the wild life & tragic death of a rock god

THE PRINCE OF DARKNESS PIONEERED BOTH HEAVY METAL AND REALITY TV—AND BECAME ONE OF POP CULTURE’S MOST BELOVED FATHER FIGURES

- RACHEL DESANTIS

A Life Well Lived "If it ends tomorrow, I can't complain," Osbourne (in 1991) wrote in Last Rites, a memoir due out in October.

In a moment years in the making, Ozzy Osbourne was sitting atop a bat-bedecked throne, performing for 40,000 people in his native Birmingham, England. “You have no idea how I feel,” Osbourne, whose hard-rocking catalog helped put heavy metal on the map in the 1970s, told the crowd on July 5, when he played a farewell concert with Black Sabbath. “Thank you from the bottom of my heart.”

It was an emotional homecoming for the British star, who seamlessly bridged the gap between menacing Black Sabbath frontman and foulmouthed but softhearted family man on MTV’s The Osbournes. And a fitting farewell. Just 17 days later Osbourne, who had battled Parkinson’s disease for more than two decades, was dead. “There was a point when we were all clapping and crying, and he was trying to get out of that throne, trying to stand up,” says Lzzy Hale, whose band Halestorm also played at the concert. “That’s the beauty of music. I bet you that he could fly in that moment. I think that this was exactly how he wanted to end that chapter.” To play the show, a determined Osbourne undertook months of training to build strength. “It brought his career full circle,” a source close to the family says.

Swan Song "I'm giving it everything I've got," Osbourne (onstage July 5) said of preparing for his final show, which raised $190 million for charity.

Osbourne died on July 22 at age 76 in Buckinghamshire, England. Despite his illness, the star’s death was a surprise: