Ozzy Osbourne

Some Lesser Known Facts About Ozzy Osbourne

• Ozzy Osbourne grew up in a small two-bedroom house at 14 Lodge Road in Aston, Birmingham, and his mother was a non-observant Catholic.

• He got the nickname ‘Ozzy’ when he was a child.

• He had dyslexia and found school difficult. His way of speaking is called a ‘hesitant Brummie’ accent.

• When he was eleven years old, he was sexually abused by school bullies.

• As a teenager, Ozzy Osbourne reportedly attempted suicide several times.

• During his school days, he acted in various plays, such as The Mikado and H.M.S. Pinafore.

• When he was fourteen years old, after hearing the song ‘She Loves You’ by the Beatles, he desired to become a musician.

• Ozzy Osbourne left school at the age of fifteen and worked at various jobs, including on construction sites, as a trainee plumber, an apprentice toolmaker, a car horn tuner, and in a slaughterhouse.

• When he was seventeen, he was caught stealing from a clothes shop and was found guilty and had to pay a fine, but he did not have the money to pay the fine.

• His father refused to pay it to teach him a lesson, and Ozzy spent six weeks in Winson Green Prison.

• In 1967, Geezer Butler formed a music band named ‘Rare Breed’ with Ozzy Osbourne; however, the band played two shows and got separated.

  

• After that, they formed a new band titled ‘Polka Tulk Blues’ with Tony Iommi and Bill Ward. Later, they renamed it ‘Earth.’

• After confusion with another band named Earth, they renamed themselves ‘Black Sabbath’ in August 1969. The name was inspired by a horror film.

• The band chose a dark, heavy blues style with scary themes, which audiences enjoyed.

  

• The first song by Black Sabbath, called ‘Black Sabbath,’ was inspired by a scary experience that Geezer Butler had after reading a book about the occult, and something frightening happened to him afterwards. This spooky event gave him the idea for the song.

• Their early music albums, Black Sabbath and Paranoid (1970) were big hits.

• The band’s unique sound mixed – Iommi’s riffs, Butler’s lyrics, Ward’s heavy drumming, and Osbourne’s haunting voice.

• Ozzy Osbourne observed that in the early days, the band was not popular with women. He then met Sharon Arden when she was working as a receptionist for her father, Don Arden.

• Black Sabbath appointed Don Arden as their manager after their first album.

• Ozzy Osbourne was attracted to Sharon, but thought she found him crazy.

• He later said that the best part of hiring Don was getting to see Sharon often; however, they were not romantically involved then.

  

• The band released the music album ‘Master of Reality’ five months after Paranoid in 1970.

• The album became a commercial hit and reached the top ten in the US and UK, and earned gold status. Later, it received platinum and double platinum certifications.

• After many years, Rolling Stone, an American monthly magazine, ranked it among the 500 Greatest Albums of All Time.

  

• In the early 1970s, Ozzy Osbourne and Geezer Butler once got into a drunken fight in a hotel.

• Iommi tried to stop the fight, but Osbourne tried to hit him, so Iommi punched Osbourne and knocked him out.

• In 1971, Ozzy met his first wife, Thelma Riley, at a Birmingham nightclub, and they married the same year. Osbourne adopted Thelma’s son Elliot.

• He later called his first marriage ‘a terrible mistake’ and admitted his drug and alcohol problems, touring absences, hurt his family life. His children said that he was not a good father.

• After that, the band released various music albums, including Sabbath Bloody Sabbath (1973), Sabotage (1975), Technical Ecstasy (1976), and 13 (2012).

  

• Between late 1977 and early 1978, Ozzy left Black Sabbath for three months to start a solo project called Blizzard of Ozz, a name suggested by his father.

• The members of the band ‘Necromandus’ briefly joined him as part of his solo band.

• After that, the other members of Black Sabbath asked Osbourne to come back to the band.

• The band then spent five months in a studio in Toronto recording their next album, Never Say Die!

• The band members struggled because they were using a lot of drugs, which made it hard to work together and record songs properly.

• In May 1978, Black Sabbath started the Never Say Die! Tour with Van Halen as the opening band.

  

• The last show of that tour, and Ozzy Osbourne’s last show with the band for seven years, was in Albuquerque, New Mexico, on 11 December 1978.

• In 1979, Black Sabbath started recording again, but there were many problems between the band members.

• Ozzy Osbourne was asked many times to redo his singing, and Tony Iommi kept changing the songs. Osbourne and Iommi argued a lot.

• On 27 April 1979, Iommi, with the support of the other band members, forced him to leave Black Sabbath.

• They claimed that he was not reliable and used too many drugs. However, Ozzy Osbourne claimed that he used the same amount of drugs as the rest of the band.

• The band replaced him with singer Ronnie James Dio, who once said that he respected Osbourne and could never be like him.

