Ozzy Osbourne

Ozzy Osbourne
born: 03-12-1948
birth place: Aston, Birmingham, England

Osbourne grew up in a working-class family and left school at fifteen to work a series of low-paying jobs, before being imprisoned for burglary.

On his release, he joined a friend’s band, which he quickly outgrew, joining another outfit called Earth (later to become Black Sabbath).

Black Sabbath released their self-titled debut album on Friday 13th February, 1970 and almost immediately, developed a cult following in both Britain and America. Unfortunately, Ozzy and the rest of the band became seriously dependent on alcohol and cocaine, and gained a reputation for trashing cars and hotel rooms.

In 1977, Osbourne's father passed away, causing him to leave the band for a period before the release of their next album ‘Never Say Die’. Osbourne became increasingly disinterested in Black Sabbath and, at the end of the ‘Never Say Die’ tour, the band replaced him.

After months of despair and drug abuse, Osbourne met Sharon Arden, who helped him turn his life around. Sharon encouraged Osbourne to launch a solo career, and he joined forces with guitarist, Randy Rhoads, to begin work on his 1980 solo debut, ‘Blizzard of Ozz’. The album was a resounding success, reaching platinum status.

In 1981, Ozzy released his follow-up, 'Diary of a Madman', which eventually sold more than five million copies and firmly established him as a solo artist in his own right.

Unfortunately, the infamous ‘Diary of a Madman’ tour was one of the most troubled outings in rock history, with misfortune, bad publicity and protests dogging Osbourne the whole way.

After a series of tragedies and bizarre incidents (including the death of Rhoads in a plane crash) Osbourne sobered up and released a softer, more personal album, ‘No More Tears’, in 1991. He had announced that the 1992 tour would be his swansong, but decided to put his retirement on hold and returned with ‘Ozzmosis’ in late 1995. In 1996 he headlined the Ozzfest festival tour.

At the end of the 1990s Ozzy also rejoined the original line-up of Black Sabbath, for a series of highly successful live shows. His first studio album of the new millennium, ‘Down To Earth’, was released in 2001.

He became a household figure the following year when his bizarre family life was featured on the MTV reality TV show, ‘The Osbournes’. The show became an overnight hit, and helped lauch the singing career of Ozzy's daughter, Kelly.

In December 2003, Osbourne was rushed to hospital in Slough, England after he was involved in an accident whilst driving an all-terrain vehicle on his estate in Chalfont St Peter in Buckinghamshire. The singer broke his collar bone, eight ribs, and a neck vertebra. An operation was performed to lift the collarbone, which was believed to be resting on a major artery and interrupting blood flow to the arm. Sharon later revealed that Osbourne had stopped breathing following the crash and was resuscitated by Osbourne's then personal bodyguard, Sam Ruston.

While in the hospital, Osbourne actually achieved his first ever UK number one single, a duet of the Black Sabbath ballad, "Changes" with daughter Kelly. In doing so, he broke the record of the longest period between an artist's first UK chart appearance (with Black Sabbath's "Paranoid", number four in August 1970) and their first number one hit; a gap of 33 years.

Ozzy made a full recovery and headlined at Ozzfest for the next three years before announcing his retirement from the event. In May 2007, Osbourne released Black Rain, his first new studio album in almost six years.