Ozzy Osbourne has died. “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,” the Osbourne family shared in a statement published by The Guardian. “He was with his family and surrounded by love. We ask everyone to respect our family privacy at this time.” The heavy metal icon and founding member of Black Sabbath was 76 years old.
While a formal cause of death has not been announced, Osbourne dealt with numerous health issues in the final years of his life. The musician played his final concert earlier this month, a star-studded event in Birmingham, England, that featured the original Black Sabbath lineup, Metallica, Slayer, and others.
Born John Michael Osbourne, in Birmingham, England, in 1948, Ozzy Osbourne’s fixation with music began when he heard the Beatles’ song “She Loves You” as a teenager. He formed Black Sabbath with Geezer Butler, Tony Iommi, and Bill Ward in 1969. Osbourne helped revolutionize rock music during his tenure with the band, releasing albums like Paranoid and Master of Reality that would define hard rock and heavy metal in the decades to come.
Osbourne served as the lead vocalist for Black Sabbath until his dismissal from the band in 1979, when he was replaced by Ronnie James Dio. While Osbourne’s bandmates contended that their reasons for firing him were unreliability and his excessive substance abuse problems, Osbourne claimed that his use of drugs and alcohol was on par with the rest of the band at the time.
After Black Sabbath, Osbourne launched a hugely successful solo career, with his first seven solo albums going on to earn multi-platinum certifications in the United States. Osbourne recorded the first two LPs with guitarist Randy Rhoads, co-writing the iconic single “Crazy Train” with him. Rhoads died in an airplane accident in 1982 while touring the second album. Osbourne would go on to release a live album in his honor titled Tribute in 1987. Osbourne released his final solo album, Patient Number 9, in 2022.
Osbourne’s career was defined in part by a string of wild incidents. In 1982, he bit the head off a bat during a concert in Iowa. That same year, he was famously arrested for urinating near the Alamo. He also landed in jail for physical abuse. In 1989, he was arrested for the attempted murder of his wife, Sharon.
In 1996, he and Sharon founded the touring metal festival Ozzfest. Later in life, he embarked on a second career as a reality TV star when he and his family launched the 2002 MTV reality show The Osbournes.
