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<\/p>\nOzzy Osbourne, the iconic frontman of\u00a0the 1970s heavy metal band Black Sabbath, earned his infamy biting the head off a bat on stage and pursuing a drug-fuelled lifestyle before reinventing himself as a lovable if often foul-mouthed reality TV star.<\/p>\n
Osbourne, known to fans as the “Prince of Darkness” and the godfather of heavy metal,\u00a0died Tuesday morning at the age of 76, according to a family statement.\u00a0<\/p>\n
“It is with more sadness than mere words can convey that we have to report that our beloved Ozzy Osbourne has passed away this morning,” said the statement sent to CBC News on behalf of the family.<\/p>\n
“He was with his family and surrounded by love. We ask everyone to respect our family privacy at this time.”<\/p>\n
No cause of death was released.<\/p>\n
Osbourne kicked off his career in the early 1970s, blaring out Black Sabbath\u00a0hits such as\u00a0Paranoid,\u00a0War Pigs\u00a0and\u00a0Sabbath Bloody Sabbath.\u00a0Those plus a string of solo releases saw him sell more than 100 million records worldwide.<\/p>\n
He was twice inducted into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame \u2014once with Sabbath in 2006 and again in 2024 as a solo artist.<\/p>\n
He\u00a0is survived by his wife, Sharon, who was also his manager;\u00a0their three children, Jack, Kelly and Aimee;\u00a0and three children from his first marriage\u00a0to Thelma Riley, Jessica, Louis and Elliot; as well as\u00a0several grandchildren.<\/p>\n
WATCH | Alan Cross calls\u00a0Ozzy Osbourne ‘one of the most influential musicians of all time’:<\/p>\n
Rock trailblazer Ozzy Osbourne dead at 76<\/p>\n
John Michael ‘Ozzy’ Osbourne, the lead singer of Black Sabbath, has died at 76, his family confirmed Tuesday. Alan Cross, host of the Ongoing History of New Music podcast, says he will be remembered as ‘one of the most influential musicians of all time.’<\/p>\n
Sabbath fired Osbourne in 1979 for his legendary excesses, which included showing up late for rehearsals and missing gigs.<\/p>\n
“We knew we didn’t really have a choice but to sack him because he was just so out of control. But we were all very down about the situation,” wrote bassist Terry (Geezer)\u00a0Butler in his memoir, Into the Void.<\/p>\n
Osbourne re-emerged the next year as a solo artist with Blizzard of Ozz<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Ozzy Osbourne, the iconic frontman of\u00a0the 1970s heavy metal band Black Sabbath, earned his infamy biting the head…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":16403,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[43,44,41,39,42,40],"class_list":["post-16402","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-headlines","tag-headlines","tag-news","tag-top-news","tag-top-stories","tag-topnews","tag-topstories"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16402","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=16402"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16402\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/16403"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=16402"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=16402"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=16402"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}