John Michael Osbourne
Ozzy Osbourne co-founded Black Sabbath in 1968, earning the nickname Godfather of Heavy Metal. His solo career produced Blizzard of Ozz 1980 and Diary of a Madman 1981, and his reality show The Osbournes aired in 2002. He died in July 2025 at age 76.
Ozzy Osbourne by the numbers — life, work, and family.
The relatives of Ozzy Osbourne — parents, partners, children, and siblings.
Ozzy Osbourne — early life, career, personal life, and legacy.
The fourth of six children, Ozzy Osbourne grew up in a home without running water in Marston Green, Warwickshire. He was dyslexic, though the diagnosis came only in adulthood. After leaving school at fifteen, he worked as a construction laborer, trainee plumber, apprentice toolmaker, car factory horn-tuner, and abattoir worker. The Beatles’ Beatlemania inspired him to pursue music, and his father bought him a microphone and PA amplifier so he could get paying gigs.
In the late 1960s, Ozzy Osbourne formed Black Sabbath with Geezer Butler, Tony Iommi, and Bill Ward. Their self-titled debut album arrived in 1970, making the band a defining heavy metal act. Tensions with Iommi led to Osbourne’s firing in 1979. He quickly assembled the Blizzard of Ozz and released solo albums Blizzard of Ozz 1980 and Diary of a Madman 1981, with Crazy Train among the hits. Controversy marked the 1980s: a bat-biting incident in 1982, a lawsuit over Suicide Solution, and an arrest for trying to strangle his wife Sharon in 1989. He reunited with Black Sabbath for Live Aid in 1985 and again in 1997 for the live album Reunion. The MTV reality show The Osbournes premiered in 2002, bringing him to a new audience. He performed until his death in 2025.
Ozzy Osbourne married Thelma Mayfair in 1971; they had two children, Jessica 1972 and Louis 1975, and he adopted Thelma’s son Elliot Kingsley. The marriage ended in 1982. In 1982, he married Sharon Osbourne, daughter of his former manager Don Arden. They had three children: Aimee 1983, Kelly 1984, and Jack 1985. A serious quad-bike accident in 2003 on his Buckinghamshire estate broke his collarbone, six ribs, and a vertebra. Diagnosed with Parkinson’s syndrome in 2005 and COPD in 2020, he died of a heart attack, coronary artery disease, and Parkinson’s at his home in Jordans, Buckinghamshire on July 22, 2025.
Black Sabbath, co-founded by Ozzy Osbourne, was ranked the 85th greatest rock artist of all time by Rolling Stone. Osbourne earned a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame in 2002 and entered the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 2007 as a member of Black Sabbath. His solo albums each went multi-platinum, and Crazy Train became a metal anthem. The Osbournes became MTV’s highest-rated show. Alongside Alice Cooper, he pioneered shock rock, distinguished by his vocal style and influence on later metal musicians.
Browse the complete filmography of Ozzy Osbourne — every film, TV show, and documentary credit, ranked by popularity.
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Ozzy Osbourne's bibliography — every authored, edited, and co-written book, ranked by edition count.
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Every award, honor, and recognition received by Ozzy Osbourne — Grammys, hall-of-fame inductions, civic honors, lifetime achievements.
A wall of memorable lines from Ozzy Osbourne — lyrics, interviews, and off-the-cuff remarks captured over a lifetime.
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.
The Only Black Magic Sabbath Ever Got into Was a Box of Chocolates.
My Mother Was an Amateur Singer, My Father Was an Amateur Drunk.
Sometimes I Think My Whole Career and Life Has Only Been About a Bloody Bat!
I’m a Very Simple Man. You’ve Got to Have, Like, a Computer Nowadays to Turn the TV on and Off…and the Nightmare Continues.
A Life of Booze, Drugs and Unprotected Sex Is Only Going to F*** You Up! I Mean, Look at Me!
I Couldn’t Be a Royal. It’s Like Living in a Supersonic Goldfish Bowl.
Last Year I Sang for the Queen of England, Met the President of the United States, and Got an Emmy and a Star on the Walk of Fame. and What Did I Do? I Was Just Being Myself.
Of All the Things I’ve Lost I Miss My Mind the Most
Could Be Worse . . . I Could Be Sting.
