Ozzy Osbourne, Black Sabbath frontman and heavy steel legend, dies at 76

Ozzy Osbourne, the heavy steel legend who rose to fame within the pioneering group Black Sabbath, has died, his household mentioned in an announcement to CBS Information. He was 76.

“It’s with extra unhappiness than mere phrases can convey that now we have to report that our beloved Ozzy Osbourne has handed away this morning,” the household mentioned within the assertion. “He was together with his household and surrounded by love. We ask everybody to respect our household privateness presently.”

The household’s assertion did not present further particulars concerning the circumstances surrounding Osbourne’s demise.

Osbourne revealed in 2020 that he was identified with Parkinson’s illness, the motion dysfunction affecting the nervous system that will get worse over time. A yr earlier, the rock star postponed all of his 2019 performances after falling at his house in Los Angeles, which aggravated accidents from a 2003 all-terrain automobile accident. He introduced in 2023 that he would retire from touring.

“Ozzy was somebody who lived arduous, rocked arduous and retired time and again, beginning, I feel, first within the ’90s,” Joe Levy, a contributor for Rolling Stone journal, informed CBS Information on Tuesday following information of Osbourne’s demise. “He retired a minimum of two occasions, stored coming again, and the truth that his Parkinson’s prognosis stored him from performing made it all of the extra superb that simply two weeks in the past, he took the stage for what completely could be the ultimate time.”

Both clad in black or bare-chested, the singer was typically the goal of fogeys’ teams for his imagery and as soon as precipitated an uproar for biting the top off a bat. Later, he would reveal himself to be a doddering and candy father on the fact TV present “The Osbournes.”

The Large Bang of heavy steel

Black Sabbath’s 1969 self-titled debut LP has been likened to the Large Bang of heavy steel. It got here throughout the top of the Vietnam Struggle and crashed the hippie social gathering, dripping menace and foreboding. The duvet of the document was of a spooky determine towards a stark panorama. The music was loud, dense and offended, and marked a shift in rock ‘n’ roll.

The band’s second album, “Paranoid,” included such basic steel tunes as “Struggle Pigs,” “Iron Man” and “Fairies Put on Boots.” The track “Paranoid” solely reached No. 61 on the Billboard Scorching 100 however grew to become in some ways the band’s signature track. Each albums had been voted among the many prime 10 biggest heavy steel albums of all time by readers of Rolling Stone journal.

“Black Sabbath are the Beatles of heavy steel. Anyone who’s severe about steel will let you know all of it comes right down to Sabbath,” Dave Navarro of the band Jane’s Dependancy wrote in a 2010 tribute in Rolling Stone. “There is a direct line you’ll be able to draw again from right this moment’s steel, by means of Eighties bands like Iron Maiden, again to Sabbath.”

Sabbath fired Osbourne in 1979 for his legendary excesses, like exhibiting up late for rehearsals and lacking gigs. “We knew we did not actually have a alternative however to sack him as a result of he was simply so uncontrolled. However we had been all very down concerning the state of affairs,” wrote bassist Terry “Geezer” Butler in his memoir, “Into the Void.”

Osbourne reemerged the subsequent yr as a solo artist with “Blizzard of Ozz” and the next yr’s “Diary of a Madman,” each arduous rock classics that went multi-platinum and spawned enduring favorites reminiscent of “Loopy Prepare,” “Goodbye to Romance,” “Flying Excessive Once more” and “You Cannot Kill Rock and Roll.” Osbourne was twice inducted to the Rock & Roll Corridor of Fame — as soon as with Sabbath in 2006 and once more in 2024 as a solo artist.

The unique Sabbath lineup reunited for the primary time in 20 years in July 2025 within the U.Okay. for what Osborne mentioned could be his ultimate live performance. “Let the insanity start!” he informed 42,000 followers.

Metallica, Weapons N Roses, Slayer, Instrument, Pantera, Gojira, Alice in Chains, Lamb of God, Halestorm, Anthrax, Rival Sons and Mastodon did units. Tom Morello, Aerosmith’s Steven Tyler, Billy Corgan, Ronnie Wooden, Travis Barker, Sammy Hagar, Andrew Watt, Yungblud, Korn’s Jonathan Davis, Nuno Bettencourt, Chad Smith and Vernon Reid made appearances. Actor Jason Momoa was the host for the festivities.

