Music World Mourns Ozzy Osbourne

Luminaries of the music world mourned the death of Ozzy Osbourne at age 76, expressing affection and admiration for the heavy metal icon. Elton John called the Black Sabbath frontman "a dear friend and a huge trailblazer" and "one of the funniest people I've ever met." Rod Stewart said he would "see you up there—later rather than sooner."

• Osbourne, the gloomy, demon-invoking lead singer of the pioneering band Black Sabbath who became the throaty, growling voice of heavy metal, died Tuesday, just weeks after his farewell show. The band posted a photo from the July 5 concert on Instagram Tuesday, saying, "Ozzy Forever."
• Either clad in black or bare-chested, the singer was often the target of parents' groups for his imagery and once caused an uproar for biting the head off a bat, the AP reports. Later, he would reveal himself to be a doddering and sweet father on the reality TV show The Osbournes.

• Black Sabbath's 1969 self-titled debut LP has been likened to the Big Bang of heavy metal. The music was loud, dense, and angry, and marked a shift in rock 'n' roll. The band's second album, "Paranoid," included such classic metal tunes as "War Pigs," "Iron Man." and "Fairies Wear Boots." The song "Paranoid" only reached No. 61 on the Billboard Hot 100 but became in many ways the band's signature song.
• "Black Sabbath are the Beatles of heavy metal. Anybody who's serious about metal will tell you it all comes down to Sabbath," Dave Navarro of Jane's Addiction wrote in a 2010 tribute in Rolling Stone. "There's a direct line you can draw back from today's metal, through Eighties bands like Iron Maiden, back to Sabbath."
• Sabbath fired Osbourne in 1979 for his legendary excesses, like showing up late for rehearsals and missing gigs. He reemerged the next year as a solo artist with "Blizzard of Ozz" and the following year's "Diary of a Madman," both hard rock classics that went multiplatinum.

• In 2020, he released the album "Ordinary Man," which had as its title song a duet with Elton John. "I've been a bad guy, been higher than the blue sky/And the truth is I don't wanna die an ordinary man," he sang. Osbourne was twice inducted to the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame—once with Sabbath in 2006 and again in 2024 as a solo artist.
• The original Sabbath lineup reunited for the first time in 20 years in July for what Osbourne said would be his final concert. "Let the madness begin!" he told 42,000 fans in Birmingham, his hometown. Metallica, Guns N Roses, Slayer, Tool, Pantera, Gojira, Alice in Chains, Lamb of God, Halestorm, Anthrax, Rival Sons, and Mastodon all did sets.
• "Black Sabbath: we'd all be different people without them, that's the truth," said Pantera singer Phil Anselmo. "I know I wouldn't be up here with a microphone in my hand without Black Sabbath." In an Instagram post Tuesday, the band repeated the sentiment, saying, "Thank you for all that you did for metal & Pantera. We wouldn't be here if it wasn't for you. Sharon, Jack, Kelly, Amy & Louis, we are so very sorry for your loss."
• Ozzy's farewell was the highest-grossing benefit concert of all time.