Rock icon and Black Sabbath lead singer Ozzy Osbourne has died, his family announced in a statement. He was 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. He was with his family and surrounded by love. We ask everyone to respect our family privacy at this time,” the family said in a statement on Tuesday to the U.K. Press Association.
Osbourne had been diagnosed with Parkinson’s disease in 2019.
Just over two weeks before his death, Osbourne delivered his last-ever live performance with the original lineup of Black Sabbath at Villa Park soccer stadium in their home city of Birmingham, central England, on July 5.
The singer sang from a black throne that rose up from under the stage.
“Let the madness begin!” he urged as he took the stage.
Later, he paid tribute to fans.
“I don’t know what to say, man, I’ve been laid up for like six years. You have no idea how I feel — thank you from the bottom of my heart,” the Crazy Train singer said. “You’re all … special. Let’s go crazy, come on.”
Osbourne performed several songs solo before being joined onstage for the first time in 20 years by Black Sabbath bandmates Tony Iommi, Terence “Geezer” Butler and Bill Ward. The band ended a short set with Paranoid, one of its most famous songs.
The No More Tears singer witnessed his daughter, Kelly Osbourne, get engaged to her longtime boyfriend, Slipknot turntablist and keyboard player Sid Wilson, 48, backstage at his farewell performance.
“We’ve got to be quiet, hold on,” Kelly’s mother, Sharon Osbourne, said as friends, family and crew gathered in the backroom at Villa Park in Birmingham, England.
“Kelly, you know I love you more than anything in the world,” Wilson said as he took her hand.
But that’s when Ozzy jokingly interrupted, saying, “F–k off, you’re not marrying my daughter.”
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“Nothing would make me happier than spending the rest of my life with you,” Wilson said and dropped to one knee. “So in front of your family and all our friends, Kelly, will you marry me?”
Kelly’s jaw dropped once she saw the ring and began nodding her head yes before giving Wilson a big hug as the room erupted in applause and cheers.
“Oh and this happened yesterday!” Kelly, 40, captioned to video on Instagram.
During an interview with Good Morning America’s Robin Roberts in 2020, the rocker — alongside longtime wife and manager Sharon — revealed he has PRKN 2.
Sharon assured fans that PRKN 2 diagnosis is “not a death sentence by any stretch of the imagination,” however, added that “it does affect certain nerves in the body.”
The news came nearly a year after the Crazy Train singer began struggling with his physical health. In January 2019, he took a tumble in his Los Angeles, Calif. home and suffered a severe neck injury.
As a result, Osbourne was forced to postpone his No More Tours 2 world tour, including dates in Canada, before having to undergo surgery to help him recover. Though his illness was made public in 2020, it was actually diagnosed in February 2019; shortly after the neck operation.
“I’m no good with secrets,” said Osbourne after revealing the news. “I cannot walk around with it anymore… because it’s like I’m running out of excuses,” he admitted, in reference to hiding the PRKN 2 diagnosis.
Additionally, Osbourne admitted that he couldn’t differentiate if the nerve pain he felt was a result of the surgery or the onset effects of Parkinson’s.
“I got a numbness down this arm for the surgery,” said Osbourne. [And] my legs keep going cold,” he added. “I don’t know if that’s the Parkinson’s or what, but that’s the problem…. Because they cut nerves when they did the surgery.”
Osbourne formed Black Sabbath in 1968 in Birmingham. The band put out their self-titled debut and Paranoid in 1970, Master of Reality in 1971, Vol. 4 in 1972 and Sabbath Bloody Sabbath in 1973.
Both the band and Osbourne as a solo artist have been inducted into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame.
After Sabbath, Osbourne went solo and he hired guitarist Randy Rhoads, who played on two of Osbourne’s solo albums, Blizzard of Ozz and Diary of a Madman. Rhoads was killed in a freak plane accident in 1982; Osbourne released the live album Tribute in 1987 in his memory.
Osbourne’s fame expanded into the mainstream in the early 2000s, when he joined longtime wife Sharon and two of their children, Kelly and Jack, in the MTV reality TV show The Osbournes.
He has struggled with health issues since 2003 following a near-fatal quad bike crash. He revealed his Parkinson’s diagnosis in 2020 and paused touring in 2023 after spinal surgery.
Thelma Riley and Osbourne married in 1971 and they had two children, daughter Jessica and son Louis. Osbourne later met Sharon, who became her own celebrity persona, when she was running her father’s Los Angeles office. Her father was Don Arden, a top concert promoter and artist manager. She went to Osbourne’s hotel in Los Angeles to collect money, which Osbourne had spent on drugs.
“She says she’ll come back in three days and I’d better have it. I’d always fancied her and I thought, ‘Ah, she’s coming back! Maybe I have a chance.’ I had pizza hanging from my hair, cigarette ashes on my shirt,” he told the Los Angeles Times in 2000. They married in 1982, had three children — Kelly, Aimee and Jack — and endured periodic separations and reconciliations.
He is survived by Sharon, and his children.
— with files from The Associated Press
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