Ozzy Osbourne, the heavy steel legend who rose to fame within the pioneering group Black Sabbath, has died, his household stated in an announcement to CBS Information. He was 76.
“It’s with extra unhappiness than mere phrases can convey that we’ve to report that our beloved Ozzy Osbourne has handed away this morning,” the household stated within the assertion. “He was along with his household and surrounded by love. We ask everybody to respect our household privateness presently.”
Both clad in black or bare-chested, the singer was usually the goal of oldsters’ teams for his imagery and as soon as precipitated an uproar for biting the pinnacle off a bat. Later, he would reveal himself to be a doddering and candy father on the truth TV present “The Osbournes.”
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The Large Bang of heavy steel
Black Sabbath’s 1969 self-titled debut LP has been likened to the Large Bang of heavy steel. It got here in the course of the top of the Vietnam Conflict and crashed the hippie celebration, dripping menace and foreboding. The quilt of the file was of a spooky determine in opposition to a stark panorama. The music was loud, dense and indignant, and marked a shift in rock ‘n’ roll.
The band’s second album, “Paranoid,” included such traditional steel tunes as “Conflict Pigs,” “Iron Man” and “Fairies Put on Boots.” The track “Paranoid” solely reached No. 61 on the Billboard Sizzling 100 however turned in some ways the band’s signature track. Each albums have been voted among the many prime 10 best heavy steel albums of all time by readers of Rolling Stone journal.
“Black Sabbath are the Beatles of heavy steel. Anyone who’s critical about steel will inform you all of it comes right down to Sabbath,” Dave Navarro of the band Jane’s Dependancy wrote in a 2010 tribute in Rolling Stone. “There is a direct line you possibly can draw again from at this time’s steel, by Eighties bands like Iron Maiden, again to Sabbath.”
Sabbath fired Osbourne in 1979 for his legendary excesses, like displaying up late for rehearsals and lacking gigs. “We knew we did not actually have a selection however to sack him as a result of he was simply so uncontrolled. However we have been all very down concerning the state of affairs,” wrote bassist Terry “Geezer” Butler in his memoir, “Into the Void.”
Osbourne reemerged the following 12 months as a solo artist with “Blizzard of Ozz” and the next 12 months’s “Diary of a Madman,” each arduous rock classics that went multi-platinum and spawned enduring favorites akin to “Loopy Practice,” “Goodbye to Romance,” “Flying Excessive Once more” and “You Cannot Kill Rock and Roll.” Osbourne was twice inducted to the Rock & Roll Corridor of Fame — as soon as with Sabbath in 2006 and once more in 2024 as a solo artist.
The unique Sabbath lineup reunited for the primary time in 20 years in July 2025 within the U.Okay. for what Osborne stated can be his remaining live performance. “Let the insanity start!” he advised 42,000 followers.
Metallica, Weapons N Roses, Slayer, Instrument, Pantera, Gojira, Alice in Chains, Lamb of God, Halestorm, Anthrax, Rival Sons and Mastodon did units. Tom Morello, Aerosmith’s Steven Tyler, Billy Corgan, Ronnie Wooden, Travis Barker, Sammy Hagar, Andrew Watt, Yungblud, Korn’s Jonathan Davis, Nuno Bettencourt, Chad Smith and Vernon Reid made appearances. Actor Jason Momoa was the host for the festivities.
“Black Sabbath: we would all be totally different folks with out them, that is the reality,” stated Pantera singer Phil Anselmo. “I do know I would not be up right here with a microphone in my hand with out Black Sabbath.”
Outlandish exploits and a traditional look
Osbourne embodied the excesses of steel. His outlandish exploits included relieving himself on the Alamo, snorting a line of ants off a sidewalk and, most memorably, biting the pinnacle off a stay bat {that a} fan threw onstage throughout a 1981 live performance. (He stated he thought it was rubber.)
Osbourne was sued in 1987 by dad and mom of a 19-year-old teen who died by suicide whereas listening to his track “Suicide Answer.” The lawsuit was dismissed. Osbourne stated the track was actually concerning the risks of alcohol, which precipitated the dying of his good friend Bon Scott, lead singer of AC/DC.
Then-Cardinal John J. O’Connor of New York claimed in 1990 that Osbourne’s songs led to demonic possession and even suicide. “You’re ignorant concerning the true which means of my songs,” the singer wrote again. “You’ve gotten additionally insulted the intelligence of rock followers all around the world.”
Audiences at Osbourne reveals might be mooned or spit on by the singer. They’d usually be hectored to scream together with the track, however the Devil-invoking Osbourne would normally ship the crowds dwelling with their ears ringing and a hearty “God bless!”
He began an annual tour — Ozzfest — in 1996 after he was rejected from the lineup of what was then the highest touring music pageant, Lollapalooza. Ozzfest has gone on to host such bands as Slipknot, Instrument, Megadeth, Rob Zombie, System of a Down, Limp Bizkit and Linkin Park.
Osbourne’s look modified little over his life. He wore his lengthy hair flat, heavy black eye make-up and spherical glasses, usually carrying a cross round his neck. In 2013, he reunited with Black Sabbath for the dour, uncooked “13,” which reached No. 1 on the U.Okay. Albums Chart and peaked at No. 86 on the U.S. Billboard 200. In 2019, he had a Prime 10 hit when featured on Put up Malone’s “Take What You Need,” Osbourne’s first track within the Prime 10 since 1989.
