Ozzy Osbourne Dead at 76

Ozzy Osbourne has died at age 76, just weeks after performing at his Back to the Beginning farewell concert.

The legendary singer will be remembered for his years fronting Black Sabbath, a successful solo career and his stint as a reality TV star.

"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," his family said in a statement on Tuesday (July 22). "He was with his family and surrounded by love. We ask everyone to respect our family privacy at this time. Sharon, Jack, Kelly, Aimee and Louis."

Ozzy Osbourne's Health Issues in Final Years

Health problems plagued Osbourne over his last several years. In late 2018, he suffered a serious cut on his thumb that the rocker said caused it to swell to “the size of a fuckin’ light bulb.” He was diagnosed with staph infections in his hand and underwent emergency surgery to prevent further damage and potential death. The infliction caused him to postpone several shows.

After seemingly recovering from the injury, a re-energized Osbourne announced additional dates to his No More Tours 2 farewell tour. Unfortunately, this upswing was short-lived. In January 2019, Osbourne was forced to postpone U.K. and European tour dates due to an upper respiratory infection. That eventually led to another hospital stay.

In 2020, Osbourne revealed he had been diagnosed with Parkinson's disease, which effectively put an end to his touring career. He would, however, make a triumphant return to the stage in July 2025.

How Ozzy Osbourne and Black Sabbath Invented Heavy Metal

Born into a working-class family in Birmingham, England, Osbourne initially made a name for himself with a heavy, groundbreaking sound that spoke to Black Sabbath's hard-scrabble roots. Albums like their self-titled debut and Paranoid, both released in 1970, helped redefine a disillusioned new decade.

"We were just doing the opposite of what was happening at the time," Osbourne later recalled. "All that love stuff of the late '60s made me sick. We wanted to get to the dark side of life."

This gloomy, strangely unnerving subject matter was matched with thunderously slow riffs played at head-turning volumes, setting a template for a new aesthetic that couldn't have been further away from the Summer of Love.

"When they started, there was no such thing as heavy metal, and it feels like the whole genre of heavy metal really is based on Black Sabbath," producer Rick Rubin once said. "It may not have always sounded the same and it's gone through a lot of changes, and there's a lot of really interesting metal that doesn't sound like Black Sabbath. But it feels like they were probably the first with the idea that this dark, heavy music could be the whole trip."

Watch Black Sabbath Perform 'Paranoid'

Later dubbed the "Prince of Darkness," Osbourne helped shape the band’s sound and style in the '70s before being fired in 1979 after a couple of underperforming albums. "None of us wanted to drag this black-magic shit around forever so we tried to get a bit modern – but you should stick to what you know best," Osbourne told the Guardian in 2011. "The thing was, at that time, I had nothing to lose. If I even got to make a new record and it was a flop, who cared?"

Turns out, a lot of people. Osbourne shot out of the gate with a pair of smash solo albums featuring the late guitarist Randy Rhoads: 1980's Blizzard of Ozz and 1981's Diary of a Madman. He eventually moved away from the "black magic shit," scoring far more mainstream hits with songs like "Shot in the Dark," “No More Tears” and "Mama, I'm Coming Home."

In 1996, Osbourne curated his first Ozzfest, a music and lifestyle festival built around established and up-and-coming metal and hard rock acts. The festival became an annual event, then a well-received tour which even ventured overseas.

Ozzy Osbourne's Second Career: Reality TV Star

Arguably the most unexpected turn of his career came in 2002 as Ozzy became a reality TV star. The Osbournes followed Ozzy and his family – wife, Sharon, daughter, Kelly and son, Jack – through the antics of their daily lives. The show was an instant hit for MTV, becoming the most viewed program on the network. Ozzy was introduced to a new generation of fans, while his family launched their own separate careers.

Osbourne's battles with alcohol and illicit drugs – specifically cocaine – were well documented. His substance abuse led to his dismissal from Black Sabbath, less than a decade after their turn-of-the-'70s breakthrough.

“I look back now and I think of them days as the best we ever had,” Osbourne said in Black Sabbath: Symptom of the Universe. “It’s funny though how quickly that feeling passed and suddenly they turned into our worst days ever.”

Still, there was apparently something about that old black magic. Osbourne eventually reunited several times with Black Sabbath, most notably for 2013's Rubin-helmed 13, which became the group's first-ever U.S. No. 1 album. That marked the end of an era, however: Black Sabbath called it quits after a 2016 tour.

"I think it’s run its course," Osbourne told the Asbury Park Press in 2016. "Black Sabbath, it’s been up and down. And it’s good that we’ve come back together at the end, more or less, to finish on a high note. It’s a good way to do it."

Watch Ozzy Osbourne Perform 'Crazy Train'

Back to the Beginning: Ozzy and Black Sabbath's Final Bow

It turned out Osbourne and Black Sabbath were not quite finished, though. On July 5, 2025, they staged the massive Back to the Beginning concert at Villa Park in their hometown of Birmingham, England.

It doubled as Osbourne's final solo show and a reunion of Black Sabbath's original lineup: Osbourne, guitarist Tony Iommi, bassist Geezer Butler and drummer Bill Ward. The foursome had not performed together since 2005. The star-studded lineup also featured performances by Metallica, Guns N' Roses, Slayer, Pantera and several other rock and metal heavyweights.

Ozzy Osbourne's Penchant for Chaos

He continued to fluctuate between periods of sobriety and drug use before finally getting clean. In 2018, Osbourne admitted that he had found peace. “How did I think going into a bar and getting smashed and doing all that cocaine was fun?," he wondered. "Right now, you had a gun, a bag of cocaine and a gallon of booze and you said, ‘Take your pick,’ I’d pick up the gun. It’s not worth it."

He courted controversy by peeing near the Alamo, a historical shrine in Texas, and famously bit off the head of a bat. Osbourne later apologized for urinating, but only after a lengthy period in which he was banned from performing in the area. He also explained the incident with the bat, claiming that he thought it was fake.

“Immediately … something felt wrong. Very wrong," Osbourne recalled in his 2009 memoir I Am Ozzy. "For a start, my mouth was instantly full of this warm, gloopy liquid, with the worst aftertaste you could ever imagine. I could feel it staining my teeth and running down my chin. Then the head in my mouth twitched.” It all took on legendary proportions, and Osbourne later reenacted the moment for comedic effect on South Park and in the Adam Sandler film Little Nicky.

Yet, none of this ultimately overshadowed his contributions to music. Long after all of those tabloid headlines yellow and fade, Osbourne will be remembered as a three-time Grammy winner, a member of both the Rock and Roll and U.K. Music halls of fame, and as a co-creator of heavy metal.

"They were and still are a groundbreaking band," Rob Halford once told MTV. "You can put on the first Black Sabbath album and it still sounds as fresh today as it did 30-odd years ago. And that's because great music has a timeless ability: To me, Sabbath are in the same league as the Beatles or Mozart. They're on the leading edge of something extraordinary."

And the frontman on that edge was Ozzy Osbourne.