Black Sabbath legend Ozzy Osbourne, the Prince of Darkness, dead at 76

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3 days ago

The Blizzard of Ozz has ended.
Ozzy Osbourne, the legendary Prince of Darkness and one of heavy metal's most iconic voices, has died at 76.
He died 'surrounded by love,' his family said in a statement to The Post shortly after his death on Tuesday.
'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 statement from his wife and four of his six kids said.
'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.'
News of Osbourne's death comes more than five years after he announced his Parkinson's disease diagnosis — and less than three weeks after his final show with Black Sabbath in the band's hometown of Birmingham, England.
The metal master was known for his outrageous antics as much as his groundbreaking hard rock achievements.
The former Black Sabbath frontman bit the head off a dove during a 1981 record company meeting, and allegedly bit the head off a bat during a 1982 show in Des Moines, Iowa.
Osbourne also reportedly snorted a line of ants while on tour with outrageous rockers Motley Crue in the 1980s, according to the band's documentary 'The Dirt.'
In 1982, the outrageous singer was even arrested for urinating on the Cenotaph, a landmark at the Alamo in Texas.
However, the exploits only fed his legendary career, both as Sabbath's lead singer, a successful solo artist and reality TV star in the MTV series 'The Osbournes,' which ran from 2002 to 2005.
Ozzy origins
Born John Michael Osbourne in Birmingham, England, on Dec. 3, 1948, he was nicknamed 'Ozzy' in primary school.
He had a challenging childhood, but music provided him with an outlet.
Learning was difficult for him due to dyslexia, and the future Rock & Roll Hall of Fame inductee claimed to have been sexually abused by bullies when he was 11. He also recalled attempting suicide as a teen.
Osbourne credited The Beatles and their 1964 song 'She Loves You' for inspiring him to pursue a music career.
When he was 15, he dropped out of school and worked several trade jobs.
Two years later, he spent six weeks in the Winson Green prison because he was unable to pay a fine after stealing from a clothing store.
Once released, Osbourne and his friend Geezer Butler formed their first band, Rare Breed, with Ozzy on vocals and Butler on bass.
The two formed Black Sabbath in 1968 with guitarist Tony Iommi and drummer Bill Ward. The band is highly regarded as a major influence in the development of heavy metal music,with hits like'Paranoid,' 'War Pigs' and 'Iron Man.'
The group, as well as Osbourne himself, was often criticized for their music's dark and sometimes 'satanic' themes.
'When we started gigging way back when, as soon as we started playing this song's opening chords, young girls in the audience would f–king freak out,' he told NME in 2016. 'They thought we were Satan's f–king friends or something.'
'That's when the whole 'Prince of Darkness' s–t started,' he explained about the origin of his nickname. 'When people get excited about Halloween coming around each year, all I think is, 'Well, we used to have Halloween every f–king night.''
In the early days of the band, Osbourne married his first wife, Thelma Riley in 1971. Before they welcomed daughter Jessica and son Louis in 1972 and 1975, respectively, the rocker adopted her son, Elliott Kingsley, who was born in 1966. The couple divorced in 1982.
Osbourne was fired from Black Sabbath in 1979 for alcohol and drug abuse, which he later revealed felt hypocritical at the time.
'I'd be lying if I said I didn't feel betrayed by what happened with Black Sabbath,' he wrote in his 2009 memoir, 'I Am Ozzy.'
'We were four blokes who'd grown up together a few streets apart. We were like family, like brothers. And firing me for being f–ked up was hypocritical bulls–t. We were all f–ked up. If you're stoned, and I'm stoned, and you're telling me that I'm fired because I'm stoned, how can that be? Because I'm slightly more stoned than you are?' he added.
That's when Sharon Arden, daughter of Black Sabbath's manager, Don Arden, decided to manage Osbourne as a solo act.
He would go on to make 12 solo albums with hits like 'Crazy Train,' 'Mama, I'm Coming Home' and 'No More Tears.'
Osbourne sold over 100 million albums as a solo artist and a member of Black Sabbath.
Both the band and Ozzy as a solo act were inducted into the UK Music Hall of Fame in 2005. He joined the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame as a member of Black Sabbath in 2006.
Ozzy also made headlines for his outlandish behavior — including the legendary bat-biting incident in January 1982 and the drunken peeing at the Alamo's cenotaph the following month.
His successful solo career, starting with his debut album, 'Blizzard of Ozz,' was also marred by tragedy when close friend and lead guitarist Randy Rhoads was killed on March 19, 1982, in a plane crash that struck Osbourne's tour bus.
Rhoads was just 25.
Master of reality
Four months later, Osbourne married Sharon, one of the most significant relationships of his career.
The couple had three kids: Aimee, 41, Kelly, 40, and Jack, 39. The family would go on to reach a new level of fame in their first-of-its-kind reality TV show.
Aside from Aimee, who refused to take part in the MTV series, 'The Osbournes' invited cameras into their home to chronicle the raw rock 'n' roll domestic life of the family and their many dogs.
The show premiered in March 2002 and ran for three years. Its first season was the most-viewed series in MTV history at the time.
