Ozzy Osborne died
Ozzie Osborne Ozzie Osborne has died at the age of 76, 17 days after his farewell concert.
In a statement, his family said: “It is with more sadness than words can convey that we must report that our beloved Ozzy Osbourne passed away this morning. He was with his family and surrounded by love.”
It is easier than it is to convey more than can be comprehended by more than the words of the world, but we can say with more than words of sympathy.
Ozzie Osbourne was one of the founding fathers of heavy metal, along with Black Sabbath, and managed to carve out a legendary solo career with hits such as Iron Man, Paranoid, War Pigs, Crazy Train and Changes. His contributions to music led to his double induction into the Rock And Roll Hall of Fame – both with Black Sabbath and as a solo artist – and the UK Music Hall of Fame.
Beyond music, Osbourne became a television phenomenon thanks to MTV’s reality show The Osbournes, which featured his daily – and often chaotic – life with Sharon Osbourne and their children, Kelly and Jack.
In his eventful career, Ozzy was also known for the extreme scenes of the rock star lifestyle, most famously the incident where he bit the head off a bat on stage.
In recent years he battled Parkinson’s disease and health problems that worsened after a fall in 2019. Despite the difficulties, he made an iconic appearance at the closing of the 2022 Commonwealth Games, and Sharon Osbourne had announced his “last concert” earlier this year, insisting he wanted to say goodbye to his fans in the best way possible.
With five Grammy awards, a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame and local recognition on Birmingham’s Broad Street, Ozzy Osbourne remains a symbol of an entire era of music.
He leaves behind his wife Sharon, their children Aimee, Kelly and Jack, as well as his two eldest children from his first marriage, Jessica and Louis, and grandchildren.
From Aston to the music pantheon
John Michael Osbourne was born in 1948 in Aston, Birmingham, the son of a working-class family. At the age of 11 he was repeatedly sexually abused and later imprisoned for burglary – an experience he described as “tragic” and “unsuccessful”.
These traumatic experiences and the industrial harshness of his hometown fueled the sound of Black Sabbath, the band he founded in the late 1960s with Tony Iommi, Geezer Butler and Bill Ward. Their sound – dark, massive, aggressive – changed rock forever, laying the foundations of heavy metal.
Their debut album was released in 1970, followed the same year by Paranoid, with anthems like Iron Man and War Pigs. Master of Reality (1971) was a major influence on doom metal, and Ozzy was involved in a total of seven albums with the band before being dropped in 1979 due to his dependence on drugs and alcohol.
Solo career, demons and legends
After leaving Sabbath, he embarked on a solo career with the album Blizzard of Ozz, which went quintuple platinum in the US. 11 studio albums followed, the most recent being 2020’s Ordinary Man – on which he collaborated with Elton John, Post Malone and Travis Scott.
Osbourne became notorious for his outrageous behaviour: at a concert in 1982 he bit the head off a bat, and at a meeting with record executives in 1981 he cut the heads off two pigeons. He suffered severe bouts of addiction, and in 1989 he was arrested after attempting to strangle Sharon Osbourne while under the influence of drugs – an incident he later confessed to: “I just felt dead inside”. The couple eventually reconciled, although they were temporarily estranged again in 2016 after Ozzy’s infidelity.
The Osbournes phenomenon and awards
.
From 2002 to 2005, Ozzy and his family starred in the MTV reality show The Osbournes, a surreal account of their daily lives with ribald humour, “doctors for dogs” and “gynaecologists for vaginas”. The series was a huge hit and won an Emmy.
Ozzy won five Grammys, was twice inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame (with Sabbath and as a solo artist), earned a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame and Birmingham’s Broad Street, and won honours such as the NME Godlike Genius and Classic Rock Living Legend.
He and Sharon had three children, Aimee, Kelly and Jack. He also had two older children, Jessica and Louis, from his first marriage to Thelma Riley – although he later admitted he didn’t remember their birth due to his addiction. The Osbourne couple’s fortune is estimated at nearly $200 million.
Health battles and the final bow
In 2003 he was seriously injured in a four-wheeler accident, and in 2005 he was diagnosed with Parkin syndrome. By 2019 he was experiencing complications from a fall, underwent spinal surgery and tried treatments such as stem cells and robotic rehabilitation (Cybernics HAL). In an interview in May 2025, he said he had fallen into a deep depression:
“I would wake up every morning and something new would go wrong. I thought it would never end.”
Sharon, to give him a reason to go on, suggested the big farewell concert. On 5 July 2025, at Birmingham’s Villa Park, he took to the stage sitting on a throne with bat decorations and sang four songs with Sabbath and five as a solo artist. “I am Iron Man: go fucking crazy!” he shouted to the crowd, while the concert included performances by Metallica, Slayer and Guns N’ Roses.
.
