“`html
Ozzy Osbourne, who has reportedly died at the age of 76, was instrumental in shaping the heavy metal genre. Beyond his musical contributions, the frontman essentially defined the image of the quintessential wild rock star.
Osbourne’s band, Black Sabbath, left an enduring legacy on music, pioneering the heavy metal sound and earning recognition as a significant influence on numerous subsequent artists.
With his distinctive, wailing vocal delivery and his cultivated “prince of darkness” persona, Osbourne propelled the band to global stardom. However, his escalating struggles with substance abuse led to his eventual dismissal.
Subsequently, Osbourne forged a successful solo career before later reuniting with Black Sabbath. He also unexpectedly became a reality television star, showcasing his often-chaotic domestic life in a hit series.
Born John Michael Osbourne on December 3, 1948, in the Aston district of Birmingham, England, his father, Jack, worked as a toolmaker, while his mother, Lillian, was employed at the Lucas factory, a manufacturer of automotive components.
The nickname “Ozzy” originated during his primary school years and remained with him throughout his life.
Apart from providing him with his lasting moniker, Osbourne’s formal education proved to be a challenging experience. He coped with dyslexia and what would now be recognized as attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD).
Osbourne left school at the age of 15 and pursued a series of odd jobs, including a stint in a slaughterhouse, where he infamously played pranks by placing cows’ eyeballs into patrons’ pints at local pubs.
He also dabbled in criminal activities, but with limited success. During a burglary, a television fell on him, and he later served six weeks in Birmingham’s Winson Green prison for robbing a clothing store.
Music ultimately became Osbourne’s salvation. Hearing the Beatles’ “She Loves You” on a crackling transistor radio transformed his life.
“It was such an incredible explosion of happiness and hope,” he later recounted to writer Bryan Appleyard. “I used to dream – wouldn’t it be great if Paul McCartney married my sister.”
He convinced his father to purchase a microphone and amplifier, and with friend Terry “Geezer” Butler, formed a band called Rare Breed, which played only two shows.
The pair joined a blues ensemble named Polka Tulk Blues, later renamed Earth, alongside guitarist Tony Iommi and drummer Bill Ward.
Intending to create what they termed “scary music,” the band rehearsed across from the local cinema, where a screening of the 1963 horror film *Black Sabbath* inspired the band’s name and their first hit.
“I didn’t invent that sort of music,” Osbourne later reflected. “When I look back at that song, Black Sabbath, I think, how did I even begin to think of a melody like that?”
The song, co-written by Osbourne and Butler, opened their 1970 debut album, which, despite receiving harsh reviews from music critics, reached number eight on the UK charts and number 23 in the US.
Continued success followed with a series of best-selling albums, including *Paranoid*, *Master of Reality*, and *Volume 4*, all achieving platinum status.
By the release of *Sabbath Bloody Sabbath* in 1973, critics began to offer the band praise.
One writer described it as a “masterpiece,” noting a newfound sense of finesse and maturity in the band’s sound.
The 1975 album *Sabotage* also garnered critical acclaim, but internal tensions were building, and Black Sabbath’s momentum began to wane.
Osbourne’s struggles with substance abuse, which would come to define much of his life, were becoming increasingly apparent. His unreliability began to frustrate his fellow band members.
His personal life also suffered, with his addictions, infidelities, and frequent touring straining his relationship with his then-wife, Thelma, and their two children. They later divorced.
Osbourne had always used his role as the band’s jester to mask his insecurities, but his antics were now hindering Black Sabbath’s progress.
His relationship with Iommi was often strained, and Osbourne began to resent what he perceived as the guitarist’s dominance over the band.
In 1978, he spent three months working on a solo project called *Blizzard of Ozz*, but ultimately returned to Sabbath to record the album *Never Say Die*.
Following a disappointing tour, Osbourne was fired from Black Sabbath due to his substance abuse issues and was replaced by Ronnie James Dio.
Osbourne later claimed his dismissal was unfair, arguing, “We were all as bad as each other.”
However, Osbourne struggled more than others to manage the effects of the various substances the band used.
He revived *Blizzard of Ozz* with the assistance of Sharon Arden, daughter of Black Sabbath’s manager, Don Arden. The couple later married and had three children: Aimee, Kelly, and Jack.
