Ozzy Osbourne

COMING SOON!

The bat-biting wild-man of rock revealed a tenderer side when he invited a TV crew into his home. A look at the phenomenal success of The Osbournes with comment from wife, Sharon.

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Ozzy Osbourne
born: 03-12-1948
birth place: Aston, Birmingham, England

Osbourne grew up in a working-class family and left school at fifteen to work a series of low-paying jobs, before being imprisoned for burglary.

On his release, he joined a friend’s band, which he quickly outgrew, joining another outfit called Earth (later to become Black Sabbath).

Black Sabbath released their self-titled debut album on Friday 13th February, 1970 and almost immediately, developed a cult following in both Britain and America. Unfortunately, Ozzy and the rest of the band became seriously dependent on alcohol and cocaine, and gained a reputation for trashing cars and hotel rooms.

In 1977, Osbourne's father passed away, causing him to leave the band for a period before the release of their next album ‘Never Say Die’. Osbourne became increasingly disinterested in Black Sabbath and, at the end of the ‘Never Say Die’ tour, the band replaced him.

After months of despair and drug abuse, Osbourne met Sharon Arden, who helped him turn his life around. Sharon encouraged Osbourne to launch a solo career, and he joined forces with guitarist, Randy Rhoads, to begin work on his 1980 solo debut, ‘Blizzard of Ozz’. The album was a resounding success, reaching platinum status.

In 1981, Ozzy released his follow-up, 'Diary of a Madman', which eventually sold more than five million copies and firmly established him as a solo artist in his own right.

Unfortunately, the infamous ‘Diary of a Madman’ tour was one of the most troubled outings in rock history, with misfortune, bad publicity and protests dogging Osbourne the whole way.

After a series of tragedies and bizarre incidents (including the death of Rhoads in a plane crash) Osbourne sobered up and released a softer, more personal album, ‘No More Tears’, in 1991. He had announced that the 1992 tour would be his swansong, but decided to put his retirement on hold and returned with ‘Ozzmosis’ in late 1995. In 1996 he headlined the Ozzfest festival tour.

At the end of the 1990s Ozzy also rejoined the original line-up of Black Sabbath, for a series of highly successful live shows. His first studio album of the new millennium, ‘Down To Earth’, was released in 2001.

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Links relating to this biography:
Ozzy Osbourne Official
Ozzy Head