A heavy metal icon. Ozzy Osbourne has sold over 100 million records worldwide between his solo career and his days as a member of Black Sabbath.
The England native got his start in 1967 when he joined bassist Geezer Butler’s first band, Rare Breed, as a vocalist. Although the group didn’t last long, the duo formed Black Sabbath in 1969 along with guitarist Tony lommi and drummer Bill Ward. The rock group is often credited with pioneering the heavy metal genre.
During a November 2020 interview with GQ, Osbourne was modest when asked if he knew the band was making groundbreaking music at the time.
“We were just having fun and if it felt like a good idea, we did it. Tony lommi is an incredible guitar player. There’s no one who can come up with those demonic riffs like him. He’s the king,” he told the outlet.
The “Crazy Train” singer recorded eight studio albums with Black Sabbath — including the genre-defining records Sabbath, Paranoid and Master of Reality — before he was ejected from the band in 1979 amid struggles with substance abuse.
“Ozzy was going to clubs and getting really out of it and not coming home,” Iommi said for the May 2013 book Louder Than Hell: The Definitive Oral History of Metal. “It got to a stage where nothing was happening with him. He came apart on us.”
Osbourne, for his part, claimed in his January 2010 autobiography, I Am Ozzy, that his bandmates were using drugs just as much as he was at the time.
“I’d be lying if I said I didn’t feel betrayed by what happened with Black Sabbath,” he wrote. “We were four blokes who’d grown up together a few streets apart. We were like family, like brothers. And firing me for being f—ked up was hypocritical bulls—t. We were all f—ked up.”
The “Bark at the Moon” songwriter embarked on a solo career after his firing, releasing 13 studio albums between 1980 and 2022, the first seven of which received multi-platinum certifications in the U.S. In 1994, he won a Grammy award for Best Metal Performance for his song “I Don’t Want to Change the World.”
As for his personal life, Osbourne married his manager Sharon Osbourne (née Levy) in 1982. The Rock and Roll Hall of Famer has often credited Sharon with keeping him alive throughout his battle with addiction.
“If it wasn’t for Sharon, I’d be dead. I was doing f—king huge amounts of drugs and booze,” he told Independent in September 2022. “I never stopped. People wouldn’t know if I was gonna go through the door, the roof or the window.”
Ozzy and Sharon welcomed three children after their nuptials: Aimee, born in 1983, Kelly, born in 1984, and Jack, born in 1985. The clan shared glimpses into their life via their MTV reality show, The Osbournes, which aired from 2002 to 2005. Aimee neglected to participate in the series.
While speaking on his SiriusXM Channel, Ozzy’s Bonehead, in January 2023, the “No More Tears” musician reflected on how the show had affected his family.
“I don’t know how the Kardashians have done it for so long. It sent us crazy at the end,” he said. “I am not sorry I did it, but after three or four years I said, ‘Do you know what, we’re going to lose somebody because it is getting too crazy.’”
In addition to his children with Sharon, Ozzy is also father to Elliott, Louis and Jessica with ex-wife Thelma Riley.
Sign up for Us Weekly’s free, daily newsletter and never miss breaking news or exclusive stories about your favorite celebrities, TV shows and more!
Scroll through to see Osbourne’s life over the years:
Credit: MediaPunch/Shutterstock
Ozzy Osbourne Through the Years: Black Sabbath, Solo Career, Addiction, Married Life, Reality TV and More
A heavy metal icon. Ozzy Osbourne has sold over 100 million records worldwide between his solo career and his days as a member of Black Sabbath.
The England native got his start in 1967 when he joined bassist Geezer Butler’s first band, Rare Breed, as a vocalist. Although the group didn’t last long, the duo formed Black Sabbath in 1969 along with guitarist Tony lommi and drummer Bill Ward. The rock group is often credited with pioneering the heavy metal genre.
During a November 2020 interview with GQ, Osbourne was modest when asked if he knew the band was making groundbreaking music at the time.
“We were just having fun and if it felt like a good idea, we did it. Tony lommi is an incredible guitar player. There’s no one who can come up with those demonic riffs like him. He’s the king,” he told the outlet.
The “Crazy Train” singer recorded eight studio albums with Black Sabbath — including the genre-defining records Sabbath, Paranoid and Master of Reality — before he was ejected from the band in 1979 amid struggles with substance abuse.
[jwplayer Ecxz4WcB-zhNYySv2]
“Ozzy was going to clubs and getting really out of it and not coming home,” Iommi said for the May 2013 book Louder Than Hell: The Definitive Oral History of Metal. “It got to a stage where nothing was happening with him. He came apart on us.”
Osbourne, for his part, claimed in his January 2010 autobiography, I Am Ozzy, that his bandmates were using drugs just as much as he was at the time.
“I’d be lying if I said I didn’t feel betrayed by what happened with Black Sabbath,” he wrote. “We were four blokes who’d grown up together a few streets apart. We were like family, like brothers. And firing me for being f—ked up was hypocritical bulls—t. We were all f—ked up.”
