Ozzy Osbourne dies at 76: Black Sabbath legend passes away
The rock icon, known for his wild stage antics and pioneering role in heavy metal, passed away just weeks after performing a farewell concert in Birmingham.
'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 said in a statement.
'He was with his family and surrounded by love.'
Osbourne, who battled Parkinson's disease since 2019, had recently played his final show on July 5 at Villa Park, reuniting with original Black Sabbath members for the first time in two decades.
The concert, dubbed 'Back to the Beginning,' saw him perform from a leather throne adorned with a bat—a nod to his infamous 1982 stunt where he bit off a bat's head on stage.
Tributes flooded in from fellow musicians, with Elton John calling him 'a huge trailblazer who secured his place in the pantheon of rock gods.'
Pearl Jam's Mike McCready credited Osbourne's voice for taking fans 'to a dark universe.'
Born in Birmingham in 1948, Osbourne rose to fame with Black Sabbath, whose 1970 debut album became a cornerstone of heavy metal.
The band sold over 75 million records worldwide and was inducted into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame in 2006.
Beyond music, Osbourne became a pop culture figure through the reality show *The Osbournes*, which showcased his eccentric family life.
His career was marked by outrageous moments, from snorting ants to urinating on a war memorial.
Despite health struggles, including a near-fatal quad bike crash in 2003, Osbourne continued making music, releasing his final albums *Ordinary Man* (2020) and *Patient Number 9* (2022).
His last words to fans at Villa Park were: 'Thank you from the bottom of our hearts.' - AFP
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The Star
16 hours ago
- The Star
10 songs to remember Ozzy Osbourne, the great Black Sabbath frontman
There are pioneering music figures, and then there is Ozzy Osbourne, the larger-than-life frontman of Black Sabbath, whose personal mythology is eclipsed only by the strength and immortality of his songs. A godfather and force of heavy metal, Osbourne died Tuesday at 76, just weeks after his last performance. The English icon's idiosyncratic, throaty voice launched generations of metalheads, both through his work at the reins of Black Sabbath and in his solo career. Across his repertoire, there are songs with total global ubiquity and lesser-known innovations with his unique, spooky aesthetic quality. To celebrate Osbourne's life and legacy, we've selected just a few songs that made the man, from timeless tunes to a few left-of-center selections. It would be a challenge to name a more immediately recognisable guitar riff than the one that launches Black Sabbath's 1970 megahit Iron Man . It transcends the metal genre - an all-timer heard around the world and in guitar stores everywhere. One of the great Vietnam War protest songs, Black Sabbath's War Pigs is a rare moment where hippies and metalheads can agree: "Politicians hide themselves away/ They only started the war/ Why should they go out to fight?" Osbourne sings in the bridge. Osbourne's heaviest performances are at least partially indebted to Black Sabbath's bassist and lyricist Terry Geezer Butler, and there is perhaps no better example than Children of the Grave , the single from the band's 1971 album, Master of Reality . "Must the world live in the shadow of atomic fear?" Osbourne embodies Butler's words, a sonic fist lifted in the air. "Can they win the fight for peace or will they disappear?" Rock musicians (L-R) Rob Halford, Ozzy Osbourne and Nikki Sixx pose during a news conference in Los Angeles April 30, 2010 announcing the lineup for their OZZFest concert tour which kicks off August 14, 2010 in San Bernardino, California. REUTERS/Fred Prouser/File Photo Black Sabbath were in a creative rut in the time period leading up to Sabbath Bloody Sabbath , the opening track from their 1973 album of the same name. It's almost hard to believe now - the song features one of their best-known riffs, and its chorus features some truly ascendant vocals. Would the world know what a vibraslap sounds like without the immediately recognisable introduction to Osbourne's first solo single, Crazy Train ? To call it a classic is almost a disservice - it is an addicting tune, complete with chugging guitars and Cold War-era fears. Ozzy Osbourne, of Black Sabbath, performs at Ozzfest on Sept. 24, 2016, in San Bernardino, Calif. (Amy Harris/Invision/AP, File) Another classic cut from Osbourne's debut solo album, Blizzard Of Ozz - released one year after Osbourne was fired from Black Sabbath for his legendary excesses, - the arena rock anthem Mr. Crowley pays tribute to the famed English occultist Aleister Crowley and features Deep Purple's Don Airey on keyboard. The title track and coda of Osbourne's second solo studio album, Diary of a Madman , runs over six minutes long, features big strings and a choir so theatrical it sounds like they're scoring a medieval war film. He wanted big, he wanted dramatic, and he nailed it. It wouldn't be inaccurate to call Mama, I'm Coming Home a beautiful-sounding song. It's unlike anything on this list, a power ballad featuring lyrics written by the late Motörhead frontman Lemmy and a welcomed deviation. Singer Ozzy Osbourne performs during halftime of an NFL football game between the Los Angeles Rams and the Buffalo Bills in Inglewood, Calif., on Sept. 8, 2022. — Photo: AP Photo/Ashley Landis, File In the early '90s, Osbourne announced a short-lived retirement from music - one that ended with the release of 1995's Ozzmosis . There's a lot to love here - in particular, the haunting, full-throated chorus of Perry Mason . Late in life Ozzy Osbourne was generous with his time and talent, often collaborating with younger performers who idolised the metal legend. One such example is Post Malone's Take What You Want , which also features the rapper Travis Scott. Osbourne gives the song a necessary gothic edge - validating the otherwise balladic song's use of a sprightly guitar solo. – AP
