Getting fired, biting bats, and forty years of substance abuse only made him more famous, which says as much about the audience as it does about him.
At a glance
- Known for
- Fronting Black Sabbath, solo career, *The Osbournes* reality show
- Before fame
- Cleaned sheep stomachs in a Birmingham slaughterhouse
- Off-screen
- Genome sequenced in 2010, declared 'a genetic mutant' by researchers
Rise to Fame
A handwritten ad in a Birmingham music shop reading 'OZZY ZIG Needs Gig - has own PA' is how heavy metal got its frontman. He'd dropped out at 16, cleaned sheep stomachs in a slaughterhouse, and done six weeks in prison for stealing women's stockings. Black Sabbath's first three albums didn't just sell, they invented a genre. Critics hated it. Kids couldn't get enough.
The band fired him in 1979 for being too far gone on drugs. Sharon Arden, daughter of their manager, took over his career and his life. Blizzard of Ozz went 10x Platinum. 'Crazy Train' became the song most people know him for. Getting kicked out of his own band turned out to be the best career move he never made.
In the Spotlight
The Osbournes broke MTV's viewership records in 2002, won an Emmy, and accidentally invented celebrity reality TV. Before the Kardashians, a drugged-out metal singer yelling at his kids about the dogs was the most-watched thing on cable. The family earned $5 million per person for the second season.
Lollapalooza rejected him in 1996, so he built Ozzfest instead. It grossed over $100 million. His final album won two Grammys in 2023, and the Rock Hall inducted him twice. Parkinson's took his ability to stand, but his farewell show at Villa Park still sold out 40,000 seats. He performed from a bat-shaped throne, which felt about right.
Side Notes
Scientists sequenced his genome in 2010 and found novel mutations in genes governing alcohol and methamphetamine metabolism. They called him 'a genetic mutant.' After four decades of substance abuse, his DNA was the only explanation anyone had for why he was still breathing.
The rest reads like someone stress-testing public tolerance. He bit the heads off two doves at a CBS meeting. He bit a bat on stage in Des Moines (he says he thought it was rubber). He urinated on the Alamo Cenotaph while wearing his wife's dress because she'd hidden his clothes. San Antonio banned him for a decade. He apologized, donated $10,000, and came back. The incidents became the brand. Nobody remembers him as a man with quiet hobbies.
Final Chapter
Seventeen days after the farewell show, a funeral procession wound through Birmingham's streets, the hearse carrying his coffin covered in purple flowers while a brass band played Black Sabbath songs behind police motorcycles. Fans left bottles of Jack Daniel's and toy bats at the memorial. Tony Iommi wrote that 'Geezer, Bill and myself have lost our brother.'