I owe my career as a music mogul to Gary Moore, reveals Sharon Osbourne
Music mogul Sharon Osbourne has revealed her management career took off thanks to late Belfast-born guitar hero Gary Moore.
She spoke out as she masterminded the monster farewell performance from heavy metal legends Black Sabbath at Birmingham's Villa Park yesterday. It enabled her husband Ozzy to treat fans one last time with the original line-up.
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Daily Mirror
7 minutes ago
- Daily Mirror
Incredible fortune Ozzy Osbourne leaves behind and his very generous donation before death
Ozzy Osbourne died on Tuesday at the age of 76 after a long battle with Parkinson's Disease - leaving behind a fortune believed to be in the region of £163 million The Prince of Darkness leaves behind a fortune fit for a king. Ozzy Osbourne reportedly died with £163million in wealth and assets following an impressive decades-long career. The Black Sabbath frontman died on Tuesday at the age of 76 after a long battle with Parkinson's Disease. Ozzy's loved ones announced the sad news in a statement, telling fans: "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. He was with his family and surrounded by love. We ask everyone to respect our family privacy at this time." Thanks to his era-defining music career and savvy business moves, Ozzy died with millions in the bank. But the heavy metal icon spent his final weeks raising a record-breaking amount of money for charity thanks to his farewell gig in his hometown of Birmingham earlier this month. Ozzy made his fortune thanks to his time in Black Sabbath and his later solo work but also thanks to a lucrative stint as a reality TV star and the founder of the festival Ozzfest. The Osbournes, the MTV reality TV series that paved the way for Keeping Up With The Kardashians, premiered in 2002 and ran for four seasons until 2005. It's reported that each member of the Osbourne clan made £14,800 an episode for the debut season. By the second season, the family were making £3.7 million due to the show's success. Away from the entertainment world, Ozzy was also a savvy real estate mogul and snapped up a number of properties across the UK and America. Ozzy and his family made a tidy profit on the LA mansion that featured in their reality TV series, originally purchasing it 1999 for £2.9 million before selling it to Christina Aguilera for £8.5 million in 2013. Earlier this month, Ozzy bid a farewell to fans with a Black Sabbath reunion, telling thousands of heavy metal enthusiasts at Villa Park, Birmingham – a stone's throw from where Black Sabbath was formed in 1968 – that it was "so good to be on this stage" as he performed his last set from a large black throne. Ozzy and his fellow original Black Sabbath members – Tony Iommi, Terence 'Geezer' Butler and Bill Ward – were the last to appear on stage as part of the star-studded line-up for the Back to the Beginning concert. The band's final performance in Ozzy's hometown of Birmingham on July 5 is said to have raised £140million for charity. The iconic farewell gig has split its profits between Birmingham Children's Hospital, Acorns Children's Hospice and the Cure Parkinson's charity. Following the concert, Back To The Beginning director Tom Morello wrote on Instagram: "More than 190 million dollars will be donated to houses and hospitals for children." If the Rage Against The Machine musician's calculations are correct, Ozzy's swansong raised the most money for any charity concert on record when not adjusted for inflation, Billboard reports. "Ozzy raised 140million for the Children's hospitals and Parkinson's charities, literally Two Weeks before passing away. What a hero," one fan wrote on Twitter (X) in the wake of Ozzy's death being announced. Another added: "To go out in huge style, performing to tens of thousands just before your death, raising millions for charity in the process, well, not many people can say that of their final curtain. What a classy farewell. #ozzy." A third mourner wrote: "The last thing Ozzy Osbourne did with his talents was raise £140,000,000 for children's hospitals and Parkinson's research. He might have dressed like the Devil, but make no mistake, he loved humanity deeply." Ozzy was a "working-class lad that made the most of his raw genius", West Midlands Mayor Richard Parker said today. Speaking to the PA news agency at the Black Sabbath mural on Navigation Street, Mr Parker said it was a sad day in the city where the rock legend was from. He said: "It's a very sad day today, but he's left us with some fantastic memories. He was a man that formed a fantastic band that was shaped by the city, the place he lived, by the furnaces, the factories, the lathes. He used his creative genius to put this city on the global map, and he's left the fantastic legacy."
