Biography

Ozzy Osbourne

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Born
December 3, 1948 · Marston Green, Warwickshire, England, UK
Died
July 22, 2025 · Jordans, Buckinghamshire, England, UK (heart attack, coronary artery disease and Parkinson's disease)
Birth name
John Michael Osbourne
Nicknames
- The Great Ozz
- The Wizard of Ozz
- The Madman
- The Godfather of Heavy Metal
- The Prince of Darkness
- The Blizzard of oz
Height
5′ 9½″ (1.77 m)

One of the pioneers of heavy metal and one of its most commercially successful and iconic artists, Ozzy Osbourne was born in Birmingham, England, as John Michael Osbourne, the son of Lillian (Unitt) and John Thomas Osbourne. After leaving school and having many odd jobs, he ended up in a band with Geezer Butler. This group then split, leading Ozzy and Geezer to join Tony Iommi and Bill Ward in a new band that went under several names (including Earth) that ended up being called Black Sabbath after a song of the same name that appeared on their first album (released 1969/70). He recorded several more albums with Sabbath despite the decline of his relationship with Tony Iommi, which after several break ups led to him leaving/being fired from the band in 1979. After a short time he launched a solo career with a line up behind him that varied immensely from album to album and tour to tour. During the '80s, he was treated several times for alcoholism and was sued twice for the suicides of some of his young fans (cleared completely). Following his No More Tears album he declared he would tour for the last time, though the band later inevitably reunited. Ozzy gained a new generation of fans with his role, as himself, on the reality show The Osbournes (2002), and continued performing, solo and with his band, until the month of his death in July 2025.
- IMDb mini biography by: Mark Oliver

His favorite band was The Beatles, who inspired him to become a musician when Beatlemania spread worldwide.
Former neighbour of Pat Boone. Boone's cover of "Crazy Train" was used as the theme for "The Osbournes".
Wife Sharon Osbourne is the daughter of his original manager, Don Arden. Arden dropped Osbourne, Sharon took over as his manager, and later married him.
Before the success of The Osbournes (2002), he was known by most people as "the singer who bites heads off bats". This rumor traces back to one isolated incident. On January 20, 1982, at a concert in Des Moines, a bat wound up on stage, which had either been stuck in the rafters or thrown up there by a crazed fan. Osbourne bit it for a goof, thinking it was a rubber toy. He had to take a week of rabies shots. Despite a $25,000 donation later that year to the SPCA, the bat story grew to be an urban legend of its own, to the point where even numerous unrelated heavy metal bands were commonly accused of ritualistically killing live animals on stage.
Discovered only after he grew up that he was dyslexic, after being told for years that the reason he had trouble reading in school was because he was "dumb".

The lifestyle I've been living for the last 30 years, I could have been dead a thousand times.
They say military have the so-called 'secret intelligence' -- this amount of intelligence must be very secret, since I've never seen any intelligent military person, nor I have seen any sense in the bloody stupid wars.
I'll only retire in the day I should be dead and they have me buried, and some idiot spell over my casket some stupid gospel stuff.
[on kicking drugs and alcohol for the first time] All I have to say is this. Sobriety F***ing Sucks!
The only black magic Sabbath ever got into was a box of chocolates.