Ozzy Osbourne

Ozzy Osbourne is an English heavy metal vocalist and songwriter, whose musical career has spanned over 40 years. Osbourne rose to prominence as lead singer of the pioneering English band Black Sabbath, whose dark and hard sound helped spawn the heavy metal genre. Due to Sabbath's dark style, Osbourne became known as the "Prince of Darkness".

He has released eleven studio albums, five live albums, five compilation albums, two extended plays (EPs), eight video albums and thirty-three singles. As a solo artist, Ozzy Osbourne has sold over 55 million albums worldwide, and over 100 million worldwide when including his work with Black Sabbath.

In 1978, Osbourne left Black Sabbath for three months to pursue interest in a solo project he called Blizzard of Ozz. Osbourne would rejoined Sabbath for their Never Say Die! album and tour. The band filmed a performance at the Hammersmith Odeon in June 1978, which was later released on DVD as Never Say Die. The final show of the tour would be Osbourne's last appearance with the band until later reunions.

In 1980, the Ozzy Osbourne Band formed again as The Blizzard of Ozz and would release the record Blizzard of Ozz which was credited under Osbourne's name. Blizzard of Ozz is one of the very few albums amongst the 100 best selling albums of the 1980s to have achieved multi-platinum status without the benefit of a Top 40 single. As of August 1997, it achieved Quadruple Platinum status according to RIAA. The album is known for the globally recognised singles "Crazy Train" and "Mr. Crowley", and fan favourites "Goodbye to Romance" and "Revelation (Mother Earth)".

Osbourne's second album, Diary of a Madman and features the singles "Over the Mountain" and "Flying High Again". The 1982 live album, Speak of the Devil was recorded at the Ritz in New York City and was released. In 1983, Bark at the Moon was released and contained the fan favourite "Bark at the Moon". The music video for "Bark at the Moon" was partially filmed at the Holloway Sanitorium outside of London, England. Within weeks the album became certified gold and has sold three million copies in the U.S.

In 1986, The Ultimate Sin was released and features "Shot in the Dark" and fan favourites "Killer of Giants", "Lightning Strikes", and "Secret Loser". At the time of its release, The Ultimate Sin was Osbourne's highest charting studio album. The RIAA awarded the album Platinum status on soon after its release and Double Platinum status in 1994.

In 1988, Osbourne appeared in The Decline of Western Civilization II: The Metal Years and told the director, Penelope Spheeris, that "sobriety fucking sucks." Also, Ozzy recorded No Rest for the Wicked and a subsequent tour saw Osbourne reunited with Black Sabbath bandmate Geezer Butler on bass.

In 1991, Ozzy's No More Tears was released and it enjoyed much radio and MTV exposure. He was awarded his only solo Grammy for the track "I Don't Want to Change the World" from live album Live and Loud for Best Metal Performance of 1994. The album went platinum four times over, and ranked at number 10 on that year's Billboard rock charts.

In 1995, Osbourne released Ozzmosis and returned to touring, dubbing his concert performances "The Retirement Sucks Tour". The album reached number 4 on the US Billboard 200. The Recording Industry Association of America certified the album gold and platinum in that same year, and double platinum in April 1999. The album features the hard rocking fan favourites "Perry Mason", "Ghost Behind My Eyes", "Thunder Underground", and the power ballad "See You on the Other Side".

Osbourne's biggest financial success of the 1990s was a venture named Ozzfest. The first Ozzfest was held in Phoenix, Arizona and in Devore, California in October 1996. Some acts shared the bill with a reformed Black Sabbath during the 1997 Ozzfest tour, beginning in West Palm Beach, Florida. Osbourne reunited with the original members of Sabbath in 1997 and has performed periodically with them ever since. The festival helped promote many new hard rock and heavy metal acts of the late 1990s and early 2000s. Shortly after Ozzfest 2005, Osbourne announced that he will no longer headline Ozzfest. Although he announced his retirement from Ozzfest, Osbourne came back headlining the tour.

Down to Earth, Osbourne's first album of new studio material in seven years, was released in October 2001. A live version filmed in Japan, Live at Budokan followed. Down to Earth went gold in 2001, and platinum in 2003. The album features the fan favourite "Dreamer," a song which peaked at number 10 on Billboard's Mainstream Rock Tracks.

In December 2003, Osbourne was rushed into emergency surgery when he had an accident with his all-terrain vehicle on his estate in Jordans, Buckinghamshire as he had broke his collar bone, eight ribs, and a neck vertebra. While in hospital, Osbourne achieved his first ever UK number one single, a duet of the Black Sabbath ballad, "Changes" with daughter Kelly. In doing so, he broke the record of the longest period between an artist's first UK chart appearance and their first number one hit: a gap of 33 years.

In 2005, Osbourne released a box set called Prince of Darkness. The first and second discs are collections of live performances, B-sides, demos and singles. The third disc contained duets and other odd tracks with other artists, including "Born to Be Wild" with Miss Piggy. The fourth disc is entirely new material where Osbourne covers his favourite songs by his biggest influences and favourite bands, including The Beatles, John Lennon, David Bowie and others.

Black Rain was released in May 2007 and was Osbourne's first new studio album in almost six years and featured a more serious tone than previous albums.

In June 2010, Scream was released and the single, "Let Me Hear You Scream", debuted on an episode of CSI: NY. The song spent 8 weeks on the Billboard Rock Songs, peaking at #7. A second single from the album was "Life Won't Wait" and the video for the song was directed by his son Jack. Tthe original Black Sabbath line up of Ozzy, Tony Iommi, Geezer Butler, and Bill Ward are reuniting for a world tour and new album.