Ozzy Osbourne, Black Sabbath Legend, Dead At 76

Ozzy Osbourne, one of heavy metal’s most notable stars, has died. He was 76. His death came just weeks after his farewell show.

“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," his family said in a statement.

The original lineup of Osbourne’s band Black Sabbath performed for the first time in 20 years earlier this month in what the rocker vowed would be his last-ever live performance, five years after he revealed he had Parkinson’s disease after suffering a fall.

Black Sabbath is largely credited with creating the genre now known as heavy metal alongside fellow Midland English band Led Zeppelin. Osbourne, more than anyone, was the face of that. His antics onstage were legendary.

Either clad in black or bare-chested, the singer was often the target of parents’ groups for his imagery and once caused an uproar for biting the head off a bat. Later, he would reveal himself to be a doddering and sweet father on the “The Osbournes," a pioneering entry in the reality TV show genre.

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Born John Michael Osbourne in Birmingham, U.K. in 1948, the future "Prince of Darkness" had a string of jobs as a laborer, plumber and slaughterhouse worker after dropping out of school at 15, the Sun reported.

Osborne pursued his love of music after hearing The Beatles' "She Loves You" in 1963. He joined Sabbath bassist Geezer Butler in their first group Rare Breed four years later.

The pair reunited as part of Polka Tulk Blues alongside Tony Iommi and drummer Bill Ward, creating a group that would eventually be known as Black Sabbath.

Black Sabbath’s 1969 self-titled debut LP came 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.

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“Black Sabbath are the Beatles of heavy metal. Anybody who’s serious about metal will tell you it all comes down to Sabbath,” Dave Navarro of the band Jane’s Addiction wrote in a 2010 tribute in Rolling Stone.

His bandmates 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.”

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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 Sabbath in 2006 and again in 2024 as a solo artist.

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The Associated Press contributed to this report.