Ozzy Osbourne

Rock Musician

Name at birth: John Michael Osbourne

Ozzy Osbourne was the lead singer of heavy metal pioneers Black Sabbath. The band formed in 1968 and included guitarist Tony Iommi, bassist Geezer Butler and drummer Bill Ward. They cranked up the volume, capitalized on a wild 'black magic' image and recorded now-classic albums of heavy rock, including Black Sabbath (1970), Paranoid (1971) and Master of Reality (1971). Ozzy left the band in 1979 and the fans followed him. Not only did he have hit records, he was a magnet for controversy: in 1982 his guitarist, Randy Rhoades, was killed when the plane he was riding in buzzed the tour bus and crashed; he once bit the head off a bat while on stage, giving himself a rabies scare; he bit the head off a dove in the offices of record executives he felt were ignoring him; he was sued over his song "Suicide Solution" by the parents of a teenage fan who had killed himself (the case was dismissed); and he was arrested in 1982 for urinating on a historical "shrine" -- The Alamo. Along the way he toured and released successful albums such as Blizzard of Ozz (1980), Bark at the Moon (1983), Ultimate Sin (1986) and Ozzmosis (1995). In 2002 he and his family made it to MTV in a hit "reality sitcom," called The Osbournes, a video journal of their wacky life in an L. A. mansion.

Extra credit: Osbourne has three children: Aimee (b. 1983), Kelly (b. 1984), Jack (b. 1985); Jack and Kelly became famous from their appearances on The Osbournes... Ozzy's wife Sharon is also his longtime manager; they were married on 4 July 1982.

Other heavy metal stars of Osbourne's era: Metallica, Def Leppard, and Gene Simmons of KISS. Simmons had his own family reality show a few years after Osbourne: Gene Simmons Family Jewels debuted in 2006.