Ozzy Osbourne has died ‘surrounded by love’ at the age of 76, a statement from his family said.
The Black Sabbath frontman had performed from a throne on stage at Villa Park in Birmingham less than three weeks ago.
In a statement, his family said tonight: ‘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. Sharon, Jack, Kelly, Aimee and Louis.’
The rocker was able to bid an emotional farewell to his fans on stage this month as he reunited with his original Black Sabbath bandmates Tony Iommi, Geezer Butler and Bill Ward for the first time since 2005.
‘You’ve no idea how I feel – thank you from the bottom of my heart,’ Osbourne told the crowd in his final speech.
The star was a titan of music who somehow survived controversies that would end the careers of many others, and weathered health problems that would leave most of us on our backs.
Whether it was biting the head off both a bat and a dove, snorting a line of ants or urinating on a US war memorial while wearing one of his wife Sharon’s dresses, Osbourne was defined by his antics both on and off stage.
The singer, who sold more than 100 million records, will forever be synonymous with the heavy metal band he formed in his home city of Birmingham in 1969.
With hits that included Iron Man, War Pigs and Paranoid, Black Sabbath’s pushing of occult themes proved both hugely popular and controversial, with a future pope even condemning Osbourne for his ‘subliminal satanic influence’.
Osbourne’s most infamous moment came when he bit the head off a bat that had been thrown on stage during a solo performance. He later claimed he thought it was made of rubber.
Tributes have already poured in for the superstar following his family’s announcement this evening.
David Coverdale, founder and lead singer of rock band Whitesnake – who was reportedly once considered for the role of Black Sabbath frontman – paid his respects on X.
‘My Sincere Condolences To Sharon, The Family, Friends & Fans,’ he wrote.
Meanwhile, American heavy metal band Metallica shared a touching photograph taken with Osbourne, alongside a broken heart emoji.
X Factor duo Jedward were also quick to pay tribute, writing: ‘Rip Ozzy Osbourne sending love to Sharon and Kelly and Jack and the whole family ♥️.’
John Lennon’s son Sean Ono Lennon wrote on social media: ‘One of the greatest of all time. R.I.P.’
TV presenter and comedian Leigh Francis published a touching tribute on Instagram alongside a photo of him, Osbourne and his wife Sharon.
‘The saddest news this evening. All the Osbourne family have always been so kind to me. The loveliest people,’ he wrote.
Osbourne forged a hugely successful solo career after being thrown out of his band in 1979 due to his drug-fuelled antics, with hits that included Crazy Train and Hellraiser.
But his hellraising off stage continued. In 1989 he attempted to kill Sharon while high on drugs, and seven years before that he urinated on the treasured Alamo Cenotaph in Texas, an act that saw him banned from San Antonio for a decade.
He was also injured in a quad bike crash at his UK home in 2003, an episode that had a serious impact on his fragile health.
Yet there was also redemption for the troubled singer, who relaunched himself as a reality tv star in The Osbournes in the early 2000s, after getting clean from drink and drugs with the help of Sharon.
It saw two of his and Sharon’s children, Kelly and Jack, become stars in their own right, whilst their other daughter Aimee declined to appear.
There was a return too to Black Sabbath in 1997, when the original line-up got back together. Five years later, he and Iommi were an unlikely part of the star-studded lineup at the Queen’s Golden Jubilee Concert at Buckingham Palace, where they performed Paranoid.
Osbourne’s final performance with Black Sabbath came in 2025, when he reunited with his bandmates for a final gig at Aston Villa’s Villa Park stadium in Birmingham.
Having then suffered from Parkinson’s disease for more than five years, he was seated for much of the farewell performance.
Born John Michael Osbourne on December 3, 1948, the singer was raised by his parents Lilian and John with three older sisters and two younger brothers in a small two-bedroom home in Birmingham.
The family of eight grew up poor and Ozzy said it was difficult because his parents were always fighting about money.
