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John Michael "Ozzy" Osbourne (born December 3, 1948) is a British singer. Osbourne's career has now spanned four decades. He rose to prominence as lead vocalist of pioneering English heavy metal band Black Sabbath, and eventually achieved a multi-platinum, award-winning solo career. In the early 2000s, his career as a celebrity revived when he became a star in his own reality show, The Osbournes.
Osbourne was born in Aston, Birmingham, UK and spent most of his early life there. His father Jack worked shifts as a toolmaker at GEC and his mother Lillian for the car components firm Lucas, to support him and his five siblings. Osbourne reportedly suffered from learning difficulties, making life at Prince Albert Road Junior School and Birchfield Road Secondary Modern School in Perry Barr difficult for him. However he did like music and took part in school plays. He also became a great fan of The Beatles from the age of 14 when he heard their first hit single. He left school at 15 and was then employed as a construction site labourer, trainee plumber, apprentice toolmaker, car factory worker and slaughterhouse worker. He also spent a few weeks in Winson Green Prison, when he was unable to pay a fine after being found guilty of burglary of a clothes shop.
Osbourne would later form a band with former Birchfield Road School classmate Tony Iommi after he auditioned for a lead singer. During this time psychedelic rock was enormously popular. To distinguish themselves from the norm, Iommi and his partners decided to play a heavy blues-inspired style of music laced with gloomy lyrics. Names for the band included Polka Tulk and Earth. One day during rehearsals, the band noticed people queuing up outside a cinema where a horror film was being shown, and bassist Geezer Butler observed how curious it is that people like to be frightened. The film these fellows were waiting to see was the Mario Bava-directed Black Sabbath. After reading an occult book that Osbourne had let Butler borrow, Butler had a dream of a dark figure at the end of his bed. Afterwards, Butler wrote the lyrics to "Black Sabbath", one of their first songs, in a darker vein. It was the prototype of the songs that became their main style later in their career.
In 1979, Osbourne was fired from Black Sabbath largely for unreliability due to drug abuse. All the members in the band did drugs; but Osbourne did them to a much greater extent than other members of the band. He was replaced by former Rainbow singer Ronnie James Dio.
In the late 1970s, the band Necromandus rehearsed with Ozzy Osbourne and briefly became the first incarnation of his Blizzard of Ozz solo project. The Ozzy Osbourne Band began as The Blizzard of Ozz, formed by Osbourne's new manager and future wife, Sharon Osbourne. The first line-up of the band featured drummer Lee Kerslake (of Uriah Heep), bassist/lyricist Bob Daisley (of Rainbow), and guitarist Randy Rhoads (of Quiet Riot). The record company would eventually title the record Blizzard of Ozz credited simply under Osbourne's name. Largely written by Daisley and Rhoads, Ozzy met with considerable success on his first solo effort, the debut collection selling well with heavy metal fans. A second album, Diary of a Madman featured more of Bob Daisley's song writing and guitar work by Randy Rhoads, who was ranked the 85th greatest guitarist of all time by Rolling Stone magazine in 2003.
In March 1982, while in Florida for the follow-up album Diary of a Madman tour, and a week away from playing Madison Square Garden in New York City, a light aircraft taken without its owner's consent carrying guitarist Randy Rhoads crashed while performing low passes over the band's tour bus. In a prank turned deadly, the right wing of the aircraft clipped the bus, causing the plane to crash into a tree and finally a nearby house, killing Rhoads as well as the pilot, Andrew Aycock, and the band's hairdresser, Rachel Youngblood. On autopsy, cocaine was found to be present in Aycock's urine.[12] Learning of the death of his close friend and band mate, Osbourne once again fell into deep depression. The record company gave Osbourne a break from performing to mourn for his late band member, but Ozzy stopped work for only one week.
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