Sharon also attempted to help Osbourne control his substance abuse. While he experienced periods of sobriety, he often relapsed.
“If it wasn’t for Sharon,” he later told Appleyard, “I’d be long dead.”
Controversy was never far away. The most infamous incident involved biting the head off a live bat while performing on stage in Iowa in 1982. He had been throwing raw meat into the audience during the tour, prompting fans to throw objects back onto the stage. Osbourne claimed he believed the bat was a rubber prop before taking a bite.
He did not offer a similar explanation for biting the heads off two doves during a record label meeting the previous year.
Other incidents included being arrested for urinating on the Alamo Cenotaph in Texas while wearing one of Sharon’s dresses; being ejected from the Dachau concentration camp for drunken and disorderly behavior during a visit while on tour in Germany; pulling a gun on Black Sabbath’s drummer while under the influence of LSD; blacking out and waking up on the median of a 12-lane freeway; and massacring the chickens in his coop with a gun, sword, and gasoline while wearing a dressing gown and Wellington boots.
These incidents contributed to Osbourne’s legend, but in reality, his behavior was often unappealing and far from glamorous. He was a wreck, and substance abuse fostered a Jekyll and Hyde personality.
In 1989, he awoke in jail and was informed that he had been arrested on suspicion of attempted murder for strangling Sharon. He had no memory of the event. Sharon later dropped the charges.
Meanwhile, his first solo album achieved platinum status, and subsequent albums, *Diary of a Madman* and *Bark at the Moon*, were also commercially successful.
He toured extensively throughout the 1980s and 1990s and achieved significant commercial success with Ozzfest, a series of tours, primarily in the US, that featured bands from across various metal subgenres.
Osbourne headlined most of the festivals, which also featured appearances by his former Black Sabbath bandmates.
In 2002, Osbourne and his family achieved a new level of fame when they inadvertently pioneered reality television by allowing cameras to capture their foul-mouthed but affectionate home life.
The show was a major success, even though US broadcasts were heavily censored to remove Osbourne’s frequent profanities, a step deemed unnecessary when the show aired in the UK.
Concurrently, Osbourne continued to record music, but he was forced to take a break in 2003 after sustaining serious injuries in an ATV accident.
While recovering in the hospital, he topped the UK singles charts for the first time with a recording of the Black Sabbath song “Changes,” a duet with his daughter, Kelly.
Black Sabbath reunited periodically, and in 2013, they returned to the top of the UK album chart, 43 years after their last number one album, *Paranoid*.
In 2018, Osbourne claimed to have given up alcohol and drugs and intended to scale back his touring schedule.
“I have grandchildren now, and I’m 70 years old, and I don’t want to be found dead in a hotel room somewhere,” he told a journalist while promoting Ozzfest that year.
However, other health challenges emerged.
Initially, he attributed the tremors in his hands to years of excess. However, in 2007, he was diagnosed with Parkinsonian syndrome, followed by a diagnosis of Parkinson’s disease in 2019.
He suffered spinal damage in a late-night fall in the same year, which exacerbated injuries from the earlier ATV accident. Multiple surgeries yielded limited success.
Nevertheless, he was determined to leave the public stage with a final, memorable performance.
He, Sharon, and his former Black Sabbath bandmates organized a farewell concert at Villa Park football stadium, a short distance from his childhood home, which took place just over two weeks ago.
A host of fellow rock legends, including Metallica, Guns N’ Roses, and Aerosmith’s Steven Tyler, performed and paid tribute to Osbourne and Black Sabbath’s lasting influence.
Osbourne performed while seated due to his mobility issues but managed to recapture his old energy, belting out his hits while clapping, waving his arms, and displaying his signature wild-eyed expressions.
“I’m proud of what I’ve achieved with my life,” he once told an interviewer. “You couldn’t have written my life story if you’d been the best writer in the world.”
The first 45 seconds of the song are in Irish, but did not feature in the first broadcast on the BBC.
The group behind the proposed venue now say they want it to be able to hold 20,000 people.
Alfred Hitchcock’s grisly horror, which turns 65 this month, might not have become known as an-all time classic without the crucial addition of Bernard Herrmann’s disturbing score.
Guernsey Ports collaborates with local artists to bring the piano and other artwork to the terminal.
Sue Williams says the late music legend visited her home to meet a student with cerebral palsy.
“`