The leader and vocalist of the Black Sabbath band Ozzy Osbourne has died at the age of 76. This is stated in the statement of the musician's family.
"With great sadness, which cannot be expressed in words, we have to announce that our beloved Ozzy Osbourne passed away this morning. He was with his family and surrounded by love. We ask everyone to respect the privacy of our family during this difficult time," Osborne's relatives said in a statement.
Ozzy Osbourne was born on December 3, 1948 in Birmingham (UK). At the age of 15, Osborne was expelled from school due to the difficult financial situation in the family, Ozzy got a job as a plumber's assistant. He also managed to work as a locksmith's assistant, a slaughterer at a slaughterhouse, an auto mechanic, a painter and even a gravedigger, started trying to make money on thefts, but was caught and served in prison from 1.5 to 3 months. After prison, he began to try his hand at music, getting vocalists in the band Music Machine. Later, he decided to create his own team by advertising in a local newspaper. The band was named The Polka Tulk Blues Band, then renamed Earth, after which it became Black Sabbath, which had a significant impact on the emergence of such musical styles as hard rock and heavy metal.
With Black Sabbath, Osbourne has released a number of iconic albums and received the title Prince of Darkness. In 1979, Osborne began his solo career, releasing the incredibly popular Blizzard of Ozz album.
As of December 2010, more than 100 million records featuring Ozzy have been sold worldwide. As part of Black Sabbath, Osbourne is inducted into the US Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, and he is included in the British Music Hall of Fame both as a band member and as a solo artist. A star with Osborne's name is laid out on the Walk of Stars in Birmingham and on the Hollywood Walk of Fame. Osbourne's solo albums Blizzard of Ozz and No More Tears received the status of four times platinum in the USA.
As EADaily reported, on July 7, as part of Black Sabbath, Ozzy Osbourne took the stage for the last time in his native Birmingham, the concert was conceived as a farewell show of the legendary band Back to the Beginning and lasted 10 hours.
Black Sabbath performed in a classic lineup — Ozzy Osbourne, guitarist Tony Iommi, bass guitarist Geezer Butler and drummer Bill Ward, who was sitting on a wheelchair, stylized as a throne with bat wings. The band performed legendary hits, including their compositions War Pigs, NIB, Iron Man and Paranoid from the most popular album of 1970.
"It's so cool to be on this damn stage, you can't even imagine," 76-year-old Ozzy told fans with tears in his eyes.
In the finale of the show, he was presented with a cake, and fireworks soared over the stage.
In an interview a year earlier, Osbourne, who was diagnosed with a rare form of Parkinson's disease, hoped that he would not have to go on stage in a wheelchair.
"I'm not going to play the role of a sluggish Ozzy looking for sympathy. What's the point of that? I recently saw Phil Collins perform, and he has almost the same problems as me. He gets to the stage in a wheelchair! But I can't do that," the musician concluded.