Ozzy Osbourne, the legendary lead singer of Black Sabbath, has passed away in London. He was renowned for his groundbreaking heavy metal music as well as his excesses and strange onstage antics.
Osbourne passed on Tuesday morning after years of health problems, according to a statement from his family that The Times was able to get. His age was 76.
“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,” the family said.
Osbourne revealed in early 2020 that he had been diagnosed almost a year earlier with Parkinson’s disease, the most recent but by far the most severe illness that has repeatedly forced him to postpone the release of new music, cancel public appearances, and cancel concerts, including his own retirement tour, throughout his career.
However, the singer’s July return to Birmingham, England, the band’s hometown, marked the end of both Black Sabbath and his solo career. A diminished but appreciative Osbourne gave his last performance alongside Metallica, Slayer, Tool, and other heirs to his sinister throne, movingly recognising the end of his life and career with “Mama, I’m Coming Home.”
“You made me cry, you told me lies / But I can’t stand to say goodbye,” he sang, to a tear-streaked, black-clad audience. “Mama, I’m coming home.”
Over the course of his more than 40-year career, the heavy metal pioneer performed as a solo artist and as a member of Black Sabbath. He later served as the mastermind behind the yearly Ozzfest, which occasionally included him with up-and-coming acts. Osbourne didn’t appear to mind that critics mostly ignored him. Black Sabbath’s self-titled debut was “hyped as a rockin’ ritual celebration of the Satanic mass or some such claptrap… they’re not that bad, but that’s about all the credit you can give them,” according to Lester Bangs of the Rolling Stones in 1970. In 2006, he and his bandmates were inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, and fans cheered him on as he sold over 100 million records as a solo artist and as the leader of Black Sabbath.
In the 1990s, Osbourne transformed himself into a heavy metal elder statesman under the direction of his wife, Sharon, who served as both his manager and a pillar of support. The popular MTV reality series “The Osbournes,” in which he portrayed himself as the stuttering, almost unconscious patriarch of a very dysfunctional family, also brought the artist late-life fame.
People wonder why they can’t understand him,” his wife told GQ magazine. “Well, you’d be hard to understand too if you drank two vats of coffee, two vats of wine and took 25 Vicodin a day.”
Osbourne didn’t disagree,
“If anyone has lived the debauched rock ’n’ roll lifestyle,” Osbourne admitted, “I suppose it’s me.”
Osbourne, who was born John Michael Osbourne on December 3, 1948, as the youngest of four children, grew up in a Birmingham working-class area. His father worked evenings as a toolmaker, while his mother was employed at a factory. According to Osbourne, his parents were impoverished and did not have high hopes for their son’s success.
“All I ever wanted to do was to do something good so that my parents could be proud of me,” he told GQ. “I never received any encouragement.”
He had an early interest in theater, performing in school plays. But when he first heard the Beatles, he knew he wanted to be a musician.
Alongside guitarist Tony Iommi, bassist Geezer Butler and drummer Bill Ward, Osbourne emerged as the voice and face of Black Sabbath in 1969.