“Black Sabbath: we would all be completely different folks with out them, that is the reality,” mentioned Pantera singer Phil Anselmo. “I do know I would not be up right here with a microphone in my hand with out Black Sabbath.”

Outlandish exploits and a basic look

Osbourne embodied the excesses of steel. His outlandish exploits included relieving himself on the Alamo, snorting a line of ants off a sidewalk and, most memorably, biting the top off a stay bat {that a} fan threw onstage throughout a 1981 live performance. (He mentioned he thought it was rubber.)

Osbourne was sued in 1987 by mother and father of a 19-year-old teen who died by suicide whereas listening to his track “Suicide Resolution.” The lawsuit was dismissed. Osbourne mentioned the track was actually concerning the risks of alcohol, which precipitated the demise of his good friend Bon Scott, lead singer of AC/DC.

Then-Cardinal John J. O’Connor of New York claimed in 1990 that Osbourne’s songs led to demonic possession and even suicide. “You might be ignorant concerning the true that means of my songs,” the singer wrote again. “You’ve additionally insulted the intelligence of rock followers all around the world.”

Audiences at Osbourne exhibits might be mooned or spit on by the singer. They’d typically be hectored to scream together with the track, however the Devil-invoking Osbourne would normally ship the crowds house with their ears ringing and a hearty “God bless!”

He began an annual tour — Ozzfest — in 1996 after he was rejected from the lineup of what was then the highest touring music pageant, Lollapalooza. Ozzfest has gone on to host such bands as Slipknot, Instrument, Megadeth, Rob Zombie, System of a Down, Limp Bizkit and Linkin Park.

Osbourne’s look modified little over his life. He wore his lengthy hair flat, heavy black eye make-up and spherical glasses, typically sporting a cross round his neck. In 2013, he reunited with Black Sabbath for the dour, uncooked “13,” which reached No. 1 on the U.Okay. Albums Chart and peaked at No. 86 on the U.S. Billboard 200. In 2019, he had a Prime 10 hit when featured on Publish Malone’s “Take What You Need,” Osbourne’s first track within the Prime 10 since 1989.

In 2020, he launched the album “Peculiar Man,” which had as its title track a duet with Elton John. “I have been a foul man, been greater than the blue sky/And the reality is I do not wanna die an extraordinary man,” he sang. In 2022, he landed his first profession back-to-back No. 1 rock radio singles from his album “Affected person Quantity 9,” which featured collaborations with Jeff Beck, Eric Clapton, Mike McCready, Chad Smith, Robert Trujillo and Duff McKagan. It earned 4 Grammy nominations.

On the Rock & Roll Corridor of Fame induction ceremony in 2024, Jack Black known as him “biggest frontman within the historical past of rock and roll” and “the Jack Nicholson of rock.” Osbourne thanked his followers, his guitarist Randy Rhoads and his longtime spouse, Sharon.

The beginnings of Black Sabbath

John Michael Osbourne was raised within the gritty metropolis of Birmingham, England. Children at school nicknamed him Ozzy, brief for his surname. As a boy, he beloved the 4 Seasons, Chuck Berry and Little Richard. The Beatles made an enormous impression.

“They got here from Liverpool, which was roughly 60 miles north of the place I come from,” he informed Billboard. “So rapidly it was in my grasp, however I by no means thought it will be as profitable because it grew to become.”

Within the late Nineteen Sixties, Osbourne had teamed up with Butler, guitarist Tony Iommi and drummer Invoice Ward because the Polka Tulk Blues Band. They determined to rename the band Earth, however discovered to their dismay there was one other band with that identify. In order that they modified the identify to the American title of the basic Italian horror film “I Tre Volti Della Paura,” starring Boris Karloff: Black Sabbath.

As soon as they discovered their sludgy, ominous groove, the band was productive, placing out their self-titled debut and “Paranoid” in 1970, “Grasp of Actuality” in 1971, “Vol. 4” in 1972 and “Sabbath Bloody Sabbath” in 1973.