Daily Record
9 minutes ago
- Daily Record
Ozzy Osbourne's 'secret' son Louis speaks out after being included in family announcement
Ozzy has six children but only four of them were mentioned in the family statement. Ozzy Osbourne 's son Louis, who has remained out of the public eye, has paid tribute to his late father who passed away this week at the age of 76. The Black Sabbath star was a father to six children from his two marriages, but only four of his kids were mentioned in the family statement announcing his death, writes The Mirror. "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 family statement reads. "He was with his family and surrounded by love. We ask everyone to respect our family privacy at this time. Sharon, Jack, Kelly, Aimee and Louis." Jack, Kelly and Aimee Osbourne are Ozzy's three kids from his second marriage to former X Factor judge Sharon Osbourne. Louis Osbourne is the late rocker's youngest child he shared with his first wife Thelma Riley. Before Ozzy met Sharon, he and his then wife welcomed three children together. Ozzy and Thelma were married to from 1971 to 1982. The late singer adopted Elliot Kinglsey, Thelma's son from a previous relationship, before he became a biological father for the first time in 1972 when daughter Jessica was born. Three years later, son Louis was born. While Elliot and Jessica weren't named on the Osbourne family statement last night, it appears Louis was present for his father's final hours. It's not yet known why Elliot and Jessica didn't feature on the statement. After the news was announced that Ozzy had died, Louis changed his Facebook profile picture to an all-black screen as he mourns the War Pigs hitmaker. Louis did appear in the first season of The Osbournes - featuring heavily in the Christmas special 'A Very Ozzy Christmas'. The programme, which proved popular among audiences in the UK and across the pond, saw the family go about their daily lives as cameras documented their every move. In 2012, Louis opened up about his relationship with his famous father and his half siblings. "I don't travel half as much as I used to and they are in America," he told Birmingham Live in 2012. "There is more chance of us seeing each other in a random New York hotel than us all getting round a table for a Sunday lunch. We meet on special occasions." He and his dad, however, did make a point to check in on a regular basis. "Dad usually calls on a Sunday afternoon for a catch up and when he comes over to the UK we take the kids down. Dad is great, very much a doting grandad." Black Sabbath fans, musicians and former bandmates have remembered Ozzy following his death with messages including one of thanks to him for "bringing Birmingham together". His Black Sabbath band mates – Terence 'Geezer' Butler, Tony Iommi and Bill Ward – led tributes to Ozzy alongside fans from his home city of Birmingham, where he had taken to the stage as part of a reunion concert just weeks earlier. Black Sabbath co-founder Iommi said it was "brilliant" to reunite with the band before Ozzy died, saying the singer "really wanted" to perform together again and "felt at home". He told BBC Radio 4's Today programme: "It is really a shock. It's really hit me today to be honest, but yeah, a terrible shock. It was brilliant to be with all the guys again… and it was brilliant for Ozzy because he really wanted to do that, you know, he felt at home there and it was really good for him. It was good for all of us, and lovely to be able to get together for a final thing. I mean, we didn't realise it was going to be this final." Earlier this month, Ozzy took to the stage as part of the Black Sabbath reunion, telling thousands of heavy metal enthusiasts at Villa Park – a stone's throw from where the band was formed in 1968 – that it was "so good to be on this stage" as he performed his last set from a large black throne. Join the Daily Record WhatsApp community!
Daily Mirror
10 minutes ago
- Daily Mirror
Ozzy Osbourne's wild prediction for his gravestone epitaph and thoughts on life after death
Before his death, rock legend Ozzy Osbourne opened up about his thoughts on the afterlife, as well as what he believed to be his unavoidable epitaph when the time came The late, great Ozzy Osbourne wasn't one to shy away from the darker topics in life - and this included the subject of death. As you might expect from a rockstar nicknamed The Prince of Darkness, Ozzy, who died at the age of 76, appeared to have an interest in what would happen after he died, and even predicted what would be written on his tombstone when the time came. Of course, the Birmingham-born rocker had more than a fair few brushes with the Grim Reaper over the years, most famously after a horror quad bike accident in 2003, after which his heart even stopped beating. In a previous interview with the Mirror, devoted wife Sharon Osbourne, 72, shared how her husband "stopped breathing for a minute and a half", before a security guard thankfully resuscitated him. The Black Sabbath frontman, who lived with Parkinson's Disease, also suffered an agonising fall at his LA home, as well as a series of botched surgeries which left him in agony. Ozzy himself even expressed surprise that he'd lived as long as he did, when so many of his friends had passed on. However, there was one thing he was sure of - how he'd be remembered. In a 2004 interview with Esquire, Ozzy remarked: "I know what's going to be on my tombstone, and there's no getting around it: 'Here lies Ozzy Osbourne, the ex-Black Sabbath singer who bit the head off a bat'." Ozzy was, of course, referring to a now notorious incident which unfolded back in the winter of 1982, back when he was promoting Diary of a Madman. While on tour, the former abattoir worker got into the grisly habit of chucking raw pieces of meat into the audience, and it wasn't long before they started to retaliate with their own grim offerings. On the night of January 20, a fan threw what Ozzy initially believed was a rubber toy bat onto the stage. It wasn't until he ripped the head off with his own teeth that he realised the toy was bloody and twitching. Recalling this historic moment in his 2010 autobiography, I Am Ozzy, the Brummie star wrote: "Immediately, though, something felt wrong. Very wrong. For a start, my mouth was instantly full of this warm, gloopy liquid. Then the head in my mouth twitched. "Somebody threw a bat. I just thought it was a rubber bat. And I picked it up and put it in my mouth. I bit into it." By the time Ozzy realised he'd been chomping into a "real live bat", it was far too late. Of course, with his myriad of professional and personal accomplishments, Ozzy will no doubt be remembered for far more than this gory incident. However, that infamous gig did help to solidify Ozzy's 'satanic' image in the eyes of music fans, who reacted with a mix of horror and morbid fascination. Ozzy also had a few thoughts on what was waiting on the other side of the grave. In a 2009 interview with The Telegraph's Celia Walden, Ozzy grumbled: 'Hell. Even if I do make it to Heaven, you can bet your life that the toilet will stink.' As he navigated serious health issues, Ozzy didn't appear to fear death. In 2023, during an interview with Rolling Stone, he admitted: "I said to Sharon that I'd smoked a joint recently and she said, 'What are you doing that for? It'll f*****g kill you'.' I said: 'How long do you want me to f*****g live for?!' At best, I've got 10 years left, and when you're older, time picks up speed!" Ozzy went on to clarify that while he didn't "fear dying," he didn't "want to have a long, painful and miserable existence." He also reflected on how many of his pals had already passed on, remarking: "Sometimes I look in the mirror and go, 'Why the f*** did you make it?!' I'm not boasting about any of it because I should have been dead a thousand times. I've had my stomach pumped God knows how many times."