Their strained marriage meant Ozzy did not speak to his parents after he was repeatedly sexually abused, aged 11, by two bullies.
He said in a later interview: ‘I was afraid to tell my father or mother and it completely f***ed me up. Dirty little secrets fester and that is one of the first things I said to my kids.’
Aged 14, Osbourne tried to hang himself and was only saved by his father.
He was a persistent truant from school and suffered from both attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) and dyslexia, whilst his violent streak made an early appearance when he once attacked a teacher with an iron bar.
The only subject that caught his attention at school was music and he performed in several productions of Gilbert & Sullivan operettas.
Osbourne left education at 15 and found work as a labourer and abattoir worker. He admitted later that he ‘loved killing animals’.
However, Osbourne then turned to petty crime. After stealing a television and baby clothes just before his 18th birthday, he was arrested and spent six weeks behind bars because his father refused to pay his £40 fine.
It was while in prison that Osbourne gave himself his first tattoo: ‘OZZY’ in capital letters on the knuckles of his left hand.
1. Black Sabbath (1970)
2. Paranoid (1970)
3. Master of Reality (1971)
4. Vol. 4 (1972)
5. Sabbath Bloody Sabbath (1973)
6. Sabotage (1975)
7. Technical Ecstasy (1976)
8. Never Say Die! (1978)
9. Heaven and Hell (1980)
10. Mob Rules (1981)
11. Born Again (1983)
12. Seventh Star (1986)
13. The Eternal Idol (1987)
14. Headless Cross (1989)
15. Tyr (1990)
16. Dehumanizer (1992)
17. Cross Purposes (1994)
18. Forbidden (1995)
19. 13 (2013)
He formed his first band, Rare Breed, at 19 with bassist Geezer Butler.
When the pair fell out with their bandmates, they joined Iommi and Ward to set up Black Sabbath in 1968, which was first named Earth.
They renamed the band in 1969 in tribute to their favourite horror film. The move set Osbourne, Iommi and Ward on the path to heavy metal royalty.
The group quickly established a reputation for dabbling with satanic and occult themes. One early critic wrote: ‘His baroque prophesies of doom were uttered against a background of a uniquely heavy guitar sound.’
Their first album, which was simply called Black Sabbath, opened with the sound of a tolling church bell and featured the lyrics: ‘Leave the Earth to Satan and his slaves’.
It was this dark theme that prompted the then Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger – who went on to become the Pope – to condemn the self-styled Prince of Darkness for his ‘subliminal satanic influence’ and urge him to stop performing ‘satanic rituals’ at concerts because they could ‘bring harm’ to audiences.
Black Sabbath’s second album, Paranoid, featured some of their biggest commercial hits, including Iron Man, War Pigs and the title track.
The band continued their success with five consecutive platinum-selling albums in the US in three years.
Black Sabbath’s impact on music itself was enormous. They brought a heavy metal genre that had been in its infancy when they began to the attention of millions of fans.
Their influence was so wide-ranging that critics have even argued that individual songs – such as 1970’s Electric Funeral and 1971 hit Children of the Grave – helped to form sub-genres of metal.
This was despite the fact that guitarist Iommi had – years before Black Sabbath was formed – lost two of his fingertips in an accident at the sheet metal factory where he worked.
It meant that he had to compensate by wearing plastic fingertips and slackening the strings of his instrument.
But Iommi turned that trauma to his advantage by producing a distinctive sound that ran through the band’s songs.
Speaking in a 2005 interview, fellow heavy metal musician Rob Zombie outlined the band’s impact.
‘Every cool riff has already been written by Black Sabbath. Anything everyone else does is just basically ripping it off. Either you’re playing it slightly different or fast or slow, but… they did everything already,’ he said.
Black Sabbath signed Don Arden as their manager after the unexpected success of Paranoid. The decision was a life changing one for Ozzy who who would go on to marry Sharon, Arden’s daughter, on July 4, 1982.