• Osbourne and Iommi never got along well while working together.

• Before joining Black Sabbath, Iommi and Ward saw Osbourne’s ad looking for a new band.

• Iommi already knew Osbourne from school and thought he was troublesome.

  

• When Ozzy Osbourne left Black Sabbath, he got £96,000 for his part of the band’s name.

• He spent about three months using a lot of cocaine and alcohol. He thought that it was his last chance to party before going back to Birmingham and being on unemployment benefits.

• Music manager Don Arden signed Ozzy Osbourne to Jet Records to help him make new music.

• Don Arden sent his daughter, Sharon, to Los Angeles to take care of Ozzy and keep him focused.

• At first, Arden wanted Ozzy Osbourne to return to Black Sabbath or use the name ‘Son of Sabbath’ for his new band, but Ozzy did not like that idea.

• Sharon tried to get Ozzy to start a new band with guitarist Gary Moore, but he did not want to join Ozzy’s band.

• In late 1979, Ozzy Osbourne formed a new band called ‘Blizzard of Ozz’ under the management of the Arden family.

• The band members were Lee Kerslake on drums, Bob Daisley on bass and lyrics, Don Airey on keyboards, and Randy Rhoads on guitar.

• The record company named their first album ‘Blizzard of Ozz’ and credited it only to Ozzy Osbourne, marking his solo career start.

• However, there was a debate about the formation of the band. Bob Daisley claimed that he and Ozzy started the band in England before Rhoads joined.

• ‘Blizzard of Ozz’ became successful, and by August 1997, it earned a certified quadruple platinum by the RIAA.

  

• Osbourne began dating his manager Sharon Arden around the early 1980s.

• In 1981, he released his second solo album, Diary of a Madman. The popular songs of the album included ‘Over the Mountain’ and ‘Flying High Again.’

• The guitarist Randy Rhoads died in a plane crash during the 1982 tour, which resumed with replacements Bernie Tormé and then Brad Gillis.

• In 1982, Ozzy sang lead vocals on the band Was (Not Was)’s pop dance song ‘Shake Your Head (Let’s Go to Bed).’

• In 1983, guitarist Jake E. Lee joined Ozzy to record the album Bark at the Moon.

• In 1986, Ozzy released The Ultimate Sin with bassist Phil Soussan and drummer Randy Castillo and toured with keyboardist John Sinclair.

  

• The Ultimate Sin was his highest-charting studio album and was certified Platinum soon after release and Double Platinum in 1994.

• Ozzy and Jake E. Lee parted ways in 1987.

• That year, Ozzy released ‘Tribute,’ a live album celebrating the fifth death anniversary of Randy Rhoads.

• In 1988, Ozzy appeared in the documentary The Decline of Western Civilisation Part II: The Metal Years.

• Ozzy then found guitarist Zakk Wylde, who became his longest-serving replacement for Randy Rhoads.

• With Zakk Wylde, Ozzy recorded No Rest for the Wicked (1988), with Randy Castillo on drums, John Sinclair on keyboards, and Bob Daisley co-writing and playing bass.

• In 1988, Ozzy recorded the duet ‘Close My Eyes Forever’ with Lita Ford, which reached number 8 on the Billboard Hot 100.

• In 1989, Ozzy performed at the Moscow Music Peace Festival.

• On 17 September 1991, Ozzy Osbourne released his sixth music album, ‘No More Tears,’ which reached number 17 on the UK Albums Chart and number 7 on the US Billboard 200 and was certified quadruple platinum by the RIAA.

•  The song ‘I Don’t Want to Change the World’ won a Grammy in 1994 for Best Metal Performance.

  

• He planned a ‘retirement tour’ called ‘No More Tours’ in 1992.

• In 1995, Osbourne reissued his entire CD catalogue and released ‘Ozzmosis,’ which reached number 4 on the Billboard 200 and was certified gold and platinum in 1995, and double platinum in 1999.

• He wrote a song for his daughter Aimee, who appeared in his 1995 album Ozzmosis, where she can be heard saying ‘I’ll always be your angel.’ The song ‘My Little Man’ on Ozzmosis was about his son Jack.

• His biggest money success in the 1990s was a music festival called Ozzfest, which was started and managed by his wife Sharon and helped by their son Jack, after Ozzy was not accepted by the Lollapalooza festival.

• The first Ozzfest was held in September 1996 and became popular with metal fans.

• In 1997, he released the album The Ozzman Cometh.

• That same year, Ozzy Osbourne, Iommi, and Geezer Butler officially reunited for Ozzfest.

• In December 1997, all four original members came back together to record an album called ‘Reunion.’ Ozzy toured with the band from 1997 to 1999, and the album was successful.

  

• After that, in 2001, he released the album Down to Earth, which later achieved platinum status in 2003.

