For many in the metal community, this was a day long feared — but never truly imagined. Fans around the world are grieving the loss of a man who wasn’t just part of metal’s foundation — he was the foundation.
“I saw a few people making posts saying RIP Ozzy, and I thought it had to be a joke... or maybe they were just talking about him retiring,” one fan wrote in a deeply emotional tribute. “But no — it’s real. It’s painfully, devastatingly true. The metal world lost a giant today. A king. The very essence of heavy metal began with the riffs of Black Sabbath and his voice simply saying: ‘What is this that stands before me?’ That line still gives me chills.”
Born John Michael Osbourne on December 3, 1948, in Birmingham, England, he co-founded Black Sabbath in 1968 alongside Tony Iommi, Geezer Butler, and Bill Ward. Their heavy, sludgy sound — paired with dark lyrical themes and Ozzy’s chilling vocal delivery — helped birth the genre now known as heavy metal.
After parting ways with Sabbath in 1979, Ozzy launched a solo career that roared to life with Blizzard of Ozz and Diary of a Madman, featuring the late Randy Rhoads. The records became essential metal listening, packed with unforgettable anthems like “Crazy Train,” “Mr. Crowley,” and “Over the Mountain.”
“I was lucky — very lucky — to see Ozzy so many times,” the tribute continued. “With his solo band, with Sabbath… and most recently, I watched that final concert in Birmingham. Back to the beginning. I cried my eyes out when he sang Mama, I’m Coming Home. A part of me knew what he meant while he was singing that. I think he knew too. He looked out at his fans one last time to say goodbye.”
Indeed, on July 5, just weeks before his death, Ozzy reunited with Black Sabbath for a livestreamed farewell concert that now serves as his final bow. It was a moment of history, closure, and deep emotion — a titan of metal returning home to where it all began.
While music was always at the center of his world, Osbourne became a cultural icon in the early 2000s through MTV’s The Osbournes, which gave audiences a raw, often hilarious look into his family life. He followed it with other TV ventures, but the core of his influence remained in the music — and in the millions of people he inspired.
“Ozzy, we will miss you more than words can say,” the fan’s post concludes. “I wouldn’t have my radio show. I wouldn’t be doing PR for metal bands. I wouldn’t be helping run a metal festival — if you and Sabbath hadn’t done what you did. I think about it every single day. Every time I hit play on a crushing riff. Every time I pick up my guitar. Every time I email a band or do an interview on my show. All of it. You changed the world.”
Osbourne is survived by his wife Sharon, their children Kelly, Jack, and Aimee, and countless fans around the globe whose lives were changed by his voice, his music, and his sheer defiance of death and expectation.
Rest in Power, Ozzy Osbourne.
The world is darker, quieter, and far less fun without you.
More tributes and reflections to come.
https://metaldevastationradio.com/thebeast/blog/27752/ozzy-osbourne-prince-of-darkness-and-metal-icon-dies-at-76?utm_source=dlvr.it&utm_medium=blogger
