Ozzy Osbourne, legendary heavy metal rocker turned reality TV star, died on Tuesday, his family confirmed in a statement to The Sun. He was 76 years old.
Osbourne earned the nickname the “Prince of Darkness” in the ’70s as the lead singer of Black Sabbath.
Although Osbourne was a cofounding member of the band, he was fired by his bandmates in 1979 amid his much-publicized struggle with alcohol and drugs. (Osbourne said he visited rehab many times over the years and finally embraced sobriety in the mid-2010s, Variety reported.)
The year after his split from Black Sabbath, Osbourne released his debut solo album, “Blizzard of Ozz,” which went multi-platinum in the US. His 13th and final solo album, “Patient Number 9,” was released in 2022.
He was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame twice, as a member of Black Sabbath in 2006 and as a solo artist in 2024.
In the early 2000s, Osbourne starred on the popular MTV show “The Osbournes” alongside his wife and manager, Sharon, and two of their children, Kelly and Jack. (Their eldest daughter, Aimee, preferred to stay out of the spotlight.) The show has been hailed as a pioneer in reality TV, helping pave the way for irreverent, unscripted comedy and similar “celebrity family” premises like “Keeping Up With the Kardashians,” which premiered on E! two years after “The Osbournes” aired its fourth and final season.
“The reality show wasn’t anything different than our regular life, because that’s the way we are anyway,” Osbourne told Spin magazine in 2023. “We didn’t become the Osbournes that you see just for the show. That’s the way we are, and all they did was take funny bits out of it.”
“It’s really interesting because people love the Kardashians,” he added. “They took it one stage further. They saw what we did and said, ‘That’s a good idea,’ but they organized themselves.”
Osbourne faced a series of health-related issues in recent years
Osbourne went public with his Parkinson’s diagnosis in 2020 after he said he endured what he called “the most painful, miserable” year of his life. He had recently postponed a world tour, leading to public speculation about his health.
“I can’t wait to get well and get on the road again, that’s what’s killing me. I need it. That’s my drug today,” Osbourne told Robin Roberts on “Good Morning America.” “I ain’t done yet. I’m not going anywhere yet.”
Parkinson’s is a degenerative condition that affects the nervous system and causes problems with movement, according to the National Institutes of Health. There is no known cure.
In 2023, Osbourne officially retired from touring due to ongoing problems with his spine. Later that year, he opened up to Rolling Stone UK about a recent series of surgical complications, telling the magazine, “At best, I’ve got 10 years left.”
By early 2025, Osbourne had lost the ability to walk. However, Osbourne himself remained optimistic about his outlook.
“For all my complaining, I’m still alive,” he said on his SiriusXM radio show, per The Sun. “I may be moaning that I can’t walk, but I look down the road and there’s people that didn’t do half as much as me and didn’t make it.”
Despite his declining health, Osbourne was able to join Black Sabbath for a final farewell concert earlier this month in his hometown of Birmingham, England. The event also featured guest performances by Osbourne’s peers and younger musicians inspired by his work, including Metallica, Guns N’ Roses, and Yungblud. The show raised $190 million for Cure Parkinson’s, Birmingham Children’s Hospital, and Acorn Children’s Hospice, making it the highest-grossing charity concert of all time.
A recording of the performance, titled “Back To The Beginning: Ozzy’s Final Bow,” is set to receive a theatrical release next year.
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