The “Bark at the Moon” songwriter embarked on a solo career after his firing, releasing 13 studio albums between 1980 and 2022, the first seven of which received multi-platinum certifications in the U.S. In 1994, he won a Grammy award for Best Metal Performance for his song “I Don’t Want to Change the World.”
As for his personal life, Osbourne married his manager Sharon Osbourne (née Levy) in 1982. The Rock and Roll Hall of Famer has often credited Sharon with keeping him alive throughout his battle with addiction.
“If it wasn’t for Sharon, I’d be dead. I was doing f—king huge amounts of drugs and booze,” he told Independent in September 2022. “I never stopped. People wouldn’t know if I was gonna go through the door, the roof or the window.”
Ozzy and Sharon welcomed three children after their nuptials: Aimee, born in 1983, Kelly, born in 1984, and Jack, born in 1985. The clan shared glimpses into their life via their MTV reality show, The Osbournes, which aired from 2002 to 2005. Aimee neglected to participate in the series.
While speaking on his SiriusXM Channel, Ozzy’s Bonehead, in January 2023, the “No More Tears” musician reflected on how the show had affected his family.
“I don’t know how the Kardashians have done it for so long. It sent us crazy at the end,” he said. “I am not sorry I did it, but after three or four years I said, ‘Do you know what, we’re going to lose somebody because it is getting too crazy.’”
In addition to his children with Sharon, Ozzy is also father to Elliott, Louis and Jessica with ex-wife Thelma Riley.
Scroll through to see Osbourne’s life over the years:
Osbourne and Butler were briefly part of the band Rare Breed. The group broke up after playing two shows.
The “Godfather of Heavy Metal” wed Riley. In his book I Am Ozzy, the “Mr. Crowley” singer called his first marriage “a terrible mistake.”
Ozzy admitted that he didn’t remember the birth of his children Louis and Jessica in the 2011 documentary God Bless Ozzy Ozbourne.
The songwriter was fired from Black Sabbath amid struggles with substance abuse.
Ozzy and Sharon tied the knot in Hawaii. While a guest on the British talk show Loose Women in November 2017, the Coming Home author recalled how her husband had proposed to her.
“It was really, really sweet,” she shared. “He went to H. Samuels, in High Wycombe, and he got me a wedding band instead of an engagement ring, he didn’t know. …. He asked my father’s permission and then he came back to my house and got on one knee.”
Sharon and Ozzy welcomed their first child together, daughter Aimee.
The duo expanded their brood with the birth of daughter Kelly.
The Grammy winner rejoined Black Sabbath and helped record the group’s final studio album, 13. Ozzy also joined the band on their farewell tour, which ended in 2017.
The Osbournes premiered on MTV. Aimee, who was 16 at the time, decided not to participate in the reality series.
During an August 2020 interview on Q1043’s “Out of the Box”, the “Raining Gold” singer said that she opted out of the show “to give myself a chance to actually develop into a human being as opposed to just being remembered for being a teenager.”
She added: “It definitely worked great for the rest of my family, but for me and who I am I just knew it was never something that I was going to be able to consider realistically.”
The Osbournes came to an end after four seasons.
“I’m really lucky for my kids that we stopped it when we stopped it,” Sharon said of the show during a September 2022 appearance on SiriusXM’s “The Jess Cagle Show.”
She continued: “It was getting [to be] too much. I’m glad we stopped it before social media became what it was because people can be so cruel.”
Ozzy recounted the story of his life in the documentary God Bless Ozzy Ozbourne, on which his son Jack served as a producer.
The I Am Ozzy author embarked on his second farewell tour, No More Tours II.
Osbourne revealed in October that he’d injured himself badly during a fall in his shower earlier that year.
“I went to the bathroom in the night, lost my balance and landed flat on my face. I saw this big white flash when I hit the floor and I thought, ‘You’ve finally done it now’” he told the Daily Mail at the time.
In January, the “Mama, I’m Coming Home” singer revealed that he had been diagnosed with Parkinson’s disease the previous February.
“It’s been terribly challenging for us all,” he said during an appearance on Good Morning America. “I did my last show New Year’s Eve at The Forum. Then I had a bad fall. I had to have surgery on my neck, which screwed all my nerves.”
Ozzy revealed in a January joint interview with Sharon and Jack for Variety that he had been sober for about seven years.
Jack, for his part, opened up about his own journey with alcoholism and getting sober for the piece.
“I was suffering from a lot of depression in my early teens, and I was drinking a lot. And then we did The Osbournes and it gave me a rather large piggy bank, so my parents had less control,” he recalled.
The Blizzard of Oz rocker announced that he was cancelling the European leg of No More Tours II after two years of postponing.
Ozzy cited his 2019 shower fall as the reason he was “not physically capable” of doing the tour, noting that he had “damaged [his] spine” during the incident.
“I’m f–king not dying,” he said on Sirius XM’s “Ozzy’s Boneyard” in February 2023 after canceling his tour. He added that he’s “still in constant pain” amid his 2019 spinal injury. “I do the best I can to stay away from the pain medication, but there are times when I go, ‘I’ve got to take something,'” he told listeners.