Ozzy Osbourne, Iconic Rocker and Reality TV Trailblazer, Passes Away at 76 | Vanity Fair

Just a few weeks ago—on July 5, 2025—Black Sabbath got back together for one last, memorable concert at Villa Park stadium in Birmingham. Ozzy Osbourne—seated on a throne, visibly unwell but still magnetic—sang before tens of thousands of fans. Now, John Michael “Ozzy” Osbourne has passed away in his home. He was 76 years old. The family announced his death in a brief statement, asking for respect and privacy at this time of grief.

Born in 1948 in Birmingham, young Ozzy grew up among the fumes of factories, and school was never easy for him; he had dyslexia, dropped out early, and even had some trouble with the law, making him a budding outsider. When he decided to start Black Sabbath in 1969 with Tony Iommi, Geezer Butler, and Bill Ward, Osbourne did not yet imagine that that quartet would change rock history forever with songs like “Iron Man” and “Paranoid.”

Fame often comes with excesses, and such was the case for Osbourne: He was a heavy user of alcohol and drugs, and suffered sensational accidents that forced him to undergo a long series of spinal surgeries. By biting the head off a live bat onstage, he established himself as a scandalous rock icon. After being fired from Black Sabbath in 1979 due to his addictions, he started from scratch in 1980 with Blizzard of Ozz, an album that became a worldwide hit—a status sealed by immortal hits like “Crazy Train.”

Osbourne also built up his image as a pop-culture icon outside the world of music. In the 2000s, he starred in one of the first modern reality shows: The Osbournes, in which he, wife Sharon, and their children revealed an unexpected side of the Prince of Darkness—as an unlikely family man in a bathrobe.

Since 2019, Osbourne had been living with Parkinson’s disease. Though he relied on a wheelchair, he never lost his voice—or his hope to take the stage once again. That’s how Black Sabbath came back together once more earlier this month. Osbourne and his bandmates were surrounded by tens of thousands of fans and celebrities from other musical acts like Metallica, Slayer, Pantera, and Yungblud. It was an epic farewell, and a philanthropic one as well, with all proceeds donated to Parkinson’s research and children’s charities.

Osbourne sold more than 100 million records between his band and solo career, was twice inducted into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame (in 2006 and 2024), and played billions of notes that still define the sound of metal.

Original story in VF Italia.