He deliberately chose the US’s Independence Day so he would never forget the anniversary.
After having daughter Aimee, now 38, in 1983, the couple went on to have Kelly, 37, in 1984, and Jack, 36, in 1985.
Prior to his union with Sharon, Osbourne had been married to first wife Thelma Riley for 11 years, from 1971 until 1982.
The pair had children Jessica and Louis together, whilst Osbourne also adopted Thelma’s son Elliot.
Osbourne later said that his first marriage had been a mistake because of his constant touring and drug abuse.
He also admitted to being ‘abusive’ to Thelma. He said later: ‘I was totally abusive to my first wife. Physical abuse, mental abuse – you name it, I did it.
‘I hit her big time and I was a complete idiot.’
As Black Sabbath became more popular, Ozzy’s drug problem became increasingly disruptive. He was fired in 1979 after the band decided his addiction made him too unreliable.
After being sacked Ozzy was devastated and spiralled out of control. He said: ‘I’d got £96,000 for my share of the name, so I’d just locked myself away and spent three months doing coke and booze.
‘My thinking was, ‘This is my last party, because after this I’m going back to Birmingham and the dole’.’
But Ozzy was offered a solo deal by his former manager, who tasked Sharon with looking after him. His first album, Blizzard of Ozz, was a commercial hit and included the single Crazy Train.
Ozzy wanted to release doves into the sky as a sign of peace after signing the deal. But, in typical Ozzy style, he was high at the meeting with record executives and instead bit a dove’s head off.
A year later, he was in the headlines for the wrong reasons again.
In an effort to stop him going on drunken walks, Sharon decided to hide Ozzy’s clothes but he was undeterred and wore her dress to go out.
Ozzy eventually needed the toilet and urinated on the Cenotaph at the Alamo, the sight of a historic battle in Texas. He was quickly arrested and banned from San Antonio for a decade.
The infamous biting off the head of a bat came at the beginning of 1982, during a performance in Des Moines, Iowa.
Sharon Osbourne helped to turn her husband’s life around after his troubles with drink and drugs culminated in an attempt to kill her in 1989.
Osbourne later said that Sharon would not just ‘sit down and take’ his physical abuse, but would ‘return it knock for knock’.
She agreed not to press charges after the strangling episode and the singer was released on the understanding that he entered rehabilitation for his addiction problems.
Sharon forgave her husband’s violent episodes and helped transform him from a pariah to a music legend.
This was despite his admissions to having cheated on her with Black Sabbath groupies.
One testament to her efforts was the creation of the annual Ozzfest festival in the 1990s, which proved hugely lucrative.
Sharon too came up with the idea for the fly-on-the-wall documentary about her family that was filmed at their Beverly Hills home.
It proved a major hit for US network MTV, running between 2002 and 2005.
Osbourne said later: ‘If it wasn’t for Sharon I’d be dead by now, without a doubt.
‘Career-wise, I would definitely be dead – and I would almost certainly have been physically dead as well.
‘She was the first person in my life who ever came along and gave me any encouragement.’
He added: ‘She made me grow up, and I just fell in love with her because she’s great. She sorted out all the business because, with business, I like to do as little as possible.’
A fan had thrown the dead creature on stage and Osbourne, believing it was fake, bit into it. He had to be treated with a series of painful rabies shots.
His troubles with alcohol and drugs reached crisis point in 1989, when Osbourne attempted to strangle Sharon.
He later said that Sharon would not just ‘sit down and take’ his physical abuse, but would ‘return it knock for knock’.
She agreed not to press charges after the strangling episode and the singer was released on the understanding that he entered rehabilitation for his addiction problems.
But it was from this dark episode that a turning point came in Osbourne’s chaotic life.
Sharon forgave her husband’s violent episodes and helped transform him from a pariah to a music legend.
