English singer John Michael ‘Ozzy’ Osbourne was born 74 years ago in Marston Green, Warwickshire, is married and has 5 children. He is also a songwriter and TV personality.
At school, he participated in stage plays and when he was 14, he became a Beatles fan after listening to their first single. A year later, he left school and worked various different jobs.
In 1967, Ozzy joined the short-lived band ‘Rare Breed’ as a vocalist, then formed ‘Polka Tulk Blues’, which band name changed twice, first to ‘Earth’ and then to ‘Black Sabbath’. This was also the name of the group’s first song, composed by Ozzy himself and another group member.
To the band members’ surprise, the group’s first two albums received unforeseen success, despite the fact that their music genre was heavy metal. Likewise, the 3 albums that followed were equally successful and all sold more than a million copies in the US alone.
After the release of a few more albums, Ozzy left the group after some friction arose between the group members and in 1979 pursued a solo career. He created his own group named ‘Blizzard of Ozz’ and to date released 34 albums, 41 music videos, 5 EPS and 65 singles.
Some of his most popular songs include ‘Paranoid’, ‘Mama, I’m coming Home’, ‘Changes’ and ‘Dreamer’, amongst others. Ozzy also collaborated with several other artists and bands and sang in ‘duet’ with them.
In the mid-90s, together with his wife, Ozzy created ‘Ozzfest’, a famous yearly music festival held mainly in the US which has as participants various heavy metal and hard rock bands.
Apart from music, Ozzy acted in various movies, voiced animated film characters and participated in several TV productions like documentaries and children’s programmes. In particular, he became more famous when he starred in the US reality show ‘The Osbournes’ which aired for 3 years between 2002 and 2005. He also wrote an autobiography.
During his +50-year career, Osbourne received several awards including a Grammy, an Ivor Novello and a Guys Choice award.