Ozzy Osbourne, Black Sabbath Icon and 'Prince of Darkness', Dies at 76 Just Weeks After Final Concert
Ben Beaumont-Thomas
Tue 22 Jul 2025 19:12 BST
Ozzy Osbourne, the legendary frontman of Black Sabbath whose wild persona and haunting voice helped shape heavy metal, has died at the age of 76 — less than three weeks after his final farewell performance.
In a statement, the Osbourne family said:
"It is with more sadness than mere words can convey that we have to report that our beloved Ozzy Osbourne passed away this morning. He was with his family and surrounded by love. We ask everyone to respect our family’s privacy at this time.”
No cause of death was given, though Osbourne had battled a series of health issues in recent years.
Born John Michael Osbourne in Aston, Birmingham, in 1948, Ozzy rose from a tough working-class background — including a stint in jail and surviving sexual abuse in his youth — to become one of rock’s most infamous and influential figures. His piercing vocals and raw energy helped define the sound of Black Sabbath, whose heavy, doom-laden style revolutionized British rock.
Osbourne’s legacy is as much about mythology as music: a frontman who famously bit the head off a bat onstage, a man who battled addiction and once attempted to strangle his wife during a drug-fueled breakdown, and later, an unlikely reality TV star whose dazed, often humorous family life was captured in The Osbournes.
His death comes just 17 days after his retirement show on July 5th, where he reunited with the original Black Sabbath lineup for the first time in two decades. The concert, titled Back to the Beginning, featured some of the biggest names in metal. Speaking to fans that night, Osbourne said: “I’ve been laid up for six years, and you’ve got no idea how I feel. Thank you from the bottom of my heart.”
As The Guardian’s Alexis Petridis once wrote, Ozzy was “the people’s Prince of Darkness who took heavy metal into the light.” His long and turbulent life, captured in music, myth, and memory, leaves a legacy that will echo through generations.
Named after a Boris Karloff horror film, Black Sabbath — featuring Tony Iommi on guitar and Bill Ward on drums — released their self-titled debut album in 1970. That same year, they followed up with Paranoid, a landmark record in heavy metal history that topped the UK charts and featured enduring anthems like Iron Man and War Pigs. Their 1971 follow-up, Master of Reality, pushed their sound further into dark, distorted territory, laying the groundwork for what would later become doom metal.
Osbourne recorded five more albums with Black Sabbath, helping define the genre’s foundations. But by 1979, his escalating substance abuse forced the band to fire him. He was replaced by Ronnie James Dio. Despite the split, Osbourne eventually reunited with Sabbath for their 2013 comeback album 13, which topped both UK and US charts. They embarked on a farewell tour that culminated with a final concert in Birmingham on 4 February 2017 — until their surprise reunion in 2025.
Following his departure from Sabbath, Osbourne launched a wildly successful solo career beginning with Blizzard of Ozz in 1980, which went five times platinum in the U.S. Over the next four decades, he released 13 solo studio albums, including 2022’s Patient Number 9.
One of the most infamous moments of Osbourne’s career came in 1982, when he bit the head off a dead bat during a show in Des Moines, Iowa, thinking it was a stage prop. He was later treated for potential rabies. A year earlier, during a record label meeting that took a surreal turn, he bit the heads off two live doves — an act originally intended as a peace gesture, according to his former publicist Mick Wall.
Osbourne continued to chart occasional hits in the 1980s and ’90s, including Bark at the Moon (1983) and Perry Mason (1995). In 2003, he achieved a UK No. 1 single with Changes, a duet with his daughter Kelly. He shared three children with wife Sharon — Kelly, Jack, and Aimee — and two with his first wife, Thelma: Jessica and Louis. Osbourne later admitted that his alcoholism during his first marriage was so severe he couldn’t remember the births of Jessica or Louis.
He married Sharon in 1982, shortly after she began managing his solo career. Her savvy business sense, paired with Osbourne’s enduring fame, helped build a media empire. In 1996, Sharon founded Ozzfest, a touring metal festival that became a cornerstone of the genre’s culture in the U.S., UK, and Japan.
However, their relationship was not without turbulence. In 1989, Osbourne was arrested for attempting to strangle Sharon while under the influence. Reflecting on the incident in a 2007 interview, he recalled: “I woke up in this little single cell with human shit up the walls and thought, ‘What the fuck have I done now?’” He was charged with attempted murder. The couple later reconciled but briefly split again in 2016 after Osbourne admitted to an affair with a hair stylist.
From 2002 to 2005, Ozzy and Sharon Osbourne — along with their children Kelly and Jack — starred in The Osbournes, a groundbreaking reality TV series that offered an unfiltered glimpse into their chaotic family life. The fly-on-the-wall format captured everything from dog therapists to “vagina doctors,” all set against a constant backdrop of profanity-laced banter. It quickly became a cultural phenomenon and ratings juggernaut, earning the Emmy Award for Outstanding Reality Program in 2002 — only the second show to ever win in that category.
In 2003, Osbourne suffered a near-fatal accident when he crashed his quad bike at his Buckinghamshire estate, breaking his neck, collarbone, and several ribs. Sharon later revealed he had stopped breathing for 90 seconds and had no pulse before being revived. Doctors warned he had narrowly avoided permanent paralysis.
Two years later, in 2005, Osbourne was diagnosed with Parkin syndrome, a condition that causes tremors and resembles Parkinson’s disease.
Despite maintaining sobriety for years, Osbourne admitted in 2013 that he had relapsed into alcohol and drug use for 18 months. “I was in a very dark place and was an asshole to the people I love most — my family,” he said, vowing to recommit to sobriety.
In 2019, he launched what was billed as his final world tour, No More Tours 2 — a sequel to his original 1992 “retirement” tour. However, illness forced him to postpone the European leg in 2020. “It just seems that since October, everything I touch has turned to shit,” he said at the time, after also being hospitalized for a serious hand infection.
In early 2020, Osbourne publicly revealed he had been diagnosed with Parkinson’s disease. A fall in 2019 had further aggravated the lingering damage from his 2003 ATV accident, leading to spinal surgery in 2022. The following year, he canceled a UK and European tour, citing “physical weakness” and detailing an exhausting regimen of medical treatments: three surgeries, stem cell therapy, intensive physical rehabilitation, and pioneering Cybernics (HAL) therapy.
Osbourne fell into a deep depression amid the years of medical treatment and physical decline, as he revealed in a May 2025 interview with The Guardian. “You wake up the next morning and find that something else has gone wrong,” he said. “You begin to think this is never going to end. Sharon could see I was in Doom Town, and she said to me, ‘I’ve got an idea.’ It was something to give me a reason to get up in the morning.”
That idea became Back to the Beginning, a farewell concert held at Villa Park in Birmingham — the city where it all started. The event saw Osbourne reunite with his original Black Sabbath bandmates Geezer Butler, Tony Iommi, and Bill Ward for a four-song set, following a five-song solo performance. Though physically frail and seated on a bat-adorned throne, Osbourne delivered a fierce and heartfelt show. At one point, he shouted to the crowd: “I am Iron Man — go fucking crazy!”
The historic concert also featured performances from metal giants including Metallica, Slayer, and Guns N’ Roses, making it a celebration of both Osbourne’s legacy and the genre he helped create.
Tributes poured in after his death. Elton John was among the many who honored him, writing: “He was a dear friend and a huge trailblazer who secured his place in the pantheon of rock gods — a true legend. He was also one of the funniest people I’ve ever met. I will miss him dearly.”