Ozzy Osbourne dies at 76: The final bow of the Prince of Darkness

Ozzy Osbourne is gone. It feels unreal saying that out loud. For so many of us, he wasn’t just a musician. He was a presence. A force. A chaotic, loud, unpredictable, and oddly lovable presence that transcended music, TV, and culture itself.

This morning, his family confirmed what fans around the world feared. Ozzy passed away at the age of 76, surrounded by loved ones. Sharon, Kelly, Jack, Aimee, and his son Louis from his first marriage all stood by his side. In their words, “He was with his family and surrounded by love.”

And just like that, the world got quieter.

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How do you say goodbye to someone like Ozzy?

He wasn’t your typical rockstar. Born John Michael Osbourne in Birmingham, he co-founded Black Sabbath in 1968. That moment changed the world of music forever. Sabbath’s riffs were heavier, their lyrics darker, their sound deeper. With songs like Paranoid, War Pigs, and Iron Man, they carved out a genre that didn’t exist before them. Ozzy was never just the lead singer. He was the living embodiment of everything heavy metal represented.

But his story didn’t stop with Sabbath. After being fired from the band in 1979, mainly due to substance abuse, Ozzy didn’t disappear. Instead, he came back stronger with Blizzard of Ozz. That album gave us Crazy Train, a track that became a rock anthem across generations. He built a solo career that stood strong for decades and earned him a second Rock & Roll Hall of Fame induction just last year.

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You always kind of thought Ozzy would live forever. He cheated death so many times. Whether it was biting off a bat’s head mid-concert (yes, that actually happened), going off the rails with his infamous antics, or facing one health battle after another—he just kept going.

Did Ozzy ever really slow down?

Not really. Even as Parkinson’s disease began to take its toll—something he’d secretly battled since 2003—he kept creating. Kept performing. Kept living as loudly as he could. He didn’t hide from it. In fact, he made it part of the story. “I’m not dying from Parkinson’s,” he told the LA Times once. “I’ve cheated death so many times.”

That honesty is what made him different. Ozzy was never polished. Never perfect. He was real. You saw it when he was on stage, thrashing around in his own wild rhythm. You saw it when he was part of MTV’s The Osbournes, the chaotic show that turned him into an accidental reality TV icon. You saw it when he talked about his staph infection in 2018, or when he got real about his spine surgeries and the frustration of watching his body break down piece by piece.

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His final concert earlier this month—his so-called “final bow” at Villa Park—was emotional. He sat on a throne, frail but fierce, taking in the love from the crowd that had followed him for more than 50 years. It was raw. It was vulnerable. It was Ozzy.

And now, it’s the last image we’ll carry.

Tributes are flooding in. Musicians, actors, fans, even politicians—everyone has something to say. And that’s the thing about Ozzy. Whether you loved his music or not, he was part of your world. Maybe you cranked up Crazy Train on the drive home. Maybe you watched his family’s show in the early 2000s and laughed at the chaos. Maybe you admired how open he was about addiction, about pain, about just trying to survive.

He was more than a rocker with eyeliner and a wild past. He was a father, a husband, a fighter. He was flawed, open, messy, and unforgettable.

And now he’s gone.

But Ozzy Osbourne doesn’t fade away. His voice still echoes in every metal scream, every pounding riff. His chaos lives on. His music lives on.

And somewhere, probably in the middle of a storm, you can still hear that laugh. That unmistakable, unruly Ozzy laugh.