Viagra’s a Great Sleeping Drug. I Take Viagra, and Sharon Goes Right to Sleep.
LA’s Not a Good Place to Grow Old. It’s a Paris Hilton Getting Fucked up the Arse Kind of Town . . . a Town Full of Ambulance Chasers.
I Have a Genuine Love Affair with My Audience. When I’m on Stage They’re Not Privileged to See Me. It’s a Privilege for Me to See Them.
Recalling an LSD Trip: There Were These Horses in a Field. They Were Talking to Me.
The Bat Thought I Was Giving Him the Kiss of Life!
I Knew I Was in Trouble When I Couldn’t Make It Offstage Quick Enough to Get Whatever Variety of Shit I Was Tipping Down Me. I Thought to Myself: There Are People Working in Gas Stations, and All These Menial Jobs, to Put Money Aside to See the Ozzfest, and I’m More Interested in Going Back to the Hotel, and Doing a Bag of White Powder, or Whatever Shit It Is I’m On.
It Wasn’t as If I Had a List, I Didn’t Have a Resumé Saying Tuesday Have a Pint, Strangle the Wife, Wednesday Get Bail.
One Day, My Son and I Were Arguing and He Said: Do You Mind If People Laugh with You, or at You? and I Said I Didn’t Give a Shit, so Long as They Were Laughing. but Really, I Was Thinking, I Wouldn’t Like to Know for a Fact That They’re Laughing at Me.
One Night in Hamburg, I Painted My Face Purple, and Didn’t Realise It Was Indelible. so I Had to Walk Around Hamburg for the Next Three Days with a Purple Head!
I Can Honestly Say, All the Bad Things That Ever Happened to Me Were Directly, Directly Attributed to Drugs and Alcohol.
I Got Rabies Shots for Biting the Head off a Bat but That’s OK the Bat Had to Get Ozzy Shots.
I Kept Hearing That Metal Is Dead and Ozzy’s Dead and People That Like Ozzy Are Dead. I Have Never Had an Empty Seat. I’ve Always Sold Out, so Who’s Saying It’s All Over?
I Suppose Americans Get a Kick Out of Watching a Crazy Brit Family Like Us Make Complete Fools of Ourselves Every Week.
You Gotta Be Really Careful What You Bite Off. Don’t Bite off More Than You Can Chew. It’s a Dangerous World.
I Wish I Didn’t Have to Perform ‘Iron Man’ Every Night.
They Keep ‘Em as Clean as They Possibly Could, but Prisons Are to Punish People, so They Don’t Exactly Have Room Service, You Know.
I Think Christmas Is the Biggest Load of Bollocks Ever.
I’m an Alcoholic. and the Most Unnatural Thing for an Alcoholic Is Not to Drink. so Every Now and Again I’ll Just Go and Have a Few Drinks. but It Catches up with You and Bites You in the Butt, You Know?
I’m Sure I’d Been Exposed to Other Songs, but I Think the First One That Had a Real Effect on Me Was She Loves You by the Beatles. It Was Just Magic It Was Like Being Hit by a Bolt of Lightning. I Even Remember Where I Was and What I Was Doing. I Was Walking Down the Road in Aston One Day, with My Light Blue Transistor Radio, and This Song Came On. I Thought, ‘What the Fuck Is That?’ It Changed My Life Forever, and at That Point I Knew What I Wanted to Do with My Life. I Never Knew It Would Turn Out the Way It Did It Turned Out Way Bigger Than My Wildest Expectations but I Knew That I Wanted to Be the Singer in a Band. John Lennon Was so Great with Words. He Had an Amazing Way of Turning Out Ridiculous Lyrics but Making Them Sound Interesting and Clever. Sometimes I Like More Straightforward Lyrics, but at the Same Time, I’m a Fan of Lyrics That Do a Number on My Head.
Every Time I Did Drugs, I Would Come Close to Death. It Got to the Point Where I Would Worry About Choking on My Own Vomit, so I Would Have to Sleep Face Down. I Do It Even to This Day… I’m Very Lucky to Be Alive and Realize That. Nearly All the Friends I Used to Get Pissed with Are Now Dead. I Am Living on Borrowed Time.
