Ozzy Osbourne, the legendary Black Sabbath frontman and solo star who helped pioneer the follow-around reality TV genre with his MTV series The Osbournes, died Tuesday. He was 76. His family confirmed the news in a statement but did not provide a cause of death.
Osbourne reunited with Black Sabbath for a livestreamed final concert on July 5 that also featured a who’s who of hard rock and heavy metal bands.
“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,” the statement reads. “He was with his family and surrounded by love. We ask everyone to respect our family privacy at this time.”
Born John Michael Osbourne on December 3, 1948, in England, he co-founded the ever-influential and controversial Black Sabbath in 1968 with guitarist Tony Iommi, bassist Geezer Butler and drummer Bill Ward. Draped in demonic lyrical themes and often-foreboding music, the British quartet was a near-instant success and helped birth and define the heavy metal genre.
After an unharmonious split from the group in 1979, Osbourne enlisted former Quiet Riot guitarist Randy Rhodes and released a pair of 1981 solo discs that reinvigorated his career — and the genre. Blizzard of Ozz and Diary of a Madman were multiplatinum hits on both sides of the Atlantic, bringing Osbourne new fans and making a star of Rhoads, who would die in a 1982 plane crash.
Osbourne went on to make many more solo albums to varying critical and commercial success, but he would conquer another medium as the millennium changed.
In 2002, MTV premiered The Osbournes, a verité-style reality series focusing on the home life of patriarch Ozzy, matriarch Sharon Osbourne, daughter Kelly and son Jack. The show provided a side of the singer few had seen — a bit doddering, sometimes befuddled and the source of the series’ comedy. Memorable catchphrase: “Sharrrr-onnnnn!” The final episode aired on March 21, 2005.
The Osbournes reunited in 2009 for the variety show Osbournes Reloaded on the Fox network. A flop with critics and viewers, the series was canceled after one episode. Osbourne and son Jack next starred in Ozzy & Jack’s World Detour, a reality series that aired for three seasons from 2016-18, first on the History channel and then A&E. Most recently, reality show The Osbournes Want to Believe aired in 2020 on Travel Channel.
But all of that was secondary to the music.
Fueled by Osbourne’s signature, singular wails, Black Sabbath caught the attention of a public tiring of flower power and pop rock, hurling onto the scene with its powerhouse self-titled debut album in 1970. Featuring such dark classics-in-waiting as “Black Sabbath,” “The Wizard” and “N.I.B.,” the disc — and the group — certainly weren’t for everyone, but it went Top 10 in the UK and just missed the U.S. Top 20, and a legend was born.
Sabbath’s 1971 follow-up Paranoid solidified Osbourne and the band as hard rock superstars. Stacked with essential songs including “Iron Man,” “War Pigs,” “Fairies Wear Boots” and the near-perfect title track, it topped the UK chart and reached No. 12 stateside.
The band followed that success later that year with its biggest U.S. album, Master of Reality, which went Top 10 on both sides of the pond, featuring “Children of the Grave” and “Sweet Leaf.”
All of Black Sabbath’s first three discs made the Top 300 of Rolling Stone‘s 2003 list of greatest albums of all time, with Paranoid ranking 130th.
The band continued to score hit albums with Black Sabbath, Vol. 4 (1972), Sabbath Bloody Sabbath (1974) and Sabotage (1975), all of which hit the UK Top 10 and U.S. Top 30. Its fortunes took a hit in the mid-1970s as Technical Ecstasy (1976) and Never Say Die! (1978) were shrugged off by critics and many fans. Osbourne would leave the group amid reports of substance abuse before the end of the decade.
Never a “singles band,” Osbourne-era Black Sabbath left its mark on hard rock with the aforementioned tracks and others.
As the 1980s dawned, Sabbath recruited Elf frontman Ronnie James Dio to replace Osbourne out front and scored a platinum smash with Heaven and Hell. But Ozzy wouldn’t stay on the sidelines for long.
