Legendary rocker Ozzy Osbourne has died ‘surrounded by love’ at the age of 76, a statement from his family revealed on Tuesday.
The Black Sabbath frontman passed away following a string of health concerns, including recovery from substance abuse, multiple spinal operations, and a years-long battle with Parkinson’s disease.
Despite his ailing health in recent years, the musician never shied away from his fans. Most recently, Osbourne reunited with his original Black Sabbath bandmates for a farewell concert at Villa Park Stadium, less than three weeks before his passing.
But according to an inside source, who’s known the rock icon for several decades, the farewell concert was merely Osbourne’s goodbye to performing on-stage.
In fact, he was planning on releasing a new album for later in the year and hoping to reunite with his frequent collaborator, award-winning music producer Andrew Watt.
‘Ozzy saw Villa Park as the farewell on his live shows, not his career,’ the source exclusively told the Daily Mail.
‘With the memoir, album, and TV shows, there was a lot more for him to focus on this year alone. Ozzy was always like, ‘This is not the f***ing end…I have got stuff to do.’
His memoir, titled Last Rites, is expected to hit shelves in October this year. The autobiography will chronicle his life and career, including his marriage to devoted wife Sharon Osbourne, as well as his recent health struggles.
Osbourne had also been filming a feature-length documentary for Paramount Plus, called Ozzy Osbourne: No Escape From Now, and his family had been slated to star in a new BBC reality show called Home To Roost.
The close pal admitted that Osbourne was ‘looking forward to promoting’ his memoir later this year, and found the whole process to be ‘quite therapeutic and fun.’
‘He was a born entertainer and he overcame so much in his final years alive with his neck, back and leg pains – as well as the Parkinson’s – to be his best on TV, radio and stage,’ they said.
At the age of 76, Osbourne’s fear of retiring into obscurity was what kept him in the spotlight for so many decades, even during years of scandal and drug abuse.
According to the close pal, the Crazy Train singer was ‘haunted’ by the death of his father, John Thomas ‘Jack’ Osbourne, who had passed away in 1977 shortly after his own retirement.
Osbourne grew up in a working-class family in Aston, an area in Birmingham, England, along with his five siblings.
His mother, Lilian, worked at a Lucas automotive factory assembling car components, while his dad worked night shifts as a toolmaker at the General Electric Company.
The insider revealed that John had ‘dedicated his life’ to working nights at the General Electric Company, so much so that when he had finally retired, Osbourne’s father ‘dropped dead’ just a few days later.
‘All his dad told the family was about doing some gardening,’ they recalled. ‘He went out and dug up the garden for a few days and then dropped dead, just like that.
‘Ozzy felt that as hard as his workload was, John kind of had that purpose of going to work to provide for his family and have a role. And when it was absent, it kind of left him lost.’
In an interview with Record Mirror in 1978, while promoting the Black Sabbath album Never Say Die, Osbourne shared that the third track of the record, called Junior’s Eyes, was a tribute to his father.
The musician strangely saw his father’s death as a sign to keep making music and feeling the support from his fans, who the source described as his ‘super power’.
‘Ozzy hated the thought of just withering away and stopping altogether,’ they added.
The Daily Mail has contacted representatives for Osbourne for comment.
Osbourne’s family announced his death in a statement shared on Tuesday.
‘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,’ the statement read.
‘He was with his family and surrounded by love. We ask everyone to respect our family privacy at this time. Sharon, Jack, Kelly, Aimee and Louis.’
The rocker was joined by his original Black Sabbath bandmates Tony Iommi, Geezer Butler and Bill Ward for the first time since 2005, as he bid an emotional farewell to his fans during his last show ever.
‘You’ve no idea how I feel – thank you from the bottom of my heart,’ Osbourne told the crowd in his final speech.
The singer, who sold more than 100 million records, formed Black Sabbath in Birmingham in 1968.
With hits that included Iron Man, War Pigs and Paranoid, Black Sabbath’s pushing of occult themes proved both hugely popular and controversial, with a future pope even condemning Osbourne for his ‘subliminal satanic influence’.
Osbourne’s most infamous moment came when he bit the head off a bat that had been thrown on stage during a solo performance. He later claimed he thought it was made of rubber.
After being thrown out of the band in 1979 due to his drug-fueled antics, Osbourne forged a hugely successful solo career, with hits that included Crazy Train and Hellraiser.
But his hellraising off stage continued.
In 1989 he attempted to kill Sharon while high on drugs, and seven years before that he urinated on the treasured Alamo Cenotaph in Texas, an act that saw him banned from San Antonio for a decade.
He was also injured in a quad bike crash at his UK home in 2003, an episode that had a serious impact on his fragile health.
Yet there was also redemption for the troubled singer, who relaunched himself as a reality tv star in The Osbournes in the early 2000s, after getting clean from alcohol and drugs with the help of Sharon.
There was a return too to Black Sabbath in 1997, when the original line-up reunited.
Tributes have been pouring in for the superstar following his family’s announcement of his death.
Fellow musicians Sir Rod Stewart, Ronnie Wood, and Gene Simmons have all shared social media tributes for the star, as well as John Lennon’s son Sean Ono Lennon and American rapper Ice-T.
