Father of Heavy Metal Ozzy Osbourne Dies at Age 76

More of you guys are fans than I would have guessed. So here's a short-duration thread.

Ozzy Osbourne, the legendary Prince of Darkness and one of heavy metal's most iconic stars, has died. He was 76.

He died "surrounded by love," his family said in a statement to The Post 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. 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."

News of Osbourne's death comes more than five years after he announced his Parkinson's disease diagnosis in January 2020.

Born John Michael Osbourne in Birmingham, England, on Dec. 3, 1948, he was nicknamed "Ozzy" in primary school.

He had a challenging childhood, but music provided him with an outlet.

Learning was difficult for him due to dyslexia, and the future Rock & Roll Hall of Fame inductee claimed to have been sexually abused by bullies when he was 11. He also recalled attempting suicide as a teen.

"Cecil" on YouTube pointed out last year that, actuarially speaking, all the big rock stars of the 70s era are going to start dying in big numbers. Especially since those guys definitely lived hard and seemed eager to die.

I never listened to Black Sabbath, except for the three or four radio hits they played on classic rock stations. You know, "Iron Man," "Paranoid," "War Pigs," etc. Really only a small handful got a lot of radio play.

A few years ago I heard the comedian Jim Norton raging that Black Sabbath never got their due, and, apart from those three or four songs, are never played on rock radio. He was so absolutely enraged by this slight that I thought, "Man, I really have to listen to all of Paranoid> if someone is this infuriated that they're not getting the respect they're owed."

I never did. I'll work on that soon.

Here's an Ozzy Osbourne solo-album Yule Log.

posted by Ace at 03:57 PM

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