Alexis Petridis talked about Ozzy Osbourne, the “Prince of Darkness” who helped make heavy metal popular, and said he passed away just under three weeks after his last concert. Ozzy, who became famous on the reality show The Osbournes, was known for his unique style and powerful voice.
Ozzy Osbourne: A Photographic Biography
Thomas Beaumont-Beaumont
Tuesday, July 22, 2025, 19:12 BST
Ozzy Osbourne passed away at the age of 76.
His cheerful “Prince of Darkness” image made him one of the most famous rock singers ever.
The Osbourne family shared a statement: “We are deeply sad to announce that our beloved Ozzy Osbourne passed away this morning.
He was surrounded by love and his family. We ask everyone to respect our privacy at this time. ”
Even though Ozzy had battled several health issues in the past, no official cause of death was announced.
Ozzy was a performer who once bit off a bat’s head on stage, an innovator whose haunting voice helped start the heavy metal scene, a drug user who tried to harm his wife, and later, a reality TV star who was loved for his humor on The Osbournes.
He was one of the most talked-about figures in rock.
Just under three weeks after he stopped performing, he died.
For the first time since 2005, Ozzy reunited with his original bandmates from Black Sabbath for a special farewell concert called Back to the Beginning on July 5. The concert featured some of the biggest names in metal. During the show, he told the crowd, “I’ve been out of it for six years, and you have no idea how I feel,” referring to many spinal surgeries and a type of Parkinson’s disease. “I truly thank you for that. ”
Born John Michael Osbourne in Aston, Birmingham, in 1948, he was the son of two factory workers.
His early life was tough. At the age of 11, he was regularly sexually abused by two boys. He told the Mirror in 2003, “It felt like it never ended. ” He was also imprisoned for burglary, saying, “It was completely pointless. ”
He admitted this in 2014.
This working-class industrial environment shaped the sound of Black Sabbath, Osbourne’s main band that changed British rock music with their heavy style.
Geezer Butler, the band’s bass player, said in 2017 that they wanted to share their views on the world back then. “We didn’t want to make happy pop songs. We gave it a heavy, industrial feel. ”
The band, which also had guitarist Tony Iommi and drummer Bill Ward, got their name from a Boris Karloff horror movie.
They started with their self-titled album in 1970, and later albums are seen as the foundation of heavy metal. Songs like “Iron Man” and “War Pigs” were used in the 1970 movie *Paranoid*.
It reached number one on the UK album chart.
At the same time, the slower sound of doom metal is still affected by the loud, psychedelic style of *Master of Reality* (1971).
Osbourne made five more great albums with the group, but his problems with drugs and alcohol got him fired in 1979.
Ronnie James Dio joined the band instead. Eventually, Osbourne came back for the 2013 album *13*, which made number one on both US and UK charts. Before their 2025 reunion, Black Sabbath also toured and played what they said was their final show in Birmingham on February 4, 2017.
After leaving Black Sabbath, Osbourne started his own career.
His first single, *Blizzard of Ozz* (1980), sold five times platinum.
Thirteen studio albums were released in the US, with *Patient Number 9* from 2022 being the latest.
Osbourne’s most famous moment happened in 1982 when he bit off the head of a dead bat during a show in Des Moines, Iowa.
He thought it was a prop. He later got a rabies shot at the hospital. He once planned to release birds as a peace message, but he ended up biting the heads off two doves at a tense 1981 meeting. His former publicist, Mick Wall, confirmed this.
He had some UK Top 40 hits in the 1980s and 1990s, like *Bark at the Moon* (1983) and *Perry Mason* (1995).
He finally reached number one.
In 2003, he did a song with his 40-year-old daughter Kelly called *Changes*.
In 2014, Ozzy and Sharon Osbourne were photographed. Image: Dave Hogan/Getty Images/MTV 2014
Osbourne has two children with his first wife, Thelma, named Jessica and Louis, and two more with his wife Sharon, Jack, who is 39, and Aimee, who is 41.
He later said he couldn’t remember the birth of Jessica and Louis, and that his alcoholism had caused his marriage to Thelma to fall apart.
He married Sharon in 1982.
They met three years earlier, and Sharon started managing his solo career. Thanks to her business skills and his continued popularity, they became very rich. In addition to touring the US most of the time, Sharon’s 1996 metal music event, Ozzfest, also took place in the UK and Japan.
In 1989, he was taken into custody after he tried to strangle Sharon to death while drunk.
“I woke up in a small solitary cell with human waste on the walls – and I thought, ‘What the hell have I done now? ‘” he said in a 2007 interview, remembering the event. After reading me a piece of paper, [a police officer] told me I was accused of trying to kill Mrs. Sharon Osbourne. I can’t describe how I felt. I just became numb. The pair later got back together, though they had a temporary break in 2016 after Ozzy cheated on a hair stylist.
From 2002 until 2005, Ozzy, Sharon, Kelly, and Jack were on the reality TV show The Osbournes.
The show followed their family life, and the documentary series included “vagina physicians,” dog therapists, and a lot of creative swearing from everyone. It became a big hit and won the second-ever Emmy for best reality show in 2002.
In a 2003 quad riding accident at their home in Buckinghamshire, Ozzy injured his neck, collarbone, and ribs.
He was told he almost became paralyzed from the accident, and Sharon later said he stopped breathing for a minute and a half “and there was no pulse. ” In 2005, he was diagnosed with Parkin syndrome, which causes physical tremors.
After a long time without using substances, he admitted in 2013 that he had been using drugs and alcohol for about a year and a half, but he was committed to getting clean again, saying:
I was in a really bad place and was mean to my family, even though they are the ones I love the most.
Osbourne started what was supposed to be his last big tour, called No More Tours 2, in 2019.
(He had first announced his retirement with the No More Tours tour back in 1992, but then decided to come back. ) He had to delay the European shows in 2020 because he was sick. In a sorry message, he said, “It just feels like since October, everything I touch has gone to trash. ” He had already been in the hospital for treatment of a hand problem.
In 2019, he had a fall that made his health worse.
In 2020, he said he had been diagnosed with Parkinson’s disease and had spine surgery in 2022.
He also had previous injuries from quad biking.
He said his “physical weakness” was the reason he canceled a 2023 tour of the UK and Europe, listing “three surgeries, stem cell treatments, endless physical therapy sessions, and most recently groundbreaking Cybernics (HAL) treatment. ”
In a May 2025 interview with the Guardian, Osbourne talked about how the intense treatment made him feel down.
He said, “The following morning, you discover that another issue has arisen. You start to feel like this will never end,” he said. “I’ve got an idea,” Sharon said to me after she noticed I was in Doom Town. I needed something to make me want to wake up in the morning.
After a solo set of five songs, Osbourne came back on stage with Butler, Iommi, and Ward for a four-song set at the Back to the Beginning concert at Birmingham’s Villa Park.
Osbourne gave a passionate performance while sitting on a throne decorated with bats. At one point, he told the crowd, “I am Iron Man: go fucking crazy! ” Other big names like Guns N’ Roses, Slayer, and Metallica also performed at the concert.
One of the people who paid tribute to Osbourne was Elton John, who said: “He was a true legend, a good friend, and a big trailblazer who won his place in the pantheon of rock gods.
” In addition, he was among the funniest people I’ve ever met. I’ll really miss him.
