Ozzy Osbourne, heavy metal legend, dies at 76

Ozzy Osbourne (born John Michael Osbourne, Birmingham 1948 – 2025) died on the evening of July 22, 2025. His final public appearance was on July 5, 2025, at Villa Park in Birmingham, where he performed with the original Black Sabbath lineup—Tony Iommi, Geezer Butler, and Bill Ward—for a reunion concert titled "Back to the Beginning." The event drew over 40,000 fans and featured guest appearances by Metallica, Pantera, Tool, Guns N' Roses, Anthrax, Billy Corgan, Chad Smith, and Tom Morello, hosted by actor Jason Momoa. Streamed live to more than 5 million viewers, the concert will be released as a documentary film in 2026. Osbourne, known as the Prince of Darkness, co-founded Black Sabbath in 1968, blending psychedelia, prog rock, and heavy metal to define a gothic aesthetic that birthed metal and its derivatives. His solo career from 1980 onward amplified an occult and horror-infused persona, marked by notorious incidents such as biting a bat onstage in Des Moines in 1982. The Osbournes, a reality show about his family, aired on MTV from 2002 to 2005. His legacy includes iconic songs like "N.I.B.," "Paranoid," "Iron Man," "Crazy Train," "Mr. Crowley," and "Mama, I'm Coming Home."