth, the quartet was forced to change its handle after they learned of a like-named group; the musicians selected Black Sabbath, after director Mario Bava’s 1963 horror anthology.
Signed to Philips Records in the U.K. (and subsequently to Warner Bros. Records in the U.S.), Black Sabbath issued its debut album in 1970 – fittingly, on Friday the 13th. Though the murky, morbid LP was widely reviled by the press, it became a top-10 hit in Britain and climbed to No. 23 in the U.S.
A swiftly recorded and released follow-up, “Paranoid,” put the band firmly on the map on both sides of the Atlantic, topping the English charts and reaching No. 12 stateside. It contained several heavy-riffing numbers, with lyrics penned by Butler and yowled convincingly by Osbourne, which helped define the metal sound: “War Pigs,” “Paranoid,” “Hand of Doom” and what ultimately became the group’s best-known signature, “Iron Man.”
The original lineup issued its highest-charting release, “Master of Reality,” in 1971; the set, which climbed to No. 8 in America, included “Sweet Leaf,” a crowd-pleasing ode to pot smoking. The band diversified its sound on “Vol. 4” (No. 13, 1972), which featured a surprising Osbourne ballad vocal, “Changes,” and the widely admired “Sabbath Bloody Sabbath” (No. 11, 1973), distinguished by a more thrashing attack and a couple of purely instrumental tracks.
By the mid-‘70s, Osbourne and his band mates were at loose ends. The singer’s heavy consumption of drugs and alcohol had led to the collapse of his first marriage (during which he fathered daughter Jessica and son Louis), and the other Sabbath members all were indulging their own vices heavily.
The group’s problems led to a marked drop-off in musical quality and record sales. “Sabotage” (1975) peaked at No. 28 in the U.S., while its successor “Technical Ecstasy” (1976), recorded amid distractions in Miami, managed a weak No. 51.
In the wake of making the troublesome latter album, Osbourne bolted the group in 1977 and embarked on a solo project, Blizzard of Ozz, and was replaced by singer Dave Walker of Savoy Brown. However, he swiftly changed his mind and returned to the Sabbath fold for a dismal collection ironically titled “Never Say Die!”
Released amid the game-changing punk revolt in 1978, the decidedly old-fangled album topped out at No. 69. It was followed by a disastrous Sabbath tour of Europe and the U.S., opened by the young Pasadena band Van Halen. A melee erupted at Nashville’s Municipal Auditorium after Osbourne overslept and failed to make the show. Enraged by Osbourne’s disinterest and lack of discipline, the other members of Black Sabbath fired their vocalist in early 1979, replacing him with Ronnie James Dio.
The recruitment of Dio was suggested by Sharon Arden, the fiery daughter of Sabbath’s even more fiery manager, Don Arden. She had met Osbourne as a teenager, and, not long after the singer’s dismissal from the band, the two began dating. She was instrumental in assembling Osbourne’s solo band, and soon took over as his personal manager. (She would marry the musician in 1982.)
His Epic Records solo bow “Blizzard of Ozz” (1980) restored Osbourne’s commercial fortunes and introduced the dynamic lead guitarist Randy Rhoads. The album peaked at No. 21 domestically and ultimately went quadruple-platinum, and contained one of Osbourne’s latter-day signatures, “Crazy Train.”
Another of the album’s tracks, “Suicide Solution” prompted a lawsuit by the parents of an American teen who said the song prompted their son to kill himself in 1984; the case – which preceded a similar accusation later leveled against U.K. metal band Judas Priest — was ultimately dismissed.
The sophomore solo release “Diary of a Madman” (1981) bested its predecessor on the charts, rising to No. 16, and shifted 3 million copies. However, Osbourne suffered a serious blow when Rhoads was killed in 1982 when the private plane carrying him crashed in Florida.
A half-hearted live album of Sabbath covers, “Speak of the Devil” (No. 21, 1982), was hurriedly released after a subsequent tour with a temporary replacement for Rhoads. (“Tribute,” a live Osbourne album featuring the late guitarist, reached No. 6 in 1987.)