The Biggest Thing in My Life Were the Beatles. for Four Lads Who Came from the Back Streets, They Showed the Way Out. When People Ask Me What Made Me Get into Rock and Roll, I Tell Them It Was When I First Heard the Beatles. It Was Then That I Decided That My Life Will Be in Music. Thank G D for the Beatles.
No Music Mogul Created Black Sabbath, so No Music Mogul Could Tell Black Sabbath What to Do. a Couple Have Tried. We Simply Told Them Where to Shove It. Not Many Bands Can Do That Nowadays.
If You Want to Stand Out, Don’t Get a Tattoo.
What Are All These Bubbles, I’m Supposed to Be the Prince of Darkness!
I Wasn’t Keen on Paranoid at First. I Thought It Was a Rip off of Led Zeppelin
I’ve Got Emphysema, so If I Get This Virus, I’m F Ed.
I Should Have Been Dead Way Before Loads of Them. Why Am I the Last Man Standing? I Don’t Understand Any of It. Sometimes I Look in the Mirror and Go, ‘Why the F K Did You Make It?!’ I’m Not Boasting About Any of It Because I Should Have Been Dead a Thousand Times. I’ve Had My Stomach Pumped God Knows How Many Times.
It’s Like What I Strive For. I Got There as If It’s My First Show. You Know, It Makes My Life Worth Living. and That’s Why I Cleaned up My Act. Because I’m a Fat Slob. I’m Smoking Eight Packs a Day. I’m Taking Drugs. I’m Drinking Alcohol. That’s Disrespectful for Them.
Little-known facts about Ozzy Osbourne — origins, oddities, and behind-the-scenes details from a public life.
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.
He discovered his dyslexia only as an adult, after being told for years that the reason he had trouble reading in school was because he was dumb.
Before the success of The Osbournes in 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.
Diagnosed with Parkinson’s Syndrome and had to take daily medication for the rest of his life to combat the involuntary shudders associated with the condition. May 2005.
Claimed he slept with a bayonet under his bed.
Attempted suicide on several occasions as a teenager.
Arrested in September 1989 after attempting to strangle wife Sharon Osbourne while drunk. He awoke in jail the next day not knowing why he was there. He and Sharon reconciled in October 1990 after Ozzy endured extensive drug rehabilitation.
He was awarded a Star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame for Recording at 6780 Hollywood Boulevard in Hollywood, California.
His father’s death in 1977 led to several hospitalizations due to his depression.
He didn’t have a driver’s license until he was 61. Prior to that, he had failed the driving test 19 times.
His nickname Ozzy was actually a name that schoolmates taunted him with as a child and teen.
Had two children from his first marriage to Thelma Mayfair: Jessica Osbourne born 1972 and Louis Osbourne born 1975. He also adopted his first wife’s son, Elliot Kingsley born 1966, from a previous marriage. His children with second wife Sharon Osbourne are Aimee Osbourne born 9-2-83, Kelly Osbourne born 10-27-84, and Jack Osbourne born 11-8-85.
Every single one of his solo albums of original material has gone multi-platinum.
Was sued in recent years by former bandmates Bob Daisley and Lee Kerslake for royalties on Blizzard of Ozz and Diary of a Madman. Ozzy retaliated by deleting their parts from the albums entirely and rerecording them with his then-current band.
In 2007, was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame as a member of Black Sabbath and honored at the VH1 Rock Honors as a solo artist.
His song Suicide Solution created controversy when a fan committed suicide. The fan’s parents alleged that Ozzy was responsible and sued him. The suit was cleared completely.
When he was a child, his family was so poor that there was no running water in their house.
Daughter Aimee Osbourne opted out of appearing in the MTV reality show The Osbournes, but his and Sharon’s two other children, Kelly and Jack, agreed to take part.
Reunited with Black Sabbath in 1985 for the Live Aid festival, and again in November of 1992 for the last night of Ozzy’s so-called final tour. After the success of this show, the idea of a new Black Sabbath record and full tour was proposed, but Ozzy decided not to sign. It wasn’t until December of 1997 that all four original members reunited again, to perform and record what would become the live album Reunion.
He attended the births of children Jessica, Aimee and Kelly Osbourne, but not those of Louis and Jack.
