Ozzy Osbourne, the “Prince of Darkness” who shocked and awed with his heavy metal band Black Sabbath, has died aged 76.
News of his death was announced by his family.
For many years, fans felt that Osbourne must be indestructible. The “Godfather of Metal” had survived decades of hard-living, including drug and alcohol abuse, along with controversies such as the notorious moment he bit the head off a bat during a live concert in Des Moines, Iowa.
In his later life, however, he was a reformed wildman who suffered a string of health issues, mostly related to neck injuries sustained in a 2003 quad-biking accident, which were later exacerbated by a fall in 2019. He was diagnosed with Parkinson’s disease that same year, and also endured a bout of Covid.
Born in Birmingham, England, to a factory worker mother and toolmaker father, Osbourne was raised with his five siblings in a small two-bedroom house in Aston. He suffered intense bullying and claimed he was repeatedly molested by bullies on the way home from school, which he left aged 15 to find local work as a horn-tuner in a car factory, and at a slaughterhouse. He also spent a brief stint in prison, after his father refused to pay the fine incurred when he was convicted of robbing a clothes shop.
His music career began in 1967, when he was recruited as lead vocalist for the band Rare Breed, who split after playing just two shows. Osbourne and his bandmate Geezer Butler then formed Earth with guitarist Tony Iommi and drummer Bill Ward, renaming themselves Black Sabbath after being booked by accident by a venue who wanted a different band with the same moniker.
Success came relatively swiftly. Despite their self-titled debut receiving negative reviews from critics, it charted in the Top 10 in the UK upon its release in 1970, and is now considered to be one of the most influential metal albums of all time. It was followed that same year by Paranoid, their darkest record yet that featured the songs “Iron Man” and “War Pigs”, and their third album, 1971’s Master of Reality. Described by Rolling Stone critic Lester Bangs as “monotonous” albeit “consistent”, it nevertheless charted at No 5 in the UK and No 8 in the States.
It was around this time that Osbourne met his future wife, Sharon Arden, while Black Sabbath were considering her father Don as a prospective manager. Then, he was married to his first wife, Thelma Riley, with whom he had two children, Louis and Jessica. Osbourne and Riley divorced in 1982; he later admitted that his first marriage was “a terrible mistake”. He also revealed in 2011 that he couldn’t remember when Louis and Jessica were born, due to his frequent drug and alcohol use.
Ozzy and Sharon, who began dating after he was fired and she took over from her father as his manager, were married the same year his divorce was finalised. Their relationship has endured a number of hurdles, including the time Osbourne attempted to kill her by strangulation during a drugs-influenced episode in 1989.
“I felt the calmest I had ever felt in my life,” Osbourne said of the moment he began strangling his wife, in an interview for the documentary, The Nine Lives of Ozzy Osbourne.
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“I was just peaceful. It’s not exactly one of my greatest achievements.”
Sharon also described her husband’s demeanour as “calm” during the attack in their family home in Amersham, while saying it was “probably the most frightened I had ever been”. She managed to press a panic button and the police were called.
Osbourne said he woke up in police custody, and was informed by an officer that he had been arrested for attempted murder. He was subsequently sent to rehab for six months, while Sharon decided whether to walk away from the marriage. In the 35 years since, the couple have also survived a cheating scandal in 2016, with Sharon later claiming Osbourne had had extramarital affairs with six different women.
Their chaotic personal lives were famously documented in MTV’s reality show The Osbournes, which ran for four seasons between 2002 to 2005. In a 2009 interview, Osbourne said he was stoned for the duration of filming. Two of his and Sharon’s children, Kelly and Jack, also featured in the series, while their eldest, Aimee, who declined to appear.
Osbourne received a number of accolades through his wild and raucous career, including a Grammy for Best Metal Performance in 1994. In 2006, he was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame with his Black Sabbath bandmates.
For fans, Osbourne’s public antics were part of the band’s charm, while for others – including a number of religious groups – they were a sign of Black Sabbath’s negative influence on impressionable young minds. He will forever be remembered as the rocker who bit the head off a bat (it was already dead, contrary to rock’n’roll lore) in front of 5,000 audience members at a gig in Des Moines, after a 17-year-old fan, Mark Neal, threw it onto the stage. Osbourne was rushed to hospital after the concert to receive rabies shots.
Despite his many health issues in later years, Osbourne remained active well into his seventies. He was reunited with his Black Sabbath bandmates for their final album, 13, in 2013. Meanwhile, his last solo album, 2022’s Patient Zero, with help from fellow stars including Iommi, Eric Clapton, and the late Jeff Beck and Foo Fighters drummer Taylor Hawkins. It went on to win the 2023 Grammy for Best Rock Album.
That same year, he and Iommi enjoyed a mini Sabbath reunion as part of the closing ceremony for the Commonwealth Games, performing “Iron Man” and “Paranoid”.
“About a week before we went there, Sharon said to me: ‘They’ve asked you to close the Commonwealth Games,’ and I said: ‘Sharon, I can’t even f***ing stand up!’” he told The Independent.
“Then I thought: I’ve only got to stand there with a f***ing microphone. I haven’t got to leap around and go crazy. If I fall over they’ll think it’s part of the act anyway – they’ll just think I was drunk! So I said: ‘F*** it Sharon!’ And you know what? It was great.”
He later explained that he was trying to get “as much done as I can before the ultimate final curtain”. Fans around the world are likely to agree, he did.
