FAREWELL TO THE PRINCE OF DARKNESS

OZZY OSBOURNE LEAVES BEHIND A MONUMENTAL LEGACY AFTER PASSING AT THE AGE OF 76

- JACQUES KLOPP

Ozzy Osbourne will go down in rock history as the “godfather of heavy metal” who fulfilled his hard-living dreams as the frontman of Black Sabbath.

After decades of debauchery and more than 100 million albums sold, the British singer died on Tuesday at the age of 76, leaving behind his wife Sharon, six children, a host of grandchildren and a permanent legacy in the annals of rock'n'roll.

His death came a little more than two weeks after Black Sabbath played a farewell concert to 40,000 fans at Villa Park, in his native Birmingham. Rock royalty lined up to pay tribute to him including Metallica, Guns N' Roses and members of Aerosmith and The Rolling Stones at the stadium that is the home to his beloved Aston Villa football team.

Ozzy, as he was routinely referred to, attracted legions of new fans in the 2000s after appearing as the hard-of-hearing, slightly crazy but doting grandfather in MTV's hit reality show The Osbournes, a far cry from the excesses that defined his 1970s heyday.

Until his renaissance, he was best known in the mainstream for biting the head of a live bat during a concert and for urinating in the wine glass of a record-label chief — as well as on the Alamo monument in Texas.