Ozzy Osbourne Dies: Black Sabbath Frontman & ‘The Osbournes’ Star Was 76

Black Sabbath rocker Ozzy Osbourne has died at the age of 76. The performer who was known for his music and reality television run with his family, died earlier on Tuesday, July 22.

News of his death was confirmed by his family in a shared statement that read, “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.”

They added, “We ask everyone to respect our family privacy at this time. Sharon, Jack, Kelly, Aimee, and Louis.” The statement was shared by TMZ.

Credit: MTV / Courtesy: Everett Collection

Known by many as the “Prince of Darkness,” Osbourne was a British-born singer who catapulted to fame in the late 1960s when he formed his band Black Sabbath. After Osbourne went solo in 1980, the rocker’s notoriety ramped up after a series of onstage and offstage antics, one of which famously included him biting the head off of a bat during a 1982 concert.

On the TV side of things, Osbourne revived his career with MTV‘s groundbreaking reality series The Osbournes, which aired between 2002 and 2005 and shed light on his home life with family. The show included his wife Sharon Osbourne and their kids Jack and Kelly. Their third daughter, Aimee, opted not to appear in the program as it captured their day-to-day lives.

Born December 3, 1948, in Birmingham, England, Osbourne lived with various learning disabilities, including dyslexia. Despite those challenges in his childhood, Osbourne found enjoyment in entertaining others by acting in school plays. By the time he was a teenager, he’d begun exploring music and left school to work odd factory and construction jobs as he pursued his career.

His first band, formed in the late 1960s, was called Rare Breed, which included his friend Geezer Butler. The group broke up after playing two shows, which left Osbourne and Butler to form Earth, which became Black Sabbath, alongside Tony Iommi, and Billy Ward.

ABC / Mitch Haaseth

A Grammy winner for his track, “I Don’t Want to Change the World,” which won for Best Metal Performance in 1994, Osbourne was known to struggle with his sobriety as he abused drugs and alcohol in the early years of his career. That struggle continued on and off throughout the years, but at the time of his death, Osbourne had reportedly been sober for around 10 years.

On The Osbournes, fans saw a softer side to the rocker whose shout of  “Sharon!” became a pop culture phenomenon at the time of the show’s airing, which included Sharon’s battle with colon cancer in 2002 and Ozzy’s near-death ATV accident that left him with a broken collarbone, eight broken ribs, and a broken neck vertebra at his Buckinghamshire, England, estate.

Later in his music career, Osbourne headed the annual touring festival Ozzfest, which was organized by Sharon in the late 1990s to celebrate metal acts like Marilyn Manson, Linkin Park, and Rob Zombie, all of whom appeared at the festival over the years. In 2006, Osbourne reunited with his former bandmates when Black Sabbath was inducted into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame.

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In recent years, Osbourne has appeared alongside his family in various reality series with a supernatural angle, including Ozzy & Jack’s World Detour, The Osbournes Want to Believe, and Jack & Kelly Osbourne: Night of Terror. He also guest-starred alongside Sharon on a 2020 episode of The Conners.

Osbourne also lived with Parkinson’s disease, which was diagnosed in 2019. Mere days before his death, Kelly Osbourne clapped back at AI-generated videos, which suggested her father was dying. “Yes, he has Parkinson’s, and yes, his mobility is completely different than it used to be,” she admitted. “But he’s not dying. What is wrong with you?”

On July 5, 2025, Osbourne performed his final concert with Black Sabbath, during a show titled Back to the Beginning, at England’s Villa Park.

In addition to Sharon, Kelly, Jack, and Aimee, Ozzy leaves behind his other children, Jessica, Louis, and Elliot Kingsley, whom he shared with his first wife, Thelma Riley. Elliot was adopted by Osbourne, as he was Riley’s child from a previous relationship.