The hard rock icon came to be known for his lovable irreverence and unshakable adoration of family. Here's a look back on how he lived, in his own words.
Ozzy Osbourne’s Own Words on Family, Love, and Life in Rock and Roll
Published on Jul. 22, 2025
On July 5, Ozzy Osbourne was able to sing in what would become a final live performance before an audience of 40,000. Called the “Back to the Beginning” concert, it was a planned farewell for the inimitable Black Sabbath frontman. “It’s so good to be on this [expletive] stage,” Osbourne, who turned 76 last December, told the crowd. “You have no idea.”
On Tuesday, July 22, the Osbourne family provided a statement to The Guardian revealing that Ozzy had passed away in the early morning while “surrounded by love.” Osbourne’s cause of death has not been confirmed, but outlets have reported that for years he’d been managing Parkinson’s disease, which he revealed on Good Morning America in 2020. Earlier this year, the long-controversial but uniquely lovable rocker publicly addressed his health in a SiriusXM interview: “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,” Billboard quotes him as having said. Over the years, Osbourne also spoke openly about his relationship with drugs and alcohol before getting sober, calling alcoholism and addiction “a very selfish disease” in a 2021 Variety interview.
Though Gen X audiences tended to grow most familiar with Ozzy, Sharon (his wife since 1982), daughter Kelly, and son Jack from their early 2000s MTV reality show The Osbournes, Osbourne also had four other children—three from his first marriage and another daughter, Aimee, with Sharon. People.com reports Osbourne also had 10 grandchildren.
Ahead, we look back on the life of Ozzy Osbourne with his most memorable quotes, deepest lessons, and photos.
“I’m a survivor”
“I’m a survivor. I’ve been through hell and back, and I’m still here.” – The UK’s Sky News quotes him commenting on health struggles from addiction, once also saying, “Getting sober was like learning to live again, but I still miss the chaos.”
After launching a solo career after a controversial exit from Black Sabbath, in August 1989 he performed live with the Ozzy Osbourne Band, at the Moscow Music Peace Festival 1989 at Luzhniki Stadium, Moscow, USSR. “[Fans] keep me alive,” he once said. “Without you, I’m just a madman shouting at the moon.”
“I love Sharon more than anything in the world”
Shown together at a press conference in 2005 after The Osbournes catapulted their free-spirited family to fame, Ozzy was known to comment on his marriage: “Through it all at the end of the day, I love [Sharon] more than anything in the world. Put it this way: I couldn’t live without her. I don’t want to live without her, and my love for her now is bigger than it ever has been.”
Sharon was his second wife and the manager in his early solo career. They were married 43 years, and known for their closeness with their kids, pictured with them above at the 2014 Grammy Awards: “My wife, Sharon, saved my life,” Osbourne once said, “and my grandbabies and my babies. I love them all.”
“The bat needed Ozzy shots!”
Osbourne’s onstage antics were quirky, to put it mildly, while also unforgettable. The New York Post reminds us of one stunt that raised his profile in 1982 at a show in Des Moines during the Diary of a Madman tour, when he bit the head off a live bat. That wouldn’t, well, fly in today’s wildlife-loving generation, but back then Ozzy stood by the act that created a lot of talk. “I got rabies shots for biting the head off a bat,” he was quoted saying, “but that’s OK—the bat had to get Ozzy shots!”
“You’ve got to believe in yourself”
Even with the hard-driving rhythms, dark lyrics, and wild acts, Osbourne was known to infuse his music with thoughtfulness. “Maybe it’s not too late to learn how to love and forget how to hate,” he sang in 1980’s “Crazy Train” on the Blizzard of Ozz album.
The kid who grew up in Birmingham, England and rose to international fame said in “Believer” on the same album: “You’ve got to believe in yourself, or no one will believe in you.”
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