Following his first post-Rhoads releases “Bark at the Moon” (No. 24, 1983) and “The Ultimate Sin” (No. 6, 1986), Osbourne scored his only hit single: “Close My Eyes Forever,” a duet with former Runaways guitarist Lita Ford, which reached No. 6 in 1988.
On his own, he found a winning combination after Zakk Wylde, a former member of the New Jersey metal unit Stonehenge, took the guitar chair. His creative playing powered “No Rest For the Wicked” (No. 13, 1988), “No More Tears” (No. 7, 1991), the 1993 concert set “Live & Loud” (which included Osbourne’s only solo Grammy winner, “I Don’t Want to Change the World”) and “Ozzmosis” (No. 4, 1995). Osbourne staged a “retirement” tour following the latter album, but re-emerged quicker than Frank Sinatra.
In 1996, after Osbourne’s services were declined by the Lollapalooza Festival, Sharon Osbourne hit on the idea of mounting a metal fest centered around Ozzy’s participation. Mounted for just two days in Arizona and California, Ozzfest was a smashing success, and became a top-grossing U.S. and U.K. touring event that attracted most of the top names in metal (including, in later years, a regrouped Black Sabbath).
Osbourne made a brief return to the Sabbath fold in 1998, after a couple of one-off on-stage reunions, for the live set “Reunion.” The two-disc release, which featured all four original members, included two new bonus studio recordings. It peaked at No. 11 nationally, and captured a best metal performance Grammy for its concert rendition of “Iron Man.”
In 2001, Osbourne’s first studio recording in six years, “Down to Earth,” shot to No. 4; its personnel included bassist Robert Trujillo, who exited the group to join Metallica, one of the many younger bands taking a page from the Ozzy playbook.
Osbourne split his activities during the first half of the ‘00s between touring and work on “The Osbournes.” The reality skein, which collected a 2002 Emmy Award, featured Ozzy, Sharon and two of their three children. (Daughter Aimee declined to participate in the series.) The metal equivalent of “Ozzie and Harriet,” the comedic look at rock ‘n’ roll domesticity became MTV’s highest rated reality show.
“Under Cover,” 2005’s rendering of songs by the Beatles, Mountain, Mott the Hoople and Cream, among others, found no favor with Osbourne fans, climbing no higher than No. 134. But the all-original sets “Black Rain” (2007) and “Scream” (2010), restored the singer to chart primacy, peaking at No. 3 and No. 4, respectively.
Predictably, plans for a plotted album and tour by the four original Black Sabbath members did not run smoothly. Announced with a flourish at a Whisky a Go Go press conference in late 2011, the reunion was postponed after Tony Iommi – the only constant in the band’s lineup – was diagnosed with lymphoma. Recording sessions were moved to the guitarist’s home in England, but then drummer Ward, disgruntled by financial terms of the contract, backed out.
Produced by Rick Rubin, with Brad Wilk of Rage Against the Machine sitting in for Ward, 2012’s “13” shot to No. 1 simultaneously on the U.K. and U.S. album charts, a first in the band’s 44-year history. Its track “God is Dead?” collected the best metal performance Grammy. It was succeeded by two years of dates in the Europe, America, Japan, Latin America, and the U.S.
An album and tour, featuring the same lineup and both titled “The End,” marked the last run for the band in 2016-17. Osbourne and Black Sabbath called it quits with a Feb. 4, 2017, date in their hometown of Birmingham. Yet it was just one of several retirements for him (he first “retired” from touring in 1992) and the band, and they reunited one last time earlier this month at the “Back to the Beginning” concert.
Osbourne issued two popular late-career solo albums, “Ordinary Man” (No. 3 in the U.S., 2020) and “Patient Number 9” (No. 2, 2022).
A new reality show starring the Osbourne family, “Home to Roost,” documenting their return to the U.K. after 25 years in the U.S., was announced by the BBC in late 2022.
He is survived by his wife and five children.
