Ozzy Osbourne passed away today, just weeks after a farewell concert in Birmingham that marked the end of a genre-defining career.
Born John Michael Osbourne on December 3, 1948, in Birmingham, England, he rose from working-class beginnings to become one of rock’s most recognizable figures. Osbourne’s abilities as a vocalist – his uniquely sharp timbre and bellowing lung power – gave him the fortitude to cut through even the densest metal songs like a foghorn. Starting with Sabbath in 1970, his voice helped defined what heavy metal became. The image he inaugurated at that time became just as indelible. By voicing Sabbath’s reliably morbid lyrics, clad in the band’s trademark funereal attire, he earned the nickname The Prince of Darkness. The credibility of that image, at times, struck Mr. Osbourne as hilarious.
Osbourne’s solo career, which began in 1980, saw his notoriety soar through a series of increasingly outrageous, and alarming, antics, two of which involved decapitation. During a 1981 meeting with executives at his record company, he bit the head off a live dove to get their attention, while the next year, he performed the same act on a dead bat while on-stage, spitting the creature’s blood on the audience for good measure. One month later, while wearing a dress owned by his later wife Sharon Arden, he urinated on a monument erected to honour those who died at the battle of the Alamo in Texas. As a consequence, he was banned from the city of San Antonio for a decade. Osbourne later blamed all those actions on profound intoxication, a state he frequently admitted to maintaining for much of his career.
Known as the “Prince of Darkness” and the “Godfather of Metal,” Osbourne helped shape the sound of heavy music as the founding vocalist of Black Sabbath in 1968. Their early albums including Paranoid and Master of Reality, laid the groundwork for generations of metal bands to follow. Osbourne’s time with the group ended in 1979 due to substance abuse, but his solo career launched immediately after with 1980’s Blizzard of Ozz, featuring the now-iconic track “Crazy Train.”
He released 13 solo studio albums and became known for chaotic stage antics, most infamously biting the head off a bat during a live performance. Osbourne also became a household name outside of music through the MTV reality series The Osbournes, which aired from 2002 to 2005 and won a Primetime Emmy. He was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame with Black Sabbath in 2006 and again as a solo artist in 2024.