50 Fun Facts About Ozzy Osbourne

What nickname was Ozzy Osbourne widely known by?

He adopted the title and absorbed the accusations of Satanism into his stage persona rather than fight them.

Which English city did Osbourne grow up in?

The family home was 14 Lodge Road in Aston; his 2025 funeral cortege passed the house on its way through the city.

What was Osbourne's real first name?

Born John Michael Osbourne, he picked up the nickname Ozzy as a child.

In what year did Black Sabbath fire Osbourne?

Tony Iommi insisted on it, with Butler and Ward's support; the official reason was unreliability and substance abuse.

Who replaced Osbourne as Black Sabbath's singer in 1979?

Dio came from Rainbow; his first Sabbath album was Heaven & Hell, later the name of a touring band with Iommi.

What was the title of Osbourne's 1980 debut solo album?

The name had been suggested by his father years earlier, for a brief solo project while he was still in Sabbath.

Which guitarist, formerly of Quiet Riot, co-wrote Osbourne's first two solo albums?

Rolling Stone ranked him the 85th greatest guitarist of all time in 2003 on the strength of those two records.

How did Osbourne's guitarist die in March 1982, a week before a Madison Square Garden date?

The plane was buzzing the band's tour bus in Florida when a wing clipped the bus; the pilot was the bus driver.

Which Night Ranger guitarist finished the 1982 tour after Rhoads's death?

Gillis was chosen at a hotel room audition after Bernie Tormé left to finish a solo album in England.

What animal did Osbourne bite the head off on stage in Des Moines in January 1982?

He thought it was rubber; he was vaccinated against rabies afterwards and sold a plush version with a detachable head in 2019.

In 1981, Osbourne bit the head off which bird at a meeting with CBS Records executives?

He had planned to release doves as a gesture of peace, then bit a second one as security escorted him out.

Osbourne was banned from which Texas city for a decade after a 1982 arrest at the Alamo?

The arrest record says public intoxication; he paid a forty dollar fine after 15 minutes in a holding cell.

On what date did Ozzy and Sharon marry in 1982?

He said he chose Independence Day so he would never forget the anniversary.

Who was Sharon's father, the Black Sabbath manager who signed Ozzy to Jet Records?

Arden wanted to call the new band Son of Sabbath, which Osbourne hated.

Which of Ozzy's children did NOT appear in The Osbournes?

Louis, from his first marriage, made occasional cameos; Aimee sat the whole series out.

With which daughter did Osbourne score his first UK number one single, a duet on "Changes"?

It came in December 2003 while he was in hospital after a quad bike crash, 33 years after Paranoid first charted.

How many years passed between Osbourne's first UK chart hit and his first UK number one?

That gap between Paranoid in August 1970 and Changes in 2003 was a record for any artist.

What was Osbourne riding when he broke his collarbone, eight ribs and a neck vertebra in 2003?

His bodyguard resuscitated him after he stopped breathing on his Buckinghamshire estate.

Which guitarist joined Osbourne in 1988 and became his most enduring collaborator?

Wylde debuted on No Rest for the Wicked and later led his own band, Black Label Society.

Osbourne's 1988 duet "Close My Eyes Forever" reached No. 8 on the Hot 100 with which singer?

It stayed his only US top ten for 30 years until Post Malone's Take What You Want in 2019.

Osbourne's 2019 feature on which Post Malone song gave him his first US top ten in 30 years?

It peaked at number 8, and Watt, who co-produced it, went on to produce Ordinary Man and Patient Number 9.

What was the title of Osbourne's 1991 album featuring "Mama, I'm Coming Home"?

Motörhead's Lemmy helped write it, and the retirement tour that followed was punningly called No More Tours.

Osbourne's 1994 Grammy for Best Metal Performance was for which track?

The winning version was the live take from Live & Loud, not the studio recording.

Which Sabbath guitarist knocked Osbourne out with one punch during a 1970s hotel fight?

Iommi remembered Osbourne as a pest from their school days; the two later fought over the Sabbath trademark in court.

What name did Black Sabbath use just before settling on Black Sabbath in 1969?

