Ozzy Osbourne Part II

 

Production and television

Osbourne achieved greater celebrity status via his own brand of reality television. The Osbournes, a series featuring the domestic life of Osbourne and his family (wife Sharon, children Jack and Kelly, occasional appearances from his son Louis, but eldest daughter Aimee did not participate). The programme became one of MTV's greatest hits. It premiered on 5 March 2002, and the final episode aired on 21 March 2005.

The success of The Osbournes led Osbourne and the rest of his family to host the 30th Annual American Music Awards in January 2003. The night was marked with constant "bleeping" due to some of the lewd and raunchy remarks made by Ozzy and Sharon Osbourne. Presenter Patricia Heaton walked out midway in disgust. On 20 February 2008, Ozzy, Sharon, Kelly and Jack Osbourne hosted the 2008 BRIT Awards held at Earls Court, London. Ozzy appeared in a TV commercial for I Can't Believe It's Not Butter! Which began airing in the UK in February 2006?

Osbourne appears in a commercial for the online video game World of Warcraft. He was also featured in the music video game Guitar Hero World Tour as a playable character. He becomes unlocked upon completing "Mr. Crowley" and "Crazy Train" in the vocalist career. The 2002 dark fantasy combat flight simulator Savage Skies was initially developed under the title Ozzy's Black Skies and was to feature his likeness as well as songs from both his stint in Black Sabbath as well as his solo career, but licensing issues forced developer iRock Interactive to re-tool the game and release it without the Osbourne branding.

In October 2009, Osbourne published I Am Ozzy, his autobiography. He said ghost writer Chris Ayres told him he had enough material for a second book. A film adaptation of I Am Ozzy is also in the works, and Osbourne said he hoped "an unknown guy from England" will get the role over an established actor, while Sharon stated she would choose established English actress Carey Mulligan to play her.

A documentary film about Osbourne's life and career, entitled God Bless Ozzy Osbourne, premiered in April 2011 at the Tribeca Film Festival and was released on DVD in November 2011. The film was produced by Osbourne's son Jack. On 15 May 2013 Osbourne, along with the current members of Black Sabbath, appeared in an episode of CSI: Crime Scene Investigation titled "Skin in the Game". The History Channel premiered a comedy reality television series starring Ozzy Osbourne and his son Jack Osbourne on 24 July 2016, named Ozzy & Jack's World Detour. During each episode Ozzy and Jack visit one or more sites to learn about history from experts, and explore unusual or quirky aspects of their background.

Osbourne appeared in a November 2017 episode of Gogglebox along with other UK celebrities such as Ed Sheeran, former Oasis frontman Liam Gallagher, and Labor Party leader Jeremy Corbyn as part of Channel 4 and Cancer Research UK's Stand Up to Cancer fundraising campaign. In November 2017, Osbourne entered into a new realm of sponsorship as he signed on as an ambassador of a rock-themed online casino known as Metal Casino, which was founded by metal music fans in August 2017. In February 2019, Osbourne's merchandising partner announced that Ozzy would have his own branded online slots game as part of the NetEnt Rocks music-themed portfolio.

In 2020, Osbourne voiced King Thrash, king of the rock trolls, for the animated movie Trolls World Tour.

Controversies

Throughout his career, many religious groups accused Osbourne of being a negative influence on teenagers, stating that his genre of rock music has been used to glorify Satanism. Scholar Christopher M. Moreman compared the controversy to those levelled against the occultist Aleister Crowley. Both were demonized by the media and some religious groups for their antics. Although Osbourne tempts the comparison with his song "Mr. Crowley", he denied being a Satanist; conversely, it has been reported that Osbourne was a member of the Church of England and that he prayed before taking the stage each night before every concert.

In 1981, after signing his first solo career record deal, Osbourne bit the head off a dove during a meeting with CBS Records executives in Los Angeles. Apparently, he had planned to release doves into the air as a sign of peace, but due to intoxication, he instead grabbed a dove and bit its head off. He then spat the head out, with blood still dripping from his lips. As security was escorting Osbourne out of the building, he grabbed a second dove and also bit its head off. Due to its controversy, the head-biting act has been parodied and alluded to several times throughout his career and is part of what made Osbourne famous.

"I'm like the Dennis the Menace kind of crazy. Fun crazy, I hope." —Osbourne describing himself in the British documentary, Hellraisers, Channel 4, 2000.