After recruiting classically trained guitar whiz Rhoads, Osbourne catapulted back onto the radio with Blizzard of Ozz, which spawned the timeless hits “Crazy Train” and “I Don’t Know” along with such memorable tracks as “Mr. Crowley” and “Suicide Solution.” Years later, the latter was at the center of a controversy over the suicide of a young fan whose parents sued Osbourne and CBS Records, claiming its lyrics led 19-year-old Daniel McCollum of Southern California to shoot himself. A judge eventually dismissed the case on First Amendment grounds.
His follow-up disc Diary of a Madman arrived in November 1981, just seven months after his solo debut, and was another smash. Fueled by the hit FM singles “Flying High Again” and “Over the Mountain,” it propelled Osbourne — and guitar god Rhodes — into the stratosphere.
As Diary of a Madman climbed the charts and Blizzard of Ozz continued to sell, Osbourne courted controversy with the “bat incident.” In January 1982, a fan threw what seemed to be a rubber bat onstage as the singer performed. Thinking it was a prop (it wasn’t), Osbourne bit off its head, unleashing a wave of publicity — and earning him treatment for rabies.
Fans and the press ate it up, and Osbourne was cemented, again, as a rock legend.
But all of that momentum was crushed in March 1982, when Rhoads died. He was one of two passengers on a small plane piloted by their tour bus driver Andrew Aycock, who made multiple attempts to “buzz” the bus where Osbourne was sleeping.
All three onboard were killed, and the Rhoads era became the stuff of legend. Osbourne was crestfallen.
He would rebound, however, and recruited guitar hero Jake E. Lee for Bark at the Moon, a 1983 solo album that featured the hit title track, went Top 25 in the U.S. and UK and triple-platinum stateside. Lee returned for 1986’s The Ultimate Sin, a Top 10 hit on both sides of the Atlantic that spawned the single “Shot in the Dark.”
In 1987, CBS released Tribute, a collection of live recordings from Osbourne’s 1981 shows that showcased Rhoads’ fret-burning talents. It was another intercontinental hit, as was the 1988 follow-up No Rest for the Wicked, which featured new guitar whiz Zakk Wylde.
Runaways alumna Lita Ford then gave Osbourne the first genuine pop hit of his career. They duetted on “Close my Eyes Forever,” which hit No. 8 on the Billboard Hot 100.
Osbourne’s next LP would be among his most successful. Again fueled by Wylde’s licks, 1991’s No More Tears gave the singer another Top 10 hit in America, and No. 17 in Britain, and spawned a pair of hit singles with the title cut and “Mama, I’m Coming Home,” which became Osbourne’s biggest FM hit in the U.S., spending three weeks at No. 2 on Billboard’s Mainstream Rock chart and making the pop Top 30. Follow-up singles “Road to Nowhere” and “Time After Time” also hit the Mainstream Top 10.
Osbourne added another hit solo album with 1995’s Ozzmosis, which spawned before taking a six-year break from recording. In the interim, modern rock radio saw a shift from jaunty pop rock to a heavier sound, and influential outlets including KROQ-FM in Los Angeles began to notice. He scored a sweet slot in the station’s 2000 Weenie Roast, after Limp Bizkit and before headliner Korn, but his set was marred by tech glitches. Even a quickie reunion with the original Black Sabbath members couldn’t win over the young-skewing crowd.
Osbourne enjoyed another hit solo album with Down to Earth in 2001 and would score his only UK No. 1 single the following year, teaming with daughter Kelly for “Changes,” a remake of Sabbath’s 1972 song. It also hit the U.S. Mainstream Top 10.
That success was fueled by the rise of The Osbournes, which became must-see MTV from the get-go. Osbourne had become, quite unpredictably, a TV star.
His final three solo albums from 2007-22 all hit the U.S. Top 10
MORE TO COME…
Greg Evans contributed to this report.