They changed it after being accidentally booked in place of another band called Earth.

Which bassist formed Rare Breed in 1967 and recruited Osbourne as singer?

Rare Breed played two shows and split; Butler and Osbourne regrouped with Iommi and Ward in Polka Tulk Blues.

What did the flyer Osbourne posted in a record store say he needed?

It read Ozzy Zig Needs Gig, has own PA; Iommi and Ward turned up at the address and recognised him from school.

Where did the 17-year-old Osbourne spend six weeks after he could not pay a fine for a shop robbery?

His father refused to pay the fine to teach him a lesson.

Which Beatles song did Osbourne credit with inspiring him to become a musician?

He was 14 when he heard it; he later covered Beatles and Lennon songs on his Under Cover album.

What did the teenage Osbourne tattoo across the knuckles of his left hand with a sewing needle?

It was the first of more than 15 tattoos, done with pencil lead for ink.

Osbourne's final concert, "Back to the Beginning", was held at which stadium on 5 July 2025?

He performed seated on a black throne; he was a lifelong Aston Villa supporter, and the crowd topped 40,000.

How many days after his farewell concert did Osbourne die?

He died at home in Buckinghamshire on 22 July 2025, aged 76.

In which year was Osbourne inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame as a solo artist?

He had already gone in with Black Sabbath in 2006, making him a double inductee.

Which band opened for Black Sabbath on the 1978 Never Say Die! tour, upstaging the headliners?

Critics called Sabbath tired and uninspired next to the youthful openers, who were on their first world tour.

Which Black Sabbath album, recorded in Toronto, was the last with Osbourne before his firing?

Iommi recalled the band being too stoned to get through sessions at Sounds Interchange Studios.

Osbourne's 1982 live album Speak of the Devil consisted entirely of what?

It was recorded at The Ritz in New York with Gillis, Sarzo and Aldridge; in the UK it was titled Talk of the Devil.

Which former Ratt guitarist played on Bark at the Moon and The Ultimate Sin?

The Bark at the Moon video was partly shot at Holloway Sanitorium outside London.

What was Osbourne's 2010 album Scream originally going to be called?

Negative fan feedback about the original title prompted the change before release.

Which character did Osbourne voice in Trolls World Tour (2020)?

He also appeared as a playable character in Guitar Hero World Tour and in a World of Warcraft commercial.

Osbourne's first cocaine experience, in 1971 in Denver, followed a show with which band?

He named Mountain's guitarist Leslie West as the man who introduced him to it.

Osbourne's 2022 album Patient Number 9 was dedicated to which country?

He pledged its proceeds to a volunteer group, and he and Sharon offered to house two refugee families.

What was the title of Osbourne's 2009 autobiography?

His final memoir, Last Rites, was announced in July 2025 and published that October.

How many attempts did Osbourne say it took him to pass his driving test?

He blamed tobacco, alcohol and other drugs in a 2010 Howard Stern interview.

Where was the very first Ozzfest held, in September 1996?

The Phoenix and Devore dates that October turned it into the two-day event most histories begin with.

Which comedy film did Osbourne name as his favourite movie in 2010?

He was a longtime Monty Python fan; George W. Bush joked that his mother loved Ozzy's records.

Which regiment's band played "Paranoid" at Buckingham Palace on the day of his funeral cortege?

Tens of thousands lined the Birmingham route, which stopped at the Black Sabbath Bridge.

At the 2002 Party at the Palace, Osbourne performed "Paranoid" with Iommi and which drummer?

The concert in the Buckingham Palace grounds marked the Queen's Golden Jubilee.

Which former Metallica bassist briefly played with Osbourne in 2003?

In a swap, Osbourne's former bassist Robert Trujillo replaced Newsted in Metallica the same year.

Black Sabbath's 2013 comeback album, which topped the US and UK charts, was titled what?

Rage Against the Machine's Brad Wilk played drums after Bill Ward dropped out over his contract.

Osbourne's 1992 retirement tour was a pun on his latest album title. What was it called?

The retirement lasted about three years; he came back with Ozzmosis and The Retirement Sucks Tour.