On 20 January 1982, Osbourne bit the head off a bat that he thought was rubber while performing at the Veterans Memorial Auditorium in Des Moines, Iowa. According to a 2004 Rolling Stone article, the bat was alive at the time; however, 17-year-old Mark Neal, who threw it onto the stage, said it was brought to the show dead. According to Osbourne in the booklet to the 2002 edition of Diary of a Madman, the bat was not only alive but managed to bite him, resulting in Osbourne being treated for rabies. On 20 January 2019, Osbourne commemorated the 37th anniversary of the bat incident by offering an "Ozzy Plush Bat" toy "with detachable head" for sale on his personal web-store. The site claimed the first batch of toys sold out within hours.

On New Year's Eve 1983, Canadian teenager James Jollimore killed a woman and her two sons in Halifax, Nova Scotia, after listening to "Bark at the Moon". A friend of the murderer quoted: "Jimmy said that every time he listened to the song, he felt strange inside ... He said when he heard it on New Year's Eve, he went out and stabbed someone".

In 1984, California teenager John McCollum committed suicide while listening to Osbourne's "Suicide Solution". The song deals with the dangers of alcohol misuse. McCollum's suicide led to allegations that Osbourne promoted suicide in his songs. McCollum had clinical depression. His parents sued Osbourne (McCollum v. CBS) for their son's death, saying the lyrics in the song, "Where to hide, suicide is the only way out. Don't you know what it's really about?" convinced McCollum to commit suicide. The family's lawyer suggested that Osbourne should be criminally charged for encouraging a young person to commit suicide, but the courts ruled in Osbourne's favor, saying there was no connection between the song and McCollum's suicide. Osbourne was sued for the same reason in 1991 (Waller v. Osbourne), by the parents of Michael Waller, for $9 million, but the courts once again ruled in Osbourne's favor.

In lawsuits filed in 2000 and 2002 which were dismissed by the courts in 2003, former band members Bob Daisley, Lee Kerslake, and Phil Soussan stated that Osbourne was delinquent in paying them royalties and had denied them due credit on albums they played on. In November 2003, a Federal Appeals Court unanimously upheld the dismissal by the US District Court for the Central District of California of the lawsuit brought by Daisley and Kerslake. The US Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit ruled that Osbourne does not owe any royalties or credit to the former band members who were let go in 1981. To resolve further issues, management chose to replace Daisley and Kerslake's contributions on the original masters, replacing them with Robert Trujillo on bass and Mike Bordin on drums. The albums were then reissued. The original tracks have since been restored in accordance with the 30th anniversary of those albums.

In July 2010, Osbourne and Tony Iommi decided to discontinue the court proceedings over ownership of the Black Sabbath trademark. As reported to Blabbermouth, "Both parties are glad to put this behind them and to cooperate for the future and would like it to be known that the issue was never personal, it was always business."

He has admitted to shooting 17 of his own pet cats during a drug-fuelled rampage in 1980s.

Personal life

Osbourne had over 15 tattoos, the most famous of which were the letters O-Z-Z-Y across the knuckles of his left hand. This was his first tattoo, created by himself as a teenager with a sewing needle and pencil lead. A longtime fan of the comedy troupe Monty Python, in a 2010 interview with Us Weekly Osbourne stated, "My favorite movie is Monty Python's Life of Brian". Osbourne suffered minor burns after a small house fire in January 2013. On his 65th birthday on 3 December 2013, he asked fans to celebrate his birthday by donating to the Royal Marsden cancer charity in London.

Though Osbourne had long been accused of being a Satanist, The New York Times reported in 1992 that he was a practicing member of the Church of England and prayed before each show. In 2002, Osbourne and wife Sharon were invited to the White House Correspondents' Association dinner by Fox News Channel correspondent Greta Van Susteren for that year's event. President George W. Bush noted Osbourne's presence by joking, "The thing about Ozzy is, he's made a lot of big hit recordings – 'Party with the Animals', 'Sabbath Bloody Sabbath', 'Facing Hell', 'Black Skies' and 'Bloodbath in Paradise'. Ozzy, Mom loves your stuff."

Relationships

Osbourne had six children; three from his first marriage and three from his marriage to Sharon Osbourne.

In 1971, Osbourne met his first wife Thelma Riley at the Rum Runner, the Birmingham nightclub where she worked. They were married later that year and children Jessica and Louis were soon born. Osbourne also adopted Riley's five-year-old son Elliot from a previous relationship. Osbourne later referred to his first marriage as "a terrible mistake". His use of alcohol and other drugs, coupled with his frequent absences while touring with Black Sabbath, took their toll on his family life; his children later complained that he was not a good father. In the 2011 documentary film God Bless Ozzy Osbourne, produced by his son Jack, Osbourne admitted that he could not even remember when Louis and Jessica were born.

