10 Defining Moments of Ozzy Osbourne’s Career
Godfather of heavy metal, self-proclaimed “Prince of Darkness,” reality TV star, and not-so-secret family man. British singer and musician Ozzy Osbourne died at age 76 on July 22, 2025, leaving behind a legacy as one of the titans of rock and roll. Starting out in the late 1960s with the influential and intensely amplified Black Sabbath, Osbourne enjoyed a long career that spawned some of the wildest legends in rock music history. He also recorded platinum-selling albums and earned two (count ’em!) inductions into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. Here’s a look at some of the most iconic moments in the Ozzman’s life.
Beginnings with Black Sabbath
Osbourne formed Black Sabbath with Terry (“Geezer”) Butler, Tony Iommi, and Bill Ward in their hometown of Birmingham, England. Taking their name from a Boris Karloff movie, they cultivated a dark and foreboding image with occult-themed lyrics, ominous guitar riffs, slow-churn tempos, and Osbourne’s sullen vocals. In 1970 they released two albums, Black Sabbath and Paranoid. The second of these, featuring the title track and soon-to-be-classics “War Pigs” and “Iron Man,” topped the U.K. charts and is considered one of the most influential heavy metal albums of all time.
On tour in 1978: Where’s Ozzy?
By the late 1970s Osbourne was years into heavy drug and alcohol use, which led to his being fired from Black Sabbath. Reportedly, the last straw came during the band’s 1978 tour of the United States, with up-and-comers Van Halen onboard as the opening act. After a gig in Alabama devolved into a night of carousing between Osbourne and Van Halen front man David Lee Roth, the bands headed to their next show in Nashville, where Osbourne went missing. The police and local press were notified, but with Ozzy nowhere to be found at showtime, Black Sabbath canceled, leaving Van Halen to play a full set. Later it was discovered that Osbourne had passed out for a long sleep in the wrong hotel room. Black Sabbath made up the gig three days later, but Osbourne was out of the band the following year.
Flying solo with Blizzard of Ozz
Arguably, Osbourne’s fans have his second wife, Sharon Arden, to thank for his astounding second act. The daughter of Black Sabbath’s manager, Arden offered to manage Osbourne after he was fired from the band. They married in 1982, two years after his successful solo debut with the multiplatinum Blizzard of Ozz. For many fans, that album’s standout single, “Crazy Train,” featuring an electrifying guitar solo by the great Randy Rhoads, is the ultimate Ozzy track.
Bat out of WTH
A notorious moment in Osbourne’s career came on the tour for the 1981 album Diary of a Madman. While Osbourne was performing onstage, someone in the audience threw him what he thought was a rubber toy. Picking it up, Osbourne bit off the head of a live bat. He never lived it down. Osbourne predicted the incident would follow him into the grave and wind up as the epitaph on his tombstone. At the end of his 2009 autobiography, I Am Ozzy, he wrote, “If I close my eyes, I can already see it: Ozzy Osbourne, born 1948. Died, whenever. He bit the head off a bat.”
Partnership with Randy Rhoads
Randy Rhoads was a classically trained guitarist and a founding member of the California-based metal band Quiet Riot before joining up with Osbourne in time for Blizzard of Ozz. Rhoads’s riffs are all over the tracks “Crazy Train,” “I Don’t Know,” and “Suicide Solution,” all of which he cowrote. He also played on Diary of a Madman, and in 1982 Guitar Player magazine named him Best New Guitarist. While on tour with Osbourne that year, he was killed at age 25 in a private plane crash in Leesburg, Florida. Osbourne released the live album Randy Rhoads Tribute in 1987. Rhoads was posthumously inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 2021.
Playing Live Aid
It wasn’t all chaos and excess. Sometimes Ozzy gave back. On July 13, 1985, Black Sabbath reunited for Live Aid, a benefit concert for famine relief in Ethiopia, held simultaneously at Wembley Stadium in London and JFK Stadium in Philadelphia. Osbourne led the band in a stellar performance in Philadelphia. As with most of the more than 70 acts that played Live Aid, Black Sabbath’s set was limited to three songs. The group chose “Children of the Grave,” “Iron Man,” and its biggest hit, “Paranoid.”
Launching Ozzfest
Ozzy and Sharon Osbourne launched Ozzfest, an annual summer music festival featuring heavy metal acts, because of a snub. In 1995 Ozzy was rejected from the lineup of Lollapalooza, a festival of alternative rock, techno, and hip-hop artists begun by Jane’s Addiction leader Perry Farrell. According to Osbourne, Lollapalooza’s organizers passed on him, telling Sharon Osbourne that Ozzy was a “dinosaur…in not so many words.” The following year Ozzy headlined his own festival, Ozzfest, which toured throughout the United States and, in some years, parts of Europe. The last Ozzfest was held in 2018.
The Osbournes get real
In 2002 the reality TV show The Osbournes hit the airwaves. Focusing on Osbourne’s home life with his wife and their children Jack and Kelly, the show premiered on MTV. Within two months it had become the third highest-rated offering on cable TV. Fans got to see another side of metal’s notorious wild man, as the cameras followed him around his Beverly Hills mansion, dutifully taking out the trash and intervening in his kids’ sibling rivalries. The hugely popular show ran until 2005. The Osbournes also started a trend of other celebrity reality shows, such as Newlyweds: Nick & Jessica and Keeping Up with the Kardashians.
Two-time Rock and Roll Hall of Fame inductee
In 2006 Osbourne and his Black Sabbath bandmates were inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. Lars Ulrich and James Hetfield of fellow metal band Metallica performed the induction honors. In 2024 Osbourne got the Hall of Fame treatment again. This time he was inducted as a solo artist, with actor and Tenacious D front man Jack Black paying tribute. “Blizzard of Ozz was the best thing I’d ever heard,” Black remarked during the ceremony. “A heavy metal masterpiece.”
Back to the Beginning concert
Osbourne announced his retirement more than once in his career, but he always returned to the stage. By 2025, however, various health issues, including Parkinson disease, had rendered him unable to walk. On July 5 he played his and Black Sabbath’s final gig to a crowd of more than 40,000 in Birmingham. Osbourne opened the 10-hour-long concert by performing his solo hits while seated onstage on a black throne. Several other metal and rock bands, including Metallica, Slipknot, Slayer, Tool, and Guns N’ Roses, paid tribute to the Prince of Darkness, and the event closed with a reunion of the original Black Sabbath lineup.