In 2020, he launched the album “Extraordinary Man,” which had as its title track a duet with Elton John. “I have been a foul man, been larger than the blue sky/And the reality is I do not wanna die an atypical man,” he sang. In 2022, he landed his first profession back-to-back No. 1 rock radio singles from his album “Affected person Quantity 9,” which featured collaborations with Jeff Beck, Eric Clapton, Mike McCready, Chad Smith, Robert Trujillo and Duff McKagan. It earned 4 Grammy nominations.
On the Rock & Roll Corridor of Fame induction ceremony in 2024, Jack Black referred to as him “best frontman within the historical past of rock and roll” and “the Jack Nicholson of rock.” Osbourne thanked his followers, his guitarist Randy Rhoads and his longtime spouse, Sharon.
The beginnings of Black Sabbath
John Michael Osbourne was raised within the gritty metropolis of Birmingham, England. Children in class nicknamed him Ozzy, quick for his surname. As a boy, he beloved the 4 Seasons, Chuck Berry and Little Richard. The Beatles made an enormous impression.
“They got here from Liverpool, which was roughly 60 miles north of the place I come from,” he advised Billboard. “So abruptly it was in my grasp, however I by no means thought it will be as profitable because it turned.”
Within the late Sixties, Osbourne had teamed up with Butler, guitarist Tony Iommi and drummer Invoice Ward because the Polka Tulk Blues Band. They determined to rename the band Earth, however discovered to their dismay there was one other band with that identify. So that they modified the identify to the American title of the traditional Italian horror film “I Tre Volti Della Paura,” starring Boris Karloff: Black Sabbath.
As soon as they discovered their sludgy, ominous groove, the band was productive, placing out their self-titled debut and “Paranoid” in 1970, “Grasp of Actuality” in 1971, “Vol. 4” in 1972 and “Sabbath Bloody Sabbath” in 1973.
The music was all about industrial guitar riffs and disorienting adjustments in time signatures, together with lyrics that spoke of alienation and doom. “Individuals suppose I am insane as a result of I’m frowning on a regular basis,” Osbourne sang in a single track. “All day lengthy I consider issues however nothing appears to fulfill/Suppose I will lose my thoughts if I do not discover one thing to pacify.”
The Guardian newspaper in 2009 stated the band “launched working-class anger, stoner sludge grooves and witchy horror-rock to flower energy. Black Sabbath confronted the empty platitudes of the Sixties and, together with Altamont and Charles Manson, virtually definitely helped kill off the hippy counterculture.”
After Sabbath, Osbourne had an uncanny knack for calling a number of the most artistic younger guitarists to his facet. When he went solo, he employed the good innovator Rhoads, who performed on two of Osbourne’s best solo albums, “Blizzard of Ozz” and “Diary of a Madman.” Rhoads was killed in a freak aircraft accident in 1982; Osbourne launched the stay album “Tribute” in 1987 in his reminiscence.
Osbourne then signed Jake E. Lee, who lent his skills to the platinum albums “Bark on the Moon” and “The Final Sin.” Hotshot Zakk Wylde joined Osbourne’s band for “No Relaxation for the Depraved” and the multiplatinum “No Extra Tears.”
“They arrive alongside, they sprout wings, they blossom, they usually fly off,” Osbourne stated of his gamers in 1995 to The Related Press. “However I’ve to maneuver on. To get a brand new participant every so often boosts me on.”
Courting controversy — and wholesomeness
Whomever he was taking part in with, Osbourne wasn’t more likely to again down from controversy. He had the final chortle when the TV evangelist the Rev. Jimmy Swaggart in 1986 lambasted numerous rock teams and rock magazines as “the brand new pornography,” prompting some retailers to drag Osbourne’s album.
When Swaggart later was caught with a intercourse employee in 1988, Osbourne put out the track “Miracle Man” about his foe: “Miracle man received busted/miracle man received busted,” he sang. “As we speak I noticed a Miracle Man, on TV cryin’/Such a hypocritical man, born once more, dying.”
A lot later, a complete new Osbourne can be revealed when “The Osbournes,” which ran on MTV from 2002-2005, confirmed this one-time self-proclaimed madman consuming Food plan Cokes as he struggled to search out the Historical past Channel on his new satellite tv for pc tv or warning his children to not smoke or drink earlier than they launched into an evening in town.
Later, he and his son Jack toured America on the journey present “Ozzy & Jack’s World Detour,” the place the pair visited such locations as Mount Rushmore and the Area Middle Houston. Osbourne was honored in 2014 with the naming of a bat frog discovered within the Amazon that makes high-pitched, batlike calls. It was dubbed Dendropsophus ozzyi.
He additionally met Queen Elizabeth II throughout her Golden Jubilee weekend. He was standing subsequent to singer-actor Cliff Richard. “She took one take a look at the 2 of us, stated ‘Oh, so that is what they name selection, is it?’ then cracked up laughing. I actually thought that Sharon had slipped some acid into my cornflakes that morning,” he wrote in “I Am Ozzy.”
Thelma Riley and Osbourne married in 1971; Osbourne adopted her son Elliot Kingsley, they usually had two extra youngsters, Jessica and Louis. Osbourne later met Sharon, who turned her personal celeb persona, when she was working her father’s Los Angeles workplace. Her father was Don Arden, a prime live performance promoter and artist supervisor. She went to Osbourne’s lodge in Los Angeles to gather cash, which Osbourne had spent on medication.
“She says she’ll come again in three days and I would higher have it. I would at all times fancied her and I assumed, ‘Ah, she’s coming again! Perhaps I’ve an opportunity.’ I had pizza hanging from my hair, cigarette ashes on my shirt,” he advised the Los Angeles Occasions in 2000. They married in 1982, had three youngsters — Kelly, Aimee and Jack — and endured periodic separations and reconciliations.
He’s survived by Sharon, and his youngsters.