Osbourne married his manager Sharon Arden on 4 July 1982 and the couple had three children together: Aimee (born 2 September 1983), Kelly (born 27 October 1984), and Jack (born 8 November 1985). After Jack's birth, Osbourne had a vasectomy. He later confessed that the well-known "Fourth of July" Independence Day date was chosen so that he would never forget his anniversary. Guitarist Randy Rhoads predicted in 1981 that the couple would "probably get married someday" despite their constant bickering and the fact that Osbourne was still married to Thelma at the time. Osbourne has multiple grandchildren.

Osbourne wrote a song for his daughter Aimee, which appeared as a B-side on the album Ozzmosis. At the end of the song, said daughter can be heard saying "I'll always be your angel", referring to the song's chorus lyrics. The song "My Little Man", which appears on Ozzmosis, was written about his son Jack. He and his family divided time between homes in Buckinghamshire and Los Angeles.

Drug use

Osbourne used tobacco, alcohol, street drugs, and prescription drugs for most of his adult life. He admitted to Sounds in 1978, "I get high, I get fucked up ... what the hell's wrong with getting fucked up? There must be something wrong with the system if so many people have to get fucked up ... I never take dope or anything before I go on stage. I'll smoke a joint or whatever afterwards." Black Sabbath bandmate Tony Iommi said that while the entire band were involved with alcohol and other drugs to various degrees in the 1970s, Osbourne had the unhealthiest lifestyle of them all. Despite this, said Iommi, he was typically the only one left standing when the others were "out for the count". Longtime guitarist Zakk Wylde has attributed Osbourne's longevity in spite of decades of substance misuse to "a very special kind of fortitude that's bigger than King Kong and Godzilla combined... seriously, he's hard as nails, man!" In 2010, during an interview on The Howard Stern Show, Ozzy said that it took him 19 attempts to get his driving license because of his alcohol use.

Osbourne's first experience with cocaine was in early 1971 at a hotel in Denver, Colorado, after a show Black Sabbath had done with Mountain. He states that Mountain's guitarist, Leslie West, introduced him to the drug. Though West was reluctant to take credit for introducing Osbourne to cocaine, Osbourne remembers the experience quite clearly: "When you come from Aston and you fall in love with cocaine, you remember when you started. It's like having your first fuck!" Osbourne says that upon first trying the drug, "The world went a bit fuzzy after that."

Osbourne claimed to have taken LSD for two years while in Black Sabbath. During the end of his time with the band, he said he "got very drunk and very stoned every single day."

Osbourne's substance abuse, at times, caused friction within his band. Don Airey, keyboardist for Osbourne during his early solo career, said that these issues were what ultimately caused him to leave the band. In his memoir Off the Rails, former bassist Rudy Sarzo detailed the frustrations felt by him and his bandmates as they coped with life on the road with the vocalist, who was in a state of near-constant inebriation and was often so hungover that he would refuse to perform. When he was able to perform, his voice was often so damaged from his smoking, drinking, and drug abuse that the performance suffered. Many shows on the American leg of the 1981-82 Diary of a Madman tour were simply cancelled, and the members of his band quickly began to tire of the unpredictability, coupled with the often violent mood swings he was prone to when either drunk or high.

Osbourne claimed in his autobiography that he was invited in 1981 to a meeting with the head of CBS Europe in Germany. Intoxicated, he decided to lighten the mood by performing a striptease on the table and then kissing the record executive on the lips. According to his wife Sharon, he had actually performed a goose-step up and down the table and urinated in the executive's wine, but was too drunk to remember.

On 18 February 1982, while wearing his future wife Sharon's dress for a photoshoot near the Alamo, Osbourne drunkenly urinated on the Alamo Cenotaph erected in honour of those who died at the Battle of the Alamo in Texas, across the street from the actual building. A police officer arrested Osbourne, and he was subsequently banned from the city of San Antonio for a decade. Osbourne had been on a long drinking binge and earlier that same day had drunkenly fired his entire band, including Randy Rhoads, after they had informed him that they would not participate in a planned live album of Black Sabbath songs. He also physically attacked Rhoads and Rudy Sarzo in a hotel bar that morning, and Sharon informed the band that she feared he had "finally snapped". Osbourne later had no memory of firing his band and the tour continued, though his relationship with Rhoads never fully recovered. In May 1984, Osbourne was arrested in Memphis, Tennessee, again for public intoxication. The most notorious incident came in August 1989, when Sharon claimed that Ozzy had tried to strangle her after returning home from the Moscow Music Peace Festival, in a haze of alcohol and other drugs. The incident led Ozzy to six months in rehabilitation, after which time, Sharon regained her faith in her husband and did not press charges.

