Ozzy Osbourne obituary: A behemoth among the monsters of rock

Band break-ups fuelled by disputes with fellow members and drug abuse and a well-documented battle with alcoholism cemented that reputation.

He was also among the vanguard of now-ubiquitous modern reality TV stars, appearing with his family in the hit MTV show The Osbournes.

John Michael Osbourne was born in December 1948 in Aston, Birmingham. He left school at 15 and did odd jobs including factory work before teaming up with school friend Geezer Butler in several bands.

The pair then linked up with the other founder members of Black Sabbath, Tony Iommi and Bill Ward, to form what was then called Earth Blues Company – later shortened to Earth – in 1968.

Initially a Mod who loved soul music, according to his biography on the band’s official website, Osbourne crafted his darker image after writing lyrics for a song entitled Black Sabbath after the 1963 Boris Karloff film of the same name.

The name stuck – after they were forced to change it from Earth – and the band went on to sell millions of records over the next decade on the back of sound-defining tracks including Paranoid and War Pigs.

A product of their working-class roots and the post-Vietnam War era, the band tackled themes of war, social chaos and the supernatural.

But drug use began to take its toll on Osbourne and his relationship with his fellow band members, and he was eventually fired in 1979.

He launched a solo career, enjoying success during the 1980s, before reforming with Sabbath several times – including in 2016 for a final world tour.

As a group, Black Sabbath are widely credited with defining and popularising the sound of heavy metal.

As a solo artist, Osbourne released 11 albums, with his debut Blizzard Of Ozz issued in 1980, which featured two of his most revered songs, Crazy Train and Mr Crowley.

Osbourne married his first wife Thelma Riley in 1971 and became a stepfather to her son. The couple also had two children but split in 1982 after, he admitted, his rock ‘n roll lifestyle meant he put her “through hell”.

He married Sharon, the daughter of his former Black Sabbath manager Don Arden, in July of that year. The pair had met in the 1970s via her father and she took over managing Osbourne after he was booted from the heavy metal group.

Ozzy and Sharon had three children together: Jack, Kelly and Aimee.

The couple became an unlikely double act after starring between 2002 and 2005 in The Osbournes, which also launched the careers of Jack and Kelly, but the pair temporarily split in 2016.

Sharon, who achieved fame in her own right as a judge on TV’s X Factor, later said they had tried marriage counselling to get their relationship back on track – but gave up because it made him angry. In 2017, during an interview with music magazine Rolling Stone, Ozzy joked that the secret to his marriage was “don’t get caught with your mistress”.

In 2017, he and Sharon renewed their wedding vows in Las Vegas.

In his later years Osbourne attempted to press on with his rock career, but was hampered several times by illness and injury. In early February 2019, Sharon revealed he had been admitted to hospital after suffering from flu.

In October 2018, he insisted he was not retiring, telling Rolling Stone: “In essence, what I’m trying to do is slow my lifestyle down to a more comfortable way of living.”

But within months he was forced to postpone another string of tour dates – including a show at the famous Hollywood Bowl – after suffering a fall at his Los Angeles home in April 2019.

That November, he returned to the stage for a one-song performance at the American Music Awards alongside rappers Post Malone and Travis Scott. The trio performed the song Take What You Want, from Malone’s album Hollywood’s Bleeding, although Osbourne spent most of the performance sitting immobile in a gothic-style throne towards the back of the stage.

Another blow came in January 2020 when the singer revealed on US television that he had been diagnosed with Parkinson’s disease, which was discovered by doctors after a fall. Sharon, who was at his side during the interview, said the diagnosis was “not a death sentence by any stretch of the imagination”.

She added: “But it does affect certain nerves in your body. And it’s like you have a good day, a good day, and then a really bad day.”

Ozzy was revealed to have a rare form of the disease called Parkin 2, which he had since birth.

In 2022 he made a surprise appearance onstage in his home city of Birmingham to close out the Commonwealth Games, backed by Black Sabbath as fireworks lit up the sky. But early the next year he announced that following extensive spinal surgery he was not “physically capable” of doing his tour dates in Europe and the UK.

He did not return to touring in 2024, but was inducted into the Rock & Roll Hall Of Fame for a second time, one of the few to be given the honour. At the ceremony he disassociated himself from another rapper, Kanye West, over West’s remarks about Jewish people which, Ozzy said, had “brought untold heartache to many”.

He bid farewell to fans with a Black Sabbath reunion in his final live performance earlier this month. Osbourne and his fellow original Black Sabbath members – Iommi, Butler and Ward – were the last to appear on stage as part of a star-studded line-up for the Back to the Beginning concert.