The world has lost a rock legend.
Ozzy Osbourne, the Black Sabbath rocker known for his decades-long career in the music industry, died on July 22, his family has announced. 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,” they said in a statement shared to the U.K. Press Association. “He was with his family and surrounded by love. We ask everyone to respect our family privacy at this time.”
The musician’s passing comes after he had experienced a series of health issues over the years, including a battle with Parkinson’s disease. In June 2022, Sharon Osbourne shared that her husband was undergoing a “major operation” that was “really going to determine the rest of his life.”
Born John Michael Osbourne in Birmingham, England, Ozzy struggled in school, but it was clear early on that his future would be in the spotlight. As he shared in the 2020 film Biography: The Nine Lives of Ozzy Osbourne, “The only thing I had a passion for was music.”
That passion turned him into a superstar. In 1968, Ozzy, Tony Iommi, Terry “Geezer” Butler and Bill Ward formed Black Sabbath, a band name that came to Tony after he noticed the public’s interest in scary movies. The move, Ozzy once told Rolling Stone, “was the f–king change of my life.”
Not long after the band started to take off with its self-titled debut album and follow-up Paranoid, Ozzy met and married his first wife Thelma Riley. Together, they welcomed two children: Jessica and Louis (Thelma also had a son, Elliot Kingsley, from a previous relationship).
Meanwhile, as the group became more successful, Ozzy realized living life as a rock star wasn’t all it was cracked up to be. “Money would be the alcohol and the drugs,” the musician said in Biography: The Nine Lives of Ozzy Osbourne, “and I behaved badly.”
On the personal front, Ozzy officially split from Thelma in 1982 and married Sharon, who was also his manager, soon after. Together, they welcomed three children: Aimee, Kelly and Jack.
“She’s the only one I’ve ever loved in my life,” the Rock and Roll Hall of Famer said about Sharon in the documentary. “I mean, she’s my soulmate.”
While there were many happy memories in their decades-long marriage, there were difficult times, too, including Ozzy’s battle with addiction, his 1989 attack on Sharon, her 2002 fight against colon cancer (she was declared cancer free in 2003) and their 2016 breakup (with the couple renewing their vows in 2017).
Some of the family’s ups and downs were documented on The Osbournes, a reality TV series that aired on MTV from 2002 to 2005 and starred Ozzy, Sharon, Kelly and Jack. The show became a huge success.
“He’d crossed over,” Jack said on Biography: The Nine Lives of Ozzy Osbourne. “He’d made that leap from being that guy on the poster in your teenage son’s bedroom to now the guy on the TV in the family living room and mom and dad loved him just as much in a different way.”
Prince of Darkness, TV star, husband and father: Ozzy had done it all. “I never thought I’d make it this far,” Ozzy told Rolling Stone in 2018 while reflecting on his career. “Fifty years is a lot. I don’t understand why I’m alive still after the hell-raising days. I guess whoever the man is upstairs, if there even is one, wants me to stick around.”
Keep reading for a look back at his life…