Jack later alleged his father 'hated' filming the show.
'I don't know how the Kardashians have done it for so long — it sent us crazy at the end,' Ozzy recounted in January 2023.
'I am not sorry I did it, but after three or four years I said, 'Do you know what, we're going to lose somebody because it is getting too crazy,'' he continued, adding that the show traumatized him and his family.
'There is rock 'n' roll fame, which is pretty intense, but that Osbourne level was just unbelievable. The kids paid for it. They all ended up doing drugs. Jack got clean and sober on that show, Kelly messed up on that show, I was messed up, and Sharon got cancer.' (In 2002, Sharon was diagnosed with colon cancer and underwent surgery and chemotherapy.)
Ozzy reunited with Black Sabbath on several occasions and rejoined the group in 2013 to record its final album, '13.' He also joined the band on its farewell tour from 2016 to 2017.
The rocker struggled with heavy drug and alcohol addiction throughout his life. He was introduced to cocaine in 1971 and later claimed he took LSD every day for two years while in Black Sabbath.
Follow The Post's coverage on Ozzy Osbourne's death
Ozzy Osbourne was suffering from debilitating Parkinson's disease, spinal injury in years leading up to his death
Ozzy Osbourne 'surrounded by love' and family when he died
Ozzy and Sharon Osbourne's ups and downs during their 40-year marriage
Ozzy Osbourne's final Instagram post before death was touching tribute to Black Sabbath's last show
Black Sabbath legend Ozzy Osbourne, the Prince of Darkness, dead at 76
At the end of his time with the band, the musician said he 'got very drunk and very stoned every single day.'
In September 1989, Osbourne's challenges got him into legal trouble when he allegedly tried to kill Sharon.
He was too intoxicated to remember the incident, and Sharon ended up dropping the criminal charges against him. But a judge still ordered Ozzy to complete six months in rehab.
'We've come to a decision that you've got to die,' Sharon recalled Ozzy saying before he allegedly strangled her.
'He was calm — very, very calm,' she said in the A&E series 'Biography: The Nine Lives of Ozzy Osbourne.' 'I felt the stuff on the table, and felt the panic button, and just pressed it. Next thing I know, the cops were there.'
'It's not exactly one of my greatest f–king achievements,' Ozzy added.
He was sober for many years. But in April 2013, Osbourne said on
that he had been drinking and doing drugs for the past year and a half.
In February 2021, he told Varietythat he had been sober for seven years.
The following August, Osbourne stated that he was 'fed up' with the staggering amount of gun violence in America and that he and Sharon would be moving to the UK.
However, he later walked back his statement and said he would rather stay in the States.
'I'm American now. To be honest with you, I don't want to go back [to England],' he reiterated. 'F–k that.'
The rocker canceled his 2023 tour three months before it was scheduled to kick off and declared that his touring career was officially over.
'This is probably one of the hardest things I've ever had to share with my loyal fans,' he captioned the announcement on social media.
He thanked and apologized to fans who bought tickets to his postponed 2019 shows, saying he was 'honestly humbled by the way you've all patiently held onto your tickets for all this time.'
'My one and only purpose during this time has been to get back onstage,' he said. 'My singing voice is fine.'
'However, after three operations, stem cell treatments, endless physical therapy, and most recently, groundbreaking Cybernics (HAL) Treatment, my body is still physically weak,' he added.
Despite the announcement that he was quitting touring in 2023, Osbourne returned to the stage one last time earlier this month to perform with Black Sabbath for the band's final concert in his hometown.
'I'd love to say 'never say never,' but after the last six years or so … it is time,' he told the Guardian two months before the concert. 'I lived on the road for 50-odd years, and I've kind of got used to not picking up my bags and getting on the bus again.'
Osbourne also opened up about his battle with Parkinson's shortly before his death.
'You wake up the next morning and find that something else has gone wrong,' he said in May. 'You begin to think this is never going to end.'
Kelly took to social media shortly before the rock star's death to dispel rumors that her famous father was dying.
She posted to her Instagram Stories, 'So, there's this video going around on social media, and it's supposed to be my dad, but it's AI.'
'And it starts out saying, 'I don't need a doctor to tell me that I'm going to die. I know I'm going to die,' ' the TV personality continued. 'What the f–k is wrong with you people? Why would you spend your time making a video like this?'
The former 'Fashion Police' host — who got engaged at her dad's final Black Sabbath show — then clarified that Ozzy is 'not dying.'
'Yes, he has Parkinson's, and yes, his mobility is completely different than it used to be, but he's not dying,' she said. 'What is wrong with you?'
Kelly also took a moment to slam the rumors that her parents had a 'suicide pact' after Sharon suggested as much in 2007.'That was bulls–t my mum said to get attention one time,' Kelly concluded. 'And my dad's not dying. Stop.'
Ozzy is survived by Sharon and their children, Aimee, Kelly and Jack, as well as his children from his first marriage, to Thelma Riley, 71: Jessica, 45, and Louis, 50.
Ozzy also adopted Riley's son from a previous relationship, now 59, during their marriage, which lasted from 1971 to 1982. The late star also had 10 grandchildren.
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