OAN Staff Brooke Mallory
12:18 PM – Monday, July 22, 2025
Ozzy Osbourne, the British “Prince of Darkness” who rose to prominence during the 1970s as the lead vocalist of the band Black Sabbath — being a towering figure in the pantheon of heavy metal — has passed away at the age of 76.
“He died surrounded by love,” his family said in a statement to The Sun 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. 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.”
Osbourne’s death comes more than five years after he publicly revealed his diagnosis with Parkinson’s disease in January 2020.
Born John Michael Osbourne on December 3, 1948, in Birmingham, England, he acquired the nickname “Ozzy” during his early school years.
Though his childhood was marked by hardship, music became both a refuge and a driving force in his life.
Learning posed significant challenges for him due to dyslexia, and the future Rock & Roll Hall of Fame inductee later revealed that he had been sexually abused by bullies at the age of 11. He also spoke candidly about struggling with mental health issues as a teenager, including an attempted suicide.
Osbourne credited The Beatles—particularly their 1964 hit “She Loves You”—with igniting his passion for music and setting him on the path toward an unforgettable music career.
At 15, he left school and took on various manual labor jobs. Two years later, he served six weeks in Winson Green Prison after being unable to pay a fine stemming from a clothing store theft.
Upon his release, Osbourne formed his first band, Rare Breed, with his friend Geezer Butler, taking on the role of lead vocalist.
Then, in 1967, he co-founded Black Sabbath, a pioneering force in the emergence of heavy metal. The band played a crucial role in shaping the genre’s sound and aesthetic, with iconic tracks such as “Paranoid,” “War Pigs,” and “Iron Man.”
Both the band and Osbourne himself frequently drew criticism for the dark, “satanic” themes in their music—though the controversy at the time only seemed to amplify their mystique and cultural impact.
“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,” Osbourne 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, regarding the origin of his stage 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.’”
However, at the time, tragic struck when Ozzy was dismissed from Black Sabbath in 1979 due to his escalating alcohol and drug abuse—a decision he would later describe as extremely hypocritical, given the similar habits of his bandmates 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.
However, at that point, Sharon Arden, the daughter of Don Arden, the manager of Black Sabbath, made the abrupt decision to oversee Ozzy as a solo artist. The “Dark Prince” would go on to release 12 solo albums, featuring enduring hits such as “Crazy Train,” “Mama, I’m Coming Home,” and “No More Tears.”
As both a solo artist and a member of Black Sabbath, Ozzy sold over 100 million albums worldwide, cementing his status as one of the best-selling artists in rock history.
Both Black Sabbath and Ozzy’s solo career were honored with induction into the UK Music Hall of Fame in 2005. The following year, he was inducted into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame as a member of Black Sabbath.
Ozzy also attracted widespread media attention for his notoriously outrageous behavior. He infamously bit the head off a bat during a concert in January 1982. The following month, he was arrested in Texas for peeing on a cenotaph (monument) while drunk, which was made to honor those who died at the Battle of the Alamo.
That same year, he married Sharon, now 72, whose father managed Black Sabbath. Together, they had three children: Aimee, now 41; Kelly, now 40; and Jack, now 39. Sharon’s father managed the careers of rock acts such as Jerry Lee Lewis, Little Richard, Gene Vincent, Air Supply, Small Faces, The Move, Black Sabbath, Electric Light Orchestra, and Trickster.
The family would later achieve a new kind of fame through a popular reality television series based on their lives. Aside from their daughter Aimee, who declined to show face in the MTV series, “The Osbournes” offered viewers an unfiltered glimpse into the chaotic, humorous, and often heartfelt domestic life of the rock icon and his family.
“I don’t know how the Kardashians have done it for so long — it sent us crazy at the end,” Ozzy said 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, noting that the show messed him and his family up emotionally.
“There is rock-and-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.” Back in 2002, Sharon was diagnosed with colon cancer — undergoing surgery and chemotherapy.
Ozzy reunited with Black Sabbath multiple times throughout his career, most notably in 2013 when he rejoined the band to record their final studio album “13.” He also participated in their farewell tour, which spanned from 2016 to 2017.
However, in early 2023, the rock legend canceled his upcoming tour—just three months before it was set to begin in Finland that May—and officially announced his permanent retirement from touring.
Addressing fans who had held onto tickets from his postponed 2019 shows, he expressed both gratitude and regret, stating 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 on stage,” he explained at the time. “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 declaring the end of his touring career, Ozzy made one final appearance on stage in July 2025, reuniting with Black Sabbath for the band’s last-ever concert—held fittingly in his hometown of Birmingham, England.
“I’d love to say ‘never say never,’ but after the last six years or so … it is time,” he told The Guardian a few 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.”
In the period leading up to his death, Ozzy spoke candidly about his ongoing battle with Parkinson’s disease.
“You wake up the next morning and find that something else has gone wrong,” he said in May this year. “You begin to think this is never going to end.”
Kelly, Ozzy’s daughter, also recently took to social media to declare that her father was 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 vehemently refute the rumors of a “suicide pact” involving her parents, which Sharon had insinuated back in 2007.
“That was bulls–t my mum said to get attention one time,” Kelly asserted. “And my dad’s not dying. Stop.”
The rocker is survived by his wife, Sharon, and their children—Aimee, Kelly, and Jack—as well as by his children from his first marriage to Thelma Riley. During his marriage to Riley, which spanned from 1971 to 1982, Ozzy also legally adopted Riley’s son from a prior relationship with Elliot Kingsley, now aged 59. The late icon is further survived by ten grandchildren.
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