The music was all about industrial guitar riffs and disorienting adjustments in time signatures, together with lyrics that spoke of alienation and doom. “Folks assume I am insane as a result of I’m frowning on a regular basis,” Osbourne sang in a single track. “All day lengthy I consider issues however nothing appears to fulfill/Assume I will lose my thoughts if I do not discover one thing to pacify.”

The Guardian newspaper in 2009 mentioned the band “launched working-class anger, stoner sludge grooves and witchy horror-rock to flower energy. Black Sabbath confronted the empty platitudes of the Nineteen Sixties and, together with Altamont and Charles Manson, virtually definitely helped kill off the hippy counterculture.”

After Sabbath, Osbourne had an uncanny knack for calling a few of the most inventive younger guitarists to his facet. When he went solo, he employed the sensible innovator Rhoads, who performed on two of Osbourne’s best solo albums, “Blizzard of Ozz” and “Diary of a Madman.” Rhoads was killed in a freak airplane accident in 1982; Osbourne launched the stay album “Tribute” in 1987 in his reminiscence.

Osbourne then signed Jake E. Lee, who lent his skills to the platinum albums “Bark on the Moon” and “The Final Sin.” Hotshot Zakk Wylde joined Osbourne’s band for “No Relaxation for the Depraved” and the multiplatinum “No Extra Tears.”

“They arrive alongside, they sprout wings, they blossom, and so they fly off,” Osbourne mentioned of his gamers in 1995 to The Related Press. “However I’ve to maneuver on. To get a brand new participant every so often boosts me on.”

Courting controversy — and wholesomeness

Whomever he was taking part in with, Osbourne wasn’t prone to again down from controversy. He had the final giggle when the TV evangelist the Rev. Jimmy Swaggart in 1986 lambasted varied rock teams and rock magazines as “the brand new pornography,” prompting some retailers to drag Osbourne’s album.

When Swaggart later was caught with a intercourse employee in 1988, Osbourne put out the track “Miracle Man” about his foe: “Miracle man bought busted/miracle man bought busted,” he sang. “At this time I noticed a Miracle Man, on TV cryin’/Such a hypocritical man, born once more, dying.”

A lot later, a complete new Osbourne could be revealed when “The Osbournes,” which ran on MTV from 2002-2005, confirmed this one-time self-proclaimed madman consuming Weight-reduction plan Cokes as he struggled to seek out the Historical past Channel on his new satellite tv for pc tv or warning his children to not smoke or drink earlier than they launched into an evening in town.

Later, he and his son Jack toured America on the journey present “Ozzy & Jack’s World Detour,” the place the pair visited such locations as Mount Rushmore and the Area Middle Houston. Osbourne was honored in 2014 with the naming of a bat frog discovered within the Amazon that makes high-pitched, batlike calls. It was dubbed Dendropsophus ozzyi.

He additionally met Queen Elizabeth II throughout her Golden Jubilee weekend. He was standing subsequent to singer-actor Cliff Richard. “She took one take a look at the 2 of us, mentioned ‘Oh, so that is what they name selection, is it?’ then cracked up laughing. I actually thought that Sharon had slipped some acid into my cornflakes that morning,” he wrote in “I Am Ozzy.”

Thelma Riley and Osbourne married in 1971; Osbourne adopted her son Elliot Kingsley, and so they had two extra kids, Jessica and Louis. Osbourne later met Sharon, who grew to become her personal celeb persona, when she was operating her father’s Los Angeles workplace. Her father was Don Arden, a prime live performance promoter and artist supervisor. She went to Osbourne’s resort in Los Angeles to gather cash, which Osbourne had spent on medication.

“She says she’ll come again in three days and I would higher have it. I would at all times fancied her and I assumed, ‘Ah, she’s coming again! Possibly I’ve an opportunity.’ I had pizza hanging from my hair, cigarette ashes on my shirt,” he informed the Los Angeles Instances in 2000. They married in 1982, had three kids — Kelly, Aimee and Jack — and endured periodic separations and reconciliations.

He’s survived by Sharon, and his kids.