“It’s my time to go back to the beginning… time for me to give back to the place where I was born. Birmingham is the true home of metal. Birmingham forever,” he said earlier this year when announcing the concert, which is scheduled to be his last.
John Michael Osbourne was born in 1948 in industrial Birmingham, in a world of soot, smoke and social tension. But in music, Ozzy — a name he’s had since his school days — found a language through which he could express his anger and despair, as well as his black humour. Together with Tony Iommi, Geezer Butler and Bill Ward, he founded Black Sabbath at the end of the 1960s. The dark, heavy rock, coupled with occult themes and socially critical lyrics, became the music of a generation.
Albums such as Paranoid (1970) and Master of Reality (1971) became blueprints for later heavy metal groups. Osbourne’s distinctive voice, high, plaintive, penetrating and vulnerable at the same time, became iconic.
But while Black Sabbath’s music rose to dizzying heights, Osbourne’s personal descent was almost as dramatic. By 1979, his substance abuse issues had gotten so out of hand, his behavior so erratic and unreliable, that the band kicked him out.
In 1982 at a concert in Iowa, USA, he bit the head off a live bat that had been thrown on stage, supposedly believing it was fake and made of rubber (he received rabies shots afterwards).
Leaving the band in 1979 was initially another low point for Osbourne. He sank further into substance abuse until his future wife, Sharon Rachel Levy, helped him overcome his addictions. She also suggested he embark on a solo career.
He recorded the album Blizzard of Ozz (1980), and immediately saw success.
His marriage to Sharon Osbourne, who also became his manager, brought him the stability he needed.
In the 2000s, the couple and their children Kelly and Jack became known worldwide through the reality TV show The Osbournes.
The last few years of his life have been characterised by health setbacks. In 2019, it was revealed that Osbourne was suffering from Parkinson’s disease. He cancelled tours, underwent operations and fought his way back, not without difficulty. But his love of music and his audience has kept him going.