Trending badgeTrendingPosted 58 minutes agoSubscribe to BuzzFeed Daily NewsletterCaret DownOzzy Osbourne Has Died At Age 76Labeled "The Godfather of Metal," Osbourne helped define the heavy metal sound.by Maxwell Strachan, David Moye, Lydia O'ConnorFacebookPinterestLink Ozzy Osbourne, lead singer of the legendary rock group Black Sabbath who did more than maybe any other musician to help shape the dark, hard-partying image of the heavy metal genre - even once biting the head off a bat on stage - died Tuesday at the age of 76, his family announced. Icon Sportswire / Icon Sportswire via Getty Images "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," the statement said.
The singer had just recorded his farewell concert with Black Sabbath a few weeks ago. Titled Back to the Beginning: Ozzy's Final Bow, it's set for a theatrical release in early 2026.
Osbourne told The Guardian in May that he was looking forward to a different life after filming the concert - one with fewer people and more animals. "Yeah. Get some ponies and chickens, and a million dogs. I want to open a dog rescue centre and a horse rescue centre. Scream at the neighbors a couple of times. There you go," he said. Scott Dudelson / Getty Images He also recently shared updates about his Parkinson's diagnosis, saying it had slowed him down but he was "still actively doing things.""For all my complaining, I'm still alive," he said on his Sirius XM radio show in February. "I may be moaning that I can't walk as well ... but as I look down the road, there's people that didn't do half as much as me and they didn't make it." Born John Michael Osbourne on Dec. 3, 1948, Osbourne grew up in a working-class family near Birmingham, England. He struggled in school from a young age, in part due to his dyslexia, and eventually dropped out at the age of 15. But when he first heard "She Loves You" by The Beatles, he felt he had found his calling. "It was just magic," he said. "It was like being hit by a bolt of lightning." Aaron Rapoport / Getty Images "It changed my life forever, and at that point I knew what I wanted to do with my life," he continued. "I never knew it would turn out the way it did - it turned out way bigger than my wildest expectations - but I knew that I wanted to be the singer in a band."Together with guitarist Tony Iommi, bassist Geezer Butler and drummer Bill Ward, he founded a band called Earth, later renamed Black Sabbath. Amid the flower power revolution, Black Sabbath decided to move their music in a more sinister direction. Their sound was heavy, dark and different. The band's self-titled 1970 debut album sold decently well, but it was their second album, 1971's Paranoid, and the hits on it, like "Iron Man" and "War Pigs," that shot the band up the charts and solidified its standing near the top of the rock-and-roll hierarchy. Chris Walter / WireImage / Getty Images In his interview with The Guardian earlier this year, Osbourne recalled the band's less-than-stellar critical response."I don't think we ever had a good review. Maybe that was a catalyst in a way: every critic didn't like us, so more of the people liked us. We were a people's band: four guys from Aston, one of the poorest parts of Birmingham," he said.
Maybe even more influential than the band's music was its image. Dark in color and rich in religious symbolism, the band's aesthetic frightened parents but would help define the heavy metal scene for decades, leading fans to dub Osbourne "The Godfather of Metal" and "Prince of Darkness," even though he personally didn't like to associate himself with the term "heavy metal."Osbourne married his first wife, Thelma Riley, in 1971. The couple had two children, Jessica and Louis, and Osbourne adopted her son Elliot from a previous relationship.
During the Black Sabbath years, drugs became central to Osbourne's identity as well. Legend has it that he and drummer Bill Ward took LSD every day for two years. But regardless, Osbourne's drug and alcohol abuse overwhelmed those around him by the end of the 1970s, and the other members of Black Sabbath kicked him out of the band. Soon after, he would start a solo project with the help of guitarist Randy Rhoads, bassist Bob Daisley, and drummer Lee Kerslake. In 1980, they released the highly acclaimed Blizzard of Ozz, which featured one of the most famous songs of Osbourne's career, the driving anthem "Crazy Train." Gary Gershoff / Getty Images Shortly after, Osbourne did two things that would cement his place in rock-and-roll lore. At a meeting with record executives in Los Angeles, he bit the heads off two live doves. Then, at a 1982 concert in Des Moines, Iowa, he bit the head off a live bat. Osbourne later said he thought the bat was a rubber toy, but it didn't matter: He had become rock royalty. Osbourne's life would take a dark turn that year, when his guitar