English singer-songwriter and media personality John Michael ‘Ozzy’ Osbourne was born 76 years ago in Marston Green, Warwickshire, is married and has 5 children.
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 went on to created his own group named ‘Blizzard of Ozz’ and his debut solo album was released in 1980. 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.
To date, Ozzy had 13 studio, 5 live, 7 compilation and 9 video 5 albums, 5 EPs, 41 music videos and 65 singles as a solo artist.
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. He was also inducted in the UK Music Hall of Fame in 2005, and twice in the US Rock and Roll Hall of Fame – in 2006 together with the other ‘Black Sabbath’ members and this year as a solo artist. Moreover, in 2021, Ozzy was inducted in the WWE Hall of Fame for his numerous appearances.
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