Ozzy Osbourne Died of a Heart Attack, Death Certificate Shows

New York Times

2 days ago

Ozzy Osbourne, the heavy metal and reality television star, died of a heart attack and had suffered from coronary artery disease and Parkinson's, according to a death certificate filed at a registry in London.
The certificate, which was submitted by Osbourne's daughter Aimée Rose Osbourne, lists cardiac arrest and coronary artery disease among the causes, noting that he had Parkinson's disease. Osbourne's occupation is recorded as 'Songwriter, Performer and Rock Legend.'
The document also says that the heart attack occurred 'out of hospital.' On July 22, the day of Osbourne's death, an air ambulance flew to the singer's home near the village of Chalfont St. Giles in Buckinghamshire, England.
A spokesperson for Thames Valley Air Ambulance service said in an email that its team had been 'dispatched to provide advanced critical care at an incident near Chalfront St. Giles on July 22,' but gave no further details.
After stopping near the singer's home, the ambulance flew about eight miles southwest to Harefield Hospital, in Uxbridge, a London suburb, according to Flightradar24, a company that collates data on aircraft movements. The helicopter spent 'about an hour' at the hospital with its engines running, a Flightradar24 spokesman said.
When Osbourne's family announced his death on July 22, they did not state a cause, although the 76-year-old singer had received treatment for numerous health problems in recent years, including a variant of Parkinson's and spinal damage. He told a radio station in February that he could no longer walk.
Many heavy metal fans had feared this year that Osbourne was reaching the end of his life, especially after his wife, Sharon, announced in February that he would perform what the family expected to be his last ever concert. That performance, held on July 5 at a soccer stadium in Birmingham, England, was staged just a few minutes' walk from Osbourne's childhood home.
At that concert, called 'Back to the Beginning,' Osbourne performed two brief sets: one of his solo music and a second with Black Sabbath, the band he formed in 1968 with three fellow Birmingham musicians.
During those performances, Osbourne had referred to his health problems. 'I've been laid up for six years,' he told the cheering crowd at one point: 'Thank you from the bottom of my heart.'
As Black Sabbath's frontman, Osbourne was widely considered one of the creators of heavy metal music. Heavy metal acts like Metallica, Slayer and Anthrax have cited him as an influence.
In the 2000s, Osbourne achieved a second bout of fame as a reality TV star thanks to the MTV show 'The Osbournes,' which ran from 2002 to 2005 and documented the singer and his family's daily lives in comic fashion.
On July 30, throngs of his fans flocked to Birmingham for a funeral procession in which his coffin was carried through the city in a hearse, ahead of a private funeral.
Tess Felder contributed reporting.