He didn’t answer to his birth name of John and wouldn’t respond to anyone who called him by it.
He left school at fifteen and was employed as a construction site laborer, trainee plumber, apprentice toolmaker, car factory horn-tuner, and abattoir worker.
His remake with daughter Kelly Osbourne of the Black Sabbath song Changes went straight to #1 in the UK when it was released a week after his quad-bike accident.
Some of his many tattoos included the letters O-Z-Z-Y across his left knuckles, happy faces on both knees, THANKS on his right palm, a red hooded ghoul on his left chest, and a blue dragon on his right chest. The first two were self-made during a brief time in jail in the late 1960s.
The 2009 Sunday Times List estimated his net worth at $147 million.
Father of Kelly Osbourne, Jack Osbourne, and Aimee Osbourne by current wife Sharon Osbourne; and of Jessica Osbourne and Louis Osbourne by first wife Thelma Reilly.
He was the fourth of six children to Lillian Unitt and John Thomas Osbourne. His brothers were Paul and Tony, and his sisters were Jean, Iris, and Gillian.
He starred in the MTV reality show The Osbournes 2002, along with his wife and two of his children.
Along with contemporary Alice Cooper, he was one of the first shock rockers.
Black Sabbath’s name came from a 1963 film Black Sabbath starring Boris Karloff. Sabbath’s early songs reflected the same types of themes that were the centerpiece of those movies. Ozzy later named one of his solo albums Diary of a Madman, the title of a 1963 Vincent Price horror film.
The cover of his 1982 live album Speak of the Devil was partially censored in some stores. The cover depicted a fanged Ozzy with blood actually raspberry jelly oozing from his mouth. The stores put a sticker over his mouth to obscure the blood. Once Ozzy discovered this, he demanded that the sticker be removed or he would have his record company pull the album from those stores. Not wanting to lose the album sales, the stores adhered to Ozzy’s wishes.
Black Sabbath were inducted into the UK Music Hall of Fame for their outstanding contribution to British music and integral part of British music culture on 16 November 2005.
Much like the Hollywood Walk of Fame stars, he has a Walk of Stars star on Broad Street, Birmingham, England.
He toured the U.S. with Black Sabbath for the annual summer concert series Ozzfest.
Long said that Suicide Solution, a song about the dangers of alcoholism, was written as a tribute to former AC/DC vocalist Bon Scott who had died an alcohol-related death in 1980. However in 2002, the writer of the song, former bassist Bob Daisley, revealed that the song actually alluded to Ozzy himself.
On Monday, December 8, 2003, he was seriously injured while riding his ATV quad bike on the grounds of his Buckinghamshire estate. The accident occurred while he was taking a day off from his hectic promotional schedule surrounding the UK release of Changes – a duet with his daughter Kelly. He broke his collarbone, six ribs and a vertebra in his neck. The injuries were not considered life-threatening, though he did undergo surgery.
Threw a bucket of water on the audiences at his concerts.
He had a vasectomy in 1986.
Black Sabbath was voted the 85th Greatest Rock n Roll Artist of all time by Rolling Stone magazine.
Formed a band called Law after leaving Black Sabbath in 1979. They played 2 gigs before he changed their name to the Blizzard of Oz.
When he started out in music, the demand for rock singers in his hometown of Birmingham was so strong that anyone with their own microphone and PA amplifier could get a paying gig. Osbourne’s father paid for the equipment, to spare him having to work a menial job after his failures in school.
He was the victim of a burglary at his Buckinghamshire home in November 2004. Almost £2 million worth of jewellery was stolen.
In 2020 he revealed he had chronic obstructive pulmonary disease COPD.
The song title S.A.T.O. from the Diary of a Madman album is actually his wife’s initials Sharon Arden Thelma Osbourne.
On April 12th, 2002, he was honoured with a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame.
Released his autobiography I Am Ozzy with Chris Ayres.
Lived in Beaconsfield, Buckinghamshire, England, and Los Angeles, California.
With wife Sharon Osbourne, he announced that the family had agreed to a deal with MTV, worth a reported $20 million, to do two more seasons of The Osbournes, the highest rated show in the history of the channel.
Quick answers to the questions readers ask most about Ozzy Osbourne.
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