• On 8 December 2003, Ozzy Osbourne had a serious accident with his bike at his mansion in Jordans, Buckinghamshire.

• He was taken to Wexham Park Hospital in Slough for emergency surgery.

• Ozzy Osbourne broke his collarbone, eight ribs, and a neck vertebra. A surgery was done to lift his collarbone because it was pressing on a major artery and blocking blood flow to his arm.

• While in the hospital, he had his first UK number one single with the song ‘Changes,’ a duet with his daughter Kelly Osbourne.

  

• Ozzy Osbourne faced body tremors for years; initially, he thought that they were from drug use, but in 2003, he found out it was a genetic type of Parkinson’s disease, which required daily medication to control.

• He appeared in the reality television show The Osbournes, which showed his life with his wife, Sharon and children Jack and Kelly. The show aired on MTV from 2002 to 2005.

  

• In 2002, Ozzy Osbourne performed the Black Sabbath song ‘Paranoid’ at a Party at the Palace Concert for Queen Elizabeth II’s Golden Jubilee.

  

• In 2002, he and his wife, Sharon, attended the White House Correspondents’ Association dinner, where President George W. Bush joked about his music.

• In March 2005, Ozzy Osbourne released a box set called ‘Prince of Darkness,’ which included live songs, rare tracks, duets with other artists, and covers of songs by bands he liked.

• That same year, he released an album called Under Cover and appeared as a judge in the reality show UK X-Factor.

• By 2005, over 4 million people had attended ‘Ozzfest,’ and it earned more than $170 million, with Ozzy becoming the first metal star to earn $50 million in merchandise sales.

  

• In May 2007, he released an album, Black Rain.

• In July 2009, Ozzy Osbourne said he was looking for a new guitarist because his music was starting to sound too much like Zakk Wylde’s band, Black Label Society, and he wanted something different. He later performed with new guitarist Gus G at BlizzCon.

• He then planned to release a new album called ‘Soul Sucka’ with Gus G, Tommy Clufetos, and Blasko, but changed the name to ‘Scream’ after fans disliked the original title. The album included the songs ‘Let Me Hear You Scream’ and ‘Life Won’t Wait.’

• Ozzy Osbourne has over 15 tattoos, including the letters O-Z-Z-Y across the fingers of his left hand, which he created himself as a teenager using a sewing needle and pencil lead.

• He suffered minor burns in a small house fire at his family home in Beverly Hills in January 2013.

• For his 65th birthday in December 2013, he requested his fans to donate to the Royal Marsden Cancer Charity in London.

• In 2014, Ozzy Osbourne released a music collection called ‘Memoirs of a Madman.’

• In 2017 and 2018, he reunited with guitarist Zakk Wylde for a special tour, performed solo at the Download Festival for the first time, and started his final world tour called ‘No More Tours II.’

• In September 2019, his song with Post Malone, ‘Take What You Want,’ reached number 8 on the US Billboard Hot 100.

• On 21 February 2020, Ozzy Osbourne released an album, Ordinary Man, which got good reviews and reached number three on the UK Albums Chart.

• He publicly shared his Parkinson’s diagnosis in 2020. He said that he had lived with and worked through it for most of his life.

• That same year, he revealed he had emphysema.

• On 8 August 2022, Ozzy and Iommi made a surprise appearance at the closing of the 2022 Commonwealth Games in Birmingham.

  

• After that, he started working on his next album, Patient Number 9, which was released on 9 September 2022.

• In January 2023, Ozzy Osbourne said that he was cancelling the European part of his tour because of health problems from a 2019 spinal injury.

• In 2024, he announced that he was working on a new album and was ready to perform live again after successful spine surgery.

• On 5 July 2025, Ozzy played his final show at Villa Park in Birmingham with all the original members. During the show, Ozzy had to sit on a black throne while performing because of Parkinson’s disease.

  

• By 2025, his Parkinson’s disease had progressed to the point that he lost his ability to walk.

• Ozzy Osbourne used tobacco, alcohol, street drugs, and prescription drugs for most of his adult life and admitted to heavy drug and alcohol use, especially during his early years with Black Sabbath.

• His substance abuse caused problems in his bands, including cancelled shows and difficult behaviour, but his wife, Sharon, helped manage him and kept him on track as a solo artist.

  

• He had several wild incidents linked to his drinking and drug use, such as urinating on the Alamo monument in 1982 and other arrests for public intoxication.

• In later life, Ozzy Osbourne managed to stay sober for longer periods and credited his survival and career longevity to a strong inner spirit and support from his family.

• He was an animal lover and had a pet dog. He often shared pictures of his pet on social media.

  

• Ozzy Osbourne had been featured on the covers of many noted magazines and tabloids.

  

• He enjoyed smoking cigarettes occasionally.