Ozzy Osbourne has died. The heavy metal icon and founding member of Black Sabbath’s was 76 years old.
Widely considered one of the leading pioneers of metal, Osbourne was as famous for his on and off-stage antics as he was for his long and prolific career. After a long, successful career as a solo artist, Ozzy reunited with Black Sabbath in 2012. They toured the world and released a new album, 13, in 2013.
In late 2018, Osbourne canceled his farewell tour after he underwent surgery on his hand. He later revealed that he’d contracted a potentially deadly staph infection. He described the surgery as “agony,” adding, “It could have been a lot worse. I could have been dead.” In early 2019, he postponed a tour and was hospitalized for complications from the flu. In 2020, he was forced to cancel a tour not long after he revealed that he was diagnosed with Parkinson’s disease.
Born John Michael Osbourne in Birmingham, England in 1948, Osbourne’s fixation with music began when he heard the Beatles’ song “She Loves You” as a teenager. He formed Black Sabbath with Geezer Butler, Tony Iommi, and Bill Ward in 1969. Osbourne helped revolutionize rock music during his tenure with the band, releasing albums like Paranoid and Master of Reality that would define hard rock and heavy metal in the decades to come.
Osbourne served as the lead vocalist for Black Sabbath until his dismissal from the band in 1979. He was replaced by Ronnie James Dio. While Osbourne’s bandmates contended that their reasons for firing him were unreliability and his excessive substance abuse problems, Osbourne claimed that his use of drugs and alcohol was on par with the rest of the band at the time.
After Black Sabbath, Osbourne launched a hugely successful solo career, with his first seven solo albums going on to earn multi-platinum certifications in the United States. Osbourne recorded the first two LPs with guitarist Randy Rhoads, co-writing the iconic single “Crazy Train” with him. Rhoads died in an airplane accident in 1982 while touring the second album. Osbourne would go on to release a live album in his honor titled Tribute in 1987.
Osbourne’s career was defined in part by a string of wild incidents. In 1982, he bit the head off a bat during a concert in Iowa. That same year, he was famously arrested for urinating near the Alamo. He also landed in jail for physical abuse. In 1989, he was arrested for the attempted murder of his wife Sharon.
