Tributes are pouring in from music legends and celebrities after Ozzy Osbourne, the rock and heavy metal icon turned reality show star, has died at the age of 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,” his family said in a statement signed by wife Sharon Osbourne and their children Kelly, Jack, Aimee, as well as his son Louis from his prior marriage to Thelma Riley. “He was with his family and surrounded by love. We ask everyone to respect our family privacy at this time.”
The Black Sabbath rocker lived with Parkinson’s disease. Earlier this month, Osbourne played what was dubbed his “final bow” from a throne at Villa Park in the U.K.
Born John Michael Osbourne, the English musician rose to fame as the so-called Prince of Darkness with his heavy metal band, Black Sabbath, which he co-founded in 1968. The band released popular hits like “Paranoid,” “Iron Man” and “War Pigs.”
After his 1979 departure from the band due to substance abuse issues, Osbourne launched a successful solo career beginning with 1980’s Blizzard of Ozz, which featured his hit track “Crazy Train.” Osbourne became widely known for his wild onstage persona, including infamously biting the head off a bat during a 1982 concert. (He later got a rabies shot.) He went on to release 13 studio albums and was inducted twice into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame — in 2006, with Black Sabbath, and again in 2024 as a solo artist.
Outside of music, Osbourne also had an influence on pop culture: He became a part of the first reality TV show family thanks to his hit MTV show, The Osbournes, which documented the chaotic, often hilarious home life he shared with wife Sharon and their children, Kelly and Jack. The show also illuminated darker sides of his personal life, however, as it revealed his struggles with substance abuse and health issues. The show ran for four seasons, from 2002 to 2005.
Osbourne announced he had been previously diagnosed with Parkinson’s disease, a progressive nervous system disorder, in January 2020, a condition he later told the Los Angeles Times he had lived with since 2003.
“I’m not dying from Parkinson’s. I’ve been working with it most of my life,” the singer told the newspaper. “I’ve cheated death so many times. If tomorrow you read ‘Ozzy Osbourne never woke up this morning,’ you wouldn’t go, ‘Oh, my God!’ You’d go, ‘Well, it finally caught up with him.’”
In addition to Parkinson’s, the musician also suffered other health issues, such as a severe staph infection in 2018 and multiple spinal surgeries following a fall that aggravated an old injury.
In May, Osbourne told the Guardian about his condition: “You wake up the next morning and find that something else has gone wrong. You begin to think this is never going to end.”
Yahoo has collected tributes and reactions to Osbourne’s death from across the worlds of music and entertainment. Read them below.
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