Though he managed to remain clean and sober for extended periods in the late 2000s, Osbourne frequently commented on his former wild lifestyle, expressing bewilderment at his own survival through 40 years of misusing tobacco, alcohol, street drugs, and prescription drugs. Upon being fired from Black Sabbath in 1979, Osbourne spent the next three months locked in his hotel room taking vast amounts of drugs, alcohol, and tobacco all day, every day. He claimed that he would certainly have died if his future wife Sharon had not offered to manage him as a solo artist.

In 2003, Osbourne told the Los Angeles Times how he was nearly incapacitated by medication prescribed by a Beverly Hills doctor. The doctor was alleged to have prescribed 13,000 doses of 32 drugs in one year. However, after a nine-year investigation by the Medical Board of California, the Beverly Hills physician was exonerated of all charges of excessive prescribing.

Osbourne experienced tremors for some years and linked them to his continuous drug misuse. In May 2005, he found out it was actually Parkin syndrome, a genetic condition, the symptoms of which are similar to Parkinson's disease. Osbourne had to take daily medication for the rest of his life to combat the involuntary shudders associated with the condition. Osbourne also showed symptoms of mild hearing loss, as depicted in the television show, The Osbournes, where he often asked his family to repeat what they say. At the TEDMED Conference in October 2010, scientists from Knome, a Massachusetts human genome interpretation company, joined Osbourne on stage to discuss their analysis of Osbourne's whole genome, which shed light on how the famously hard-living rocker has survived decades of misusing alcohol, tobacco, and other drugs.

In April 2013, Osbourne revealed through Facebook that he had resumed smoking, drinking, and doing drugs for the past year and a half, stating he "was in a very dark place" but said he had been sober again since early March. He also apologized to Sharon, his family, friends, bandmates and his fans for his "insane" behavior during that period. In a February 2021 interview with Variety, Ozzy and his son Jack (who has been sober for 17 years) opened up about their recovery. Ozzy revealed he had been sober for about seven years.

Health issues and death

On 6 February 2019, Osbourne was hospitalized in an undisclosed location on his doctor's advice due to flu complications, postponing the European leg of his "No More Tours II" tour. The issue was described as a "severe upper-respiratory infection" following a bout with the flu which his doctor feared could develop into pneumonia, given the physicality of the live performances and an extensive travel schedule throughout Europe in winter conditions.

By 12 February 2019, Osbourne had been moved to intensive care. Tour promoters Live Nation said that they were hopeful that Osbourne would be "fit and healthy" and able to honour tour dates in both Australia and New Zealand in March. Osbourne later cancelled the tour entirely, and ultimately all shows scheduled for 2019, after sustaining serious injuries from a fall in his Los Angeles home while still recovering from pneumonia. He was diagnosed with Parkinson's disease in February 2019, which he publicly revealed in January 2020. He lost his ability to walk due to the disease. In February 2020, Osbourne canceled the 2020 North American tour, seeking treatment in Switzerland until April. In 2020, Osbourne also revealed that he had emphysema.

Osbourne died on the morning of 22 July 2025, at the age of 76. A family statement confirmed he was surrounded by his family at the time of his death in Birmingham.

Legacy

Osbourne is considered an icon of hard rock music, and one of the founders of heavy metal music through his work with Black Sabbath. He disliked being categorized as metal, stating that while his band "plays heavy"; other bands that are considered metal are "really heavy". "When you get pigeonholed with a certain [genre], it can be very difficult to do something a bit lighter or an acoustic track or whatever you want to do. Back in the day, it was always just rock music. It's still just rock music."

Outside of music, Osbourne and his family's show The Osbournes is considered to be a pioneering reality television programme which ushered in an era of shows focusing on celebrity family life.

Band members

Final members:

Ozzy Osbourne – vocals (1979–1992, 1994–2025)

Zakk Wylde – lead guitar, backing vocals (1987–1992, 1995, 1998, 2001–2004, 2006–2009, 2017–2025)

Rob "Blasko" Nicholson – bass (2003–2025)

Adam Wakeman – keyboards, rhythm guitar (2004–2025)

Tommy Clufetos – drums (2010–2025)

Awards

Osbourne received several awards for his contributions to the music community. In 1994, he was awarded a Grammy Award for the track "I Don't Want to Change the World" from Live & Loud for Best Metal Performance of 1994. At the 2004 NME Awards in London, Osbourne received the award for Godlike Genius. In 2005 Osbourne was inducted into the UK Music Hall of Fame both as a solo artist and as a member of Black Sabbath. In 2006, he was inducted into the US Rock and Roll Hall of Fame with Black Sabbath bandmates Tony Iommi, Bill Ward, and Geezer Butler. In 2024, Osbourne was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame for his solo career.

