Ozzy Osbourne's wild life in pictures
Heavy metal pioneer, Black Sabbath frontman, and later-life reality TV star Ozzy Osbourne has died aged 76.
"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.
"He was with his family and surrounded by love. We ask everyone to respect our family privacy at this time."
Famed for his outrageous antics on stage, including biting the head off a bat and throwing raw meat onto concertgoers – along with alcohol and substance abuse – Osbourne was respected by the rock establishment and reviled by the religious right, who believed him to be a devil-worshipper.
In later life he had a second career playing himself in the popular TV show The Osbournes, a fly-on-the-wall family formula later maximised by the Kardashians.
Rock group Black Sabbath arrives in Sydney on 12 January 1973. Pictured left are Osbourne, Tony iommi, Geezer Butler and Bill Ward.
Born John Osbourne on December 3, 1948 in, his first steps into the music world came in 1967, after leaving school at 15 and working a number of odd jobs - as well as a brief six-week prison stint for burglary.
Butler asked Osbourne to join his band, then called Rare Breed, which was soon changed to Black Sabbath.
Osbourne poses for a photo in Los Angeles on December 21, 1981.
"If people paid money to feel scared at the movies, then the same must be true of concerts," Butler told Rolling Stone in 2016, of the band's name.
The band's first album, "Black Sabbath," was recorded in just two days in 1969, Rolling Stone reported.
In his biography, Osbourne said they were done and in the pub in time for last drinks.
Already divorced from his first wife, Thelma Mayfair, Osbourne began dating Sharon Arden in 1979.
This was made more awkward by the fact that Sharon was the daughter of Osbourne's manager, Don Arden.
Don's disapproval of the relationship culminated in his gifting Osbourne's contract to Sharon on their wedding day, to which she responded by taking him off Don's record label, sparking a lawsuit and a million-dollar settlement.
Often referred to as the Godfather of Heavy Metal, Osbourne preferred his other "title," The Prince of Darkness, which he used on his Twitter account.
"I have never, ever, ever been able to attach myself to the word 'heavy metal' – it has no musical connotations," Osbourne told CNN in a 2013 interview.
"If it was heavy rock I could get that but the 70s was kind of like a bluesy thing, the 80s was kind of bubblegum-frosted hair, multi-colored clothes, and the 90s was kind of grungy."
Ozzy Osbourne, left, onstage at the Rock in Rio festival in Rio De Janeiro, Brazil, on January 17, 1985.
Osbourne was fired from Black Sabbath in 1979, after the group had already made eight albums together, due to his alcohol and drug problems.
But he went on to have a successful solo career, releasing 11 more albums before getting back together with the group in 1997.
Osbourne in 1988.
"Looking back, I should have died a thousand times but never did," he said in the 2011 documentary God Bless Ozzy Osbourne.
"By 12 o'clock in the old days I'd have powder up my nose, f------ s--- in my veins, all kinds of stuff."
The drugs and alcohol also led to domestic violence and abuse.
In an interview with CNN in 2011, Sharon Osbourne spoke of her husband's violent outbursts.
"It was damn pretty scary," she said.
"You're in a house, no neighbors each side, the kids asleep, you know you're on your own, what the hell do you do?"
Ozzy Osbourne performs with a reunited Black Sabbath during the Ozzfest concert on June 15, 1997, in the US.
In early 2019, Osbourne had to cancel a string of concerts following a bout of pneumonia and a severe fall at his Los Angeles home.
But his health issues didn't stop there. In the ensuing years, the rocker endured multiple surgeries – including one that he said went wrong and virtually left him "crippled" – and revealed his Parkinson's disease diagnosis in January 2020.
Nonetheless, Osbourne performed intermittently during that period, including at the closing ceremony of the 2022 Commonwealth Games in Birmingham (pictured).
In a 2023 interview with Rolling Stone, Osbourne said he would "die a happy man" if he could perform one more show to express his gratitude to his fans from the stage.
"If I can't continue doing shows on a regular basis, I just want to be well enough to do one show where I can say, 'Hi guys, thanks so much for my life.' That's what I'm working towards, and if I drop down dead at the end of it, I'll die a happy man," he said at the time.
Osbourne's death did in fact come just weeks after his final show.
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