This was despite his admissions to having cheated on her with Black Sabbath groupies.
One testament to her efforts was the creation of the annual Ozzfest festival in the 1990s, which proved hugely lucrative.
Sharon too came up with the idea for the fly-on-the-wall documentary about her family that was filmed at their Beverly Hills home.
It proved a major hit for US network MTV, running between 2002 and 2005. Aimee however refused to take part and criticised her parents for their antics, despite the fact that the show won an Emmy for Outstanding Reality Programme.
It covered major events including Sharon’s 2002 colon cancer diagnosis and Osbourne’s quad bike crash in 2003. Sharon survived the cancer battle despite a poor prognosis.
Osbourne admitted that he ‘fell apart’ during his wife’s treatment, whilst Jack tried to take his own life due to the impact of his mother’s condition on his mental health.
The quad bike crash happened at his UK home in Buckinghamshire. The star’s heart stopped beating and he also broke his collar bone, eight ribs and neck vertebra.
The sign of Sharon’s crucial influence came when Osbourne said later: ‘If it wasn’t for Sharon I’d be dead by now, without a doubt.
‘Career-wise, I would definitely be dead – and I would almost certainly have been physically dead as well.
‘She was the first person in my life who ever came along and gave me any encouragement.’
He added: ‘She made me grow up, and I just fell in love with her because she’s great. She sorted out all the business because, with business, I like to do as little as possible.’
Sharon has forged her own career as a TV star, most famously as a judge on hit talent show the X Factor. She now hosts chat show The Talk on Talk TV.
Osbourne rejoined Black Sabbath in 1997 after he and the band’s other members had performed together at Ozzfest that year.
Along with Iommi, Osbourne performed Paranoid – Black Sabbath’s most famous song – at the Queen’s Golden Jubliee concert at Buckingham Palace in 2002.
Osbourne was shocked by the invitation to appear. ‘I hardly think of myself as royal material,’ he said. ‘My wife told me, and I thought ‘You’re pulling my leg.”
In 2013, he helped to record the group’s final studio album, 13, which was released in 2013, after the band’s original line-up had gotten back together in 2011.
Their farewell tour – titled The End – was brought to a close with a performance in Birmingham in 2017.
Afterwards, Osbourne continued performing as a solo act, with his most recent album release, Ordinary Man, coming in February 2020.
However, his health problems continued to haunt him. He had to cancel shows in 2019 after a fall left him needing surgery on his neck.
He began to experience numbness which he thought was connected to his accident but in January 2020 Osbourne was diagnosed with Parkinson’s disease.
His son Jack, who was diagnosed with multiple sclerosis in 2012, was one of the first to realise something was wrong.
The star underwent major spinal surgery in June 2022, which Sharon later said had been a success.
In an update on Instagram, she said: ‘Our family would like to express so much gratitude for the overwhelming amount of love and support leading up to Ozzy ‘s surgery!’
‘Ozzy is doing well and on the road to recovery! Your love means the world to him.’
To help him recover, the family lodged plans for a rehab wing at their Buckinghamshire mansion.
The extension was to feature a self-contained nurse’s flat as well as ‘discreet grab rails and aids’ and ‘an abundance of stopping and sitting spaces’.
The plans also included a ‘health and exercise studio’ as well as a ‘pool house orangery’ and ‘garden room’.
In September 2023, he had yet another operation, this time on his neck once again. He said afterwards that it was his ‘last procedure’.
Speaking on Piers Morgan Uncensored, he added: ‘I can’t believe I’ve come to the end of it. The main thing is over now, I’m done with the surgery.’
The conversation reflected an enduring interest in one of Britain’s most famous music stars.
Speaking in 1996 about what his epitaph might be, Osbourne summed up his life in just a few words.
‘The thing is, whatever else I do, my epitaph will be ‘Ozzy Osbourne, born December 3, 1948. Died, whenever. And he bit the head off a bat’.’