In 2007, Osbourne was honored at the second annual VH1 Rock Honors, along with Genesis, Heart, and ZZ Top. In addition, that year a bronze star honoring Osbourne was placed on Broad Street in Birmingham while Osbourne watched. On 18 May Osbourne had received notice that he would be the first inductee into The Birmingham Walk of Stars. He was presented the award by the Lord Mayor of Birmingham. "I am really honored", he said, "All my family is here and I thank everyone for this reception—I'm absolutely knocked out".

In 2008, Osbourne was crowned with the prestigious Living Legend award in the Classic Rock Roll of Honour Awards. Past recipients include Alice Cooper, Lemmy, and Jimmy Page. Slash, the former Guns N' Roses guitarist, presented the award. In 2010 Osbourne won the "Literary Achievement" honor for his memoir, I Am Ozzy, at the Guys Choice Awards at Sony Pictures Studio in Culver City, California. Osbourne was presented with the award by Ben Kingsley. The book debuted at No. 2 on the New York Times' hardcover non-fiction best-seller list. Osbourne was also a judge for the 6th, 10th and 11th annual Independent Music Awards to support independent artists' careers. In May 2015, Osbourne received the Ivor Novello Award for Lifetime Achievement from the British Academy of Songwriters, Composers and Authors at a ceremony held at the Grosvenor House Hotel, London In 2016, and Osbourne had a tram named after him in his home city of Birmingham.

In April 2021, Osbourne was inducted into the celebrity wing of the WWE Hall of Fame for his various appearances, notably for his appearance at WrestleMania 2 in 1986 when he and Lou Albano managed The British Bulldogs (Davey Boy Smith and The Dynamite Kid) in their WWF Tag Team Championship win over The Dream Team (Greg Valentine and Brutus Beefcake).

On 30 June 2025, one week before their farewell "Back to the Beginning" concert, Osbourne and the other original members of Black Sabbath were each made Freemen of the City of Birmingham.

Discography

Solo

Studio albums

Blizzard of Ozz (1980)

Diary of a Madman (1981)

Bark at the Moon (1983)

The Ultimate Sin (1986)

No Rest for the Wicked (1988)

No More Tears (1991)

Ozzmosis (1995)

Down to Earth (2001)

Under Cover (2005)

Black Rain (2007)

Scream (2010)

Ordinary Man (2020)

Patient Number 9 (2022)

Black Sabbath

Studio albums

Black Sabbath (1970)

Paranoid (1970)

Master of Reality (1971)

Vol. 4 (1972)

Sabbath Bloody Sabbath (1973)

Sabotage (1975)

Technical Ecstasy (1976)

Never Say Die! (1978)

13 (2013)

Tours

Blizzard of Ozz Tour (1980–1981)

Diary of a Madman Tour (1981–1982)

Speak of the Devil Tour (1982–1983)

Bark at the Moon Tour (1983–1985)

The Ultimate Sin Tour (1986)

No Rest for the Wicked Tour (1988–1989)

Theater of Madness Tour (1991–1992)

No More Tours Tour (1992)

Retirement Sucks Tour (1995–1996)

The Ozzman Cometh Tour (1998)

Merry Mayhem Tour (2001)

Down to Earth Tour (2002)

Black Rain Tour (2008)

Scream World Tour (2010–2011)

Ozzy and Friends Tour (2012; 2015)

No More Tours II (2018)

Back to the Beginning (2025)

Reality television

Osbourne became involved in reality television in the 2000s. His entry into the genre began with The Osbournes, which premiered on MTV in 2002. The series, filmed at the Osbourne family home in Beverly Hills, offered a look into the daily lives of Ozzy, his wife and manager Sharon, and two of their three children, Jack and Kelly. It earned the family an Emmy Award for Outstanding Reality Program in 2002. The show ran for four seasons, concluding in 2005, and has been credited with pioneering the celebrity reality television genre that became prevalent in subsequent decades.

Ozzy & Jack's World Detour, which premiered in 2016 on History and later moved to A&E, followed Ozzy and Jack as they traveled the globe visiting historical sites and various attractions. The show ran for three seasons.

Ozzy's reality television presence continued with The Osbournes Want to Believe, which premiered in 2020 on the Travel Channel. In this series, Jack, a paranormal investigator, attempts to convince his parents, Ozzy and Sharon, of the existence of supernatural phenomena by showing them viral videos and discussing strange occurrences.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ozzy_Osbourne