Ozzy Osbourne, the legendary English singer known as “The Prince of Darkness,” has died at the age of 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,” read a statement signed by the singer’s wife, Sharon, and children, Aimee, Kelly, Jack and Louis. “He was with his family and surrounded by love. We ask everyone to respect our family privacy at this time.”
Osbourne rose to prominence in the 1970s as the frontman of the pioneering English heavy metal band Black Sabbath, and released more than a dozen albums as a solo artist. Later in his life, Osbourne became a reality television star, appearing alongside his wife and children on the popular MTV series “The Osbournes.”
His death comes just weeks after the original Black Sabbath lineup reunited for the first time in 20 years to bid farewell in front of 42,000 fans in Birmingham, England. Dubbed the “Back to the Beginning” concert, the star-studded affair featured performances from a long list of heavy metal icons, including Metallica, Tom Morello, Slayer and Pantera and others.
Black Sabbath’s 1969 self-titled debut LP has been likened to the Big Bang of heavy metal. It arrived during the height of the Vietnam War and crashed the hippie party, dripping menace and foreboding. The cover of the record was of a spooky figure against a stark landscape. The music was loud, dense and angry, and marked a shift in rock ’n’ roll.
The band’s second album, “Paranoid,” included such classic metal tunes as “War Pigs,” “Iron Man” and “Fairies Wear Boots.” The song “Paranoid” only reached No. 61 on the Billboard Hot 100 but became in many ways the band’s signature song. Both albums were voted among the top 10 greatest heavy metal albums of all time by readers of Rolling Stone magazine.
Sabbath fired Osbourne in 1979 for his legendary excesses, like showing up late for rehearsals and missing gigs. “We knew we didn’t really have a choice but to sack him because he was just so out of control. But we were all very down about the situation,” wrote bassist Terry “Geezer” Butler in his memoir, “Into the Void.”
Osbourne reemerged the next year as a solo artist with “Blizzard of Ozz” and the following year’s “Diary of a Madman,” both hard rock classics that went multi-platinum and spawned enduring favorites such as “Crazy Train,” “Goodbye to Romance,” “Flying High Again” and “You Can’t Kill Rock and Roll.”
Osbourne was twice inducted to the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame — once with Black Sabbath in 2006 and again in 2024 as a solo artist.
Over the course of his career, Osbourne sold more than 100 million records.
With files from the Associated Press.
