Legendary Black Sabbath Rocker Was 76

Ozzy Osbourne, legendary rock star, Black Sabbath frontman and reality TV personality, has died at 76.

“It is with more sadness than mere words can convey that we have to report that our beloved Ozzy Osbourne has passed away this morning,” Osbourne’s family told PEOPLE in a statement on Tuesday, July 22. “He was with his family and surrounded by love. We ask everyone to respect our family privacy at this time.”

Weeks before his death, Osbourne performed from a throne at the Black Sabbath farewell concert on July 5 in Birmingham.

In January 2020, Osbourne revealed that he’d been diagnosed in 2003 with Parkinson’s disease, a nervous system disorder that affects movement. At the time, he said, “It’s not a death sentence.”

Despite numerous health challenges over the years, In February 2025, Osbourne announced a farewell fund-raising Black Sabbath concert in his hometown of Birmingham, England, set for July. It would be his final concert and his first in 20 years with the band that made him a star.

By that time, the rocker was unable to walk due to Parkinson’s. In a February interview, per The Sun, his wife Sharon Osbourne said, “He’s very happy to be coming back and very emotional about this. Parkinson’s is a progressive disease. It’s not something you can stabilize. It affects different parts of the body, and it’s affected his legs. But his voice is as good as it’s ever been.”

Osbourne himself elaborated on his condition on his SiriusXM radio show, saying, “I have made it to 2025. I can’t walk, but you know what I was thinking over the holidays? For all my complaining, I’m still alive. I may be moaning that I can’t walk, but I look down the road, and there’s people that didn’t do half as much as me and didn’t make it.”

In 2019, Osbourne had been diagnosed with pneumonia and suffered a fall in his Los Angeles home that required neck surgery. “It’s been terribly challenging for us all, he said of those health setbacks. In June 2022, he underwent a significant surgery — which Sharon said would “determine the rest of his life” during an episode of The Talk UK a week prior. He later told The Observer that the operation was to remove two metal plates that had been screwed into his spine in an earlier surgery.

He returned to the stage in August 2022 for a performance in front of 30,000 at the 2022 Commonwealth Games in Birmingham. The following month, he spoke to PEOPLE about wanting to continue playing live despite his health issues.

“That’s the only thing that reminds me I’m getting older: things going wrong and not working anymore,” Osbourne said at the time. “But I still feel young at heart.”

In March 2023, he canceled a string of then-upcoming U.K. and European tour dates, writing on Instagram, “My singing voice is fine. However, after three operations, stem cell treatments, endless physical therapy sessions, and most recently, groundbreaking Cybernics (HAL) Treatment, my body is still physically weak.”

After expressing that he never would’ve “imagined that my touring days would have ended this way,” Osbourne clarified his comments in an interview with Billy Morrison on SiriusXM’s Ozzy’s Boneyard show later that month.

“If I can ever get back to where I can tour again, fine,” he told the outlet. “But right now, if you said to me, ‘Can you go on the road in a month?’ I couldn’t say yes. I mean, if I could tour, I’d tour. But right now, I can’t book tours because right now, I don’t think I could pull them off.”

That July, Osbourne canceled a performance at Power Trip festival in Indio, Calif., that was set for October 2023. “My original plan was to return to the stage in the summer of 2024, and when the offer to do this show came in, I optimistically moved forward,” he wrote on Instagram at the time.

“Unfortunately, my body is telling me that I’m just not ready yet and I am much too proud to have the first show that I do in nearly five years be half-assed,” he continued.

Born John Michael Osbourne in Birmingham, England, on Dec. 3, 1948, Osbourne rose to fame as the frontman of the heavy metal band Black Sabbath, formed in 1968 along with members Tony Iommi, Geezer Butler and Bill Ward.

Some of the group’s songs, including “Paranoid,” “Iron Man” and “War Pigs,” became staples in the genre they helped define.

In 1978, Osbourne launched a solo career that proved equally successful, thanks to his unique vocals, singular aesthetic and antics like the infamous onstage moment in 1982 when he bit the head off a bat (which may or may not have been alive, depending on which version of the story you believe). The singer continued to deliver hits, including “Crazy Train,” “No More Tears” and “If I Close My Eyes Forever,” a 1988 duet with Lita Ford that became his only Top 10 hit on Billboard’s Hot 100.

He was honored with a Lifetime Achievement Award at the Grammys in 2019, and he holds a total of five wins and 12 nominations.

Reflecting on his storied career, the eccentric musician told The Guardian in 2007 that his life had been an “incredible adventure.”

“This has all been such an amazing journey for me,” he said at the time. “I can vividly remember sitting on the step of my house in Aston, just tripping about what it would be like to be a Beatle. It’s like I’ve been in the music industry for 30, 40 years, and it’s just been incredible really.”

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Osbourne’s star power extended beyond the radio and concert stage, as fans found out in 2002 when The Osbournes premiered on MTV.

On the reality show, cameras followed the rocker, his wife and two of their kids, Kelly and Jack, for what proved to be a hilarious and emotional entertainment to viewers who still expressed interest in a reboot nearly two decades later. (Their eldest daughter, Aimee, did not appear on the show; Osbourne had three other children from the first of his three marriages).

“The first season was such a magical time in my family’s life because we had no idea what we were doing. We had no idea that the show would be so successful,” Kelly told PeopleTV’s Reality Check in 2019. “We didn’t know how people would perceive us or anything.”

Added Kelly of the series, which ran four seasons, ending in 2005: “I think that is the most raw and vulnerable you will see any family on TV. And then it all kind of was like an explosion of too much reality for us.”

Osbourne and Sharon — who worked as his manager when he went solo — tied the knot in 1982, renewing their vows in 2017 after mending their relationship following a brief split.

“It’s a journey, really, a marriage. You go up, you go down, you make mistakes,” he said on a 2017 episode of The Talk, which Sharon co-hosted at the time, adding, “I’ve learned a lot this year.”

Added Sharon at the time: “35 years with someone is a hell of a long time. And I think I fell out of love with my husband and then fell back again. … I just had a newfound love, and I respected him because he’s seriously trying to be a better person.”

Osbourne is survived by his wife and children.