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The Star
2 days ago
- The Star
Remembering Ozzy Osbourne's style: From stolen shirts to the Prince of Darkness
His journey from small-time criminal to heavy metal's comic Prince of Darkness started with clothes. Growing up in Birmingham, England, Ozzy Osbourne didn't see much of a future for himself, so he decided to give it a go as a cat burglar. His main target, according to his 2009 memoir, I Am Ozzy , was a clothing shop not far from home. On his third attempt, he recalled, 'I managed to nick some shirts.' But he was arrested soon afterward and sent to Winson Green Prison, a century-old facility that looked like a medieval fortress. His six-week jail stint caused him to reconsider his plan to become a career criminal. He took jobs in an auto parts factory and a slaughterhouse. Inspired by the Beatles, he wanted more than anything to join a rock-n-roll band. The first step he took toward this unrealistic-seeming goal was to change his appearance. 'I didn't even know anyone who could play a musical instrument,' he recalled. 'So, instead, I decided to grow my hair long and get some tattoos. At least I'd look the part.' Read more: Music you can 'see'? Rhythm and beats are now visible through fashion He was the same age as many of the young people who wore bright, flowing garments during the so-called Summer of Love, but he detested flower power. When he finally joined up with some old schoolmates to form Black Sabbath, he made his way toward a style that represented a dramatic departure from the cheerful hues favoured by the tie-dye crowd. The hippies liked soft fabrics that reflected an innocent view of a world, where peace and love would win out in the end. Osbourne favoured capes and heavy boots. He had gone to jail, not college. It took him a while to find a style that worked, especially before the money rolled in. Ozzy Osbourne poses for a photo in Los Angeles on Dec 21, 1981. Photo: AP 'I'd walk around in an old pyjama top for a shirt with a hot-water tap on a piece of string for a necklace,' he wrote in his memoir. 'You had to use your imagination. And I never wore shoes – not even in winter. People would ask me where I got my 'fashion inspiration' from and I'd tell them: 'By being a dirty broke (expletive) and never taking a bath.'' All the members of Black Sabbath came from Aston, the same blue-collar Birmingham neighborhood as Osbourne, parts of which were reduced to rubble by German air attacks during World War II. The members' look was as much an expression of their background as their music. A metal cross that Osbourne's father, a toolmaker, made in his spare time for him became a key Black Sabbath accessory. Osbourne, who died Tuesday (July 22) at age 76, would wear cross pendants for the rest of his life. There was always a touch of irony to the look and sound of Black Sabbath, and when he performed live, Osbourne was a light-spirited presence, a friendly ringleader for his audience of misfits. So he was surprised when some actual Satanists asked the band to perform during a ritual at Stonehenge. Black Sabbath made use of the trappings of horror in the manner of George Romero and other film directors who understood that people are entertained by grim fantasies. The clothing was part of the act. With its hard, sludgy sound, and songs like War Pigs and Paranoid , Black Sabbath frightened parents and made very little sense to the critics who had sung the praises of Bob Dylan and the Beatles. But there was an upside to the lack of approval from the establishment. It meant that the young rock fans of the 1970s had Black Sabbath all to themselves, and the band's horror-inspired look became a style staple of teenagers from the Midlands of England to the American Midwest. Some of those fans would start heavy metal bands of their own, and the style pioneered by Osbourne inspired the fashions of Iron Maiden, Megadeth, Marilyn Manson and any other heavy metal act with a sense of the theatrical. In 1979, Osbourne was kicked out of Black Sabbath, with his bandmates saying that his substance abuse had made him unreliable. In the next decade, he embraced the Gothic look with a sense of camp, making black his main colour as he became known as the Prince of Darkness. That nickname seemed especially apt when he bit the head off a bat during a concert in 1982, even if he had been under the mistaken impression that it was a toy, rather than an actual animal. Read more: Through adversity, a new aesthetic: The Princess of Wales' fashion evolution As Osbourne's solo career continued, tinted round eyeglasses joined his ever-present cross as his signature accessories. That look continued to serve him well when he became an unlikely reality television star in the early 2000s, playing a befuddled father and husband on MTV's The Osbournes . For four memorable seasons, he looked as if he had just stepped out of the underworld, a style made all the funnier when he had trouble operating the remote. Osbourne dressed evil. But he was in on the joke. – ©2025 The New York Times Company This article originally appeared in The New York Times.
