Name: What did Ozzy Osbourne mean for heavy metal? | DW News
Uploaded: 2025-07-23T17:24:32.000Z
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One of the pioneering voices of heavy metal has fallen silent.

He was the lead singer of the British band Black Sabbath.

His death was announced in a statement by his family who said that he passed away surrounded by love.

Just weeks ago, Ozzy Osbourne performed a farewell show with Black Sabbath in his home city of Birmingham in England in front of 40,000 fans.

Before we take a look at his legacy, let's hear a bit of Ozzy performing in that final concert just weeks ago.

KJ Matthews joins me on a sad day for music fans.

KJ, after decades in the spotlight, do we know much about how these last days and weeks unfolded for Ozzy?

I've been hearing that he was surrounded by his family at his home near Manchester in England, and he just wanted to be with his family.

He stated that that would be his last concert with his band members, Black Sabbath, and he was right.

He was able to leave this earth in peace, surrounded by his wife Sharon, his son Jack, his daughter Kelly and his other two children, and that's pretty much how he wanted it, to be able to spend those last hours with his family.

The Prince of Darkness is such an incredible moniker for a heavy metal frontman.

He kind of lived the life, did he not, to match that stage name somehow?

Look, can you tell me one other artist ever in heavy metal history that has actually bitten the head off of a bat?

Ozzy Osbourne actually was able to bite the head off of an animal on stage.

He said later that he thought it was a fake, a prop, and it wasn't, but he will always probably be remembered for doing that, those kind of antics on stage, you know, and it's things like that that really brought him that moniker, you know, the dark guy, the Black Sabbath.

So that's probably where that name came from, but, you know, he was very successful.

He's been in business for, like, 50 years.

Can you believe that he's been around a musician for 50 of his 76 years on this earth?

Inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame.

Really, I think, put British heavy metal on the worldwide stage.

So, yes, he will be remembered for that when it comes to his music career.

You lead me in perfectly to a question that might offend some real Black Sabbath fans, but I feel like he was just as big a star to reality TV as he was to music.

Can you believe that before the Kardashians, because we always think of the Kardashians as starting the whole reality show genre?

They had a reality show on from 2002 to 2005, and that's when I think the world really fell in love with Ozzy and saw him as this kind of adorable father.

You know, it was about Sharon, obviously about Ozzy, Kelly, his son Jack, and we really got to know them in a different way, especially for the people who weren't listening to, perhaps, you know, heavy metal music.

They really got to know, oh, this is Ozzy.

He was just so adorable, and that's hard to do when you're on stage, you know, biting the head off of animals, being a very hardcore rock and roll legend, you know, and doing a lot of drugs and alcohol over the years, and then he just turns into this lovable kind of senior citizen father.

So it was a real interesting show, a real cultural moment, and I think they paved the way for people like the Kardashians to have their show years later.

Such a complicated legacy, but so much affection for the man, the icon that was Ozzy Osbourne.

Matthews, thanks so much for sharing those thoughts with us.

And music expert and entertainment reporter Ronza Edzangbedo, he joins us from Washington, D.C.

Ronza, good to have you back on the show.

Now, this news really comes as a shock to many.

Ozzy Osbourne just gave a much-acclaimed farewell concert on July 5th.

What do we know about the circumstances of his death?

In the statement issued by his family, they asked for privacy.

However, what we do know is that in 2020, he revealed that he was diagnosed with Parkinson's, and we know that he's had surgeries over the years for a biking accident in 2003.

So he's had health issues in the last quarter century.

What did Ozzy Osbourne mean to heavy metal?

So he is widely considered, along with Black Sabbath, considered the inventors of heavy metal.

I think that the members of Led Zeppelin and probably Deep Purple might have something to say about that title, but he definitely helped shape the genre and is by far one of the most influential artists in heavy metal.

Now, after his initial years with Black Sabbath, he had a very long solo career as well.

I think he'll be remembered for more genre-defining music.

I think he definitely leaned into the Prince of Darkness moniker.

In 1982, during a solo performance, he bit off a bat's head, and so I think that was part of Ozzy Osbourne's lore, that he was very much dark, not just on stage, but in real life.

In the last few decades, Ozzy attracted less attention for his music than for his media presence.

I actually knew him for the Osbournes before I had heard any of his music.

How did that shape his image and reputation with a larger audience?

I think many people, especially millennials, were introduced to Ozzy Osbourne through the show on MTV that premiered in the early 2000s.

I think it forced people to go and get curious about his music and learn about what he's done, how influential he is to popular music.

I don't think it's a bad thing altogether.

I think it's, in many ways, extended his legacy.

All told, I think it was a good thing for him.

Lead singer of Black Sabbath, a big presence in popular music, Prince of Darkness, very influential rock artist, two-time inductee into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame.

I think he will be remembered as one of the greats, for sure.