Ozzy: 'Prince of Darkness' and maestro of heavy metal

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.

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After decades of debauchery and more than 100 million albums sold, the British singer died yesterday 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.

But for hard-rock fans he will forever be remembered as the “Prince of Darkness” leading Black Sabbath, th[e band that helped launch heavy metal, a blend of rock and blues drenched in distortion and dark lyrics.

- ‘Girls ran out screaming’ -

The band enjoyed immediate success on the release of its eponymous debut album in 1970. Hundreds of thousands around the world continued to flock to hear rock hymns such as “Paranoid,” “War Pigs” and “Iron Man” at the band’s riotous live shows for almost 50 years, until the band brought down the curtain a first time with a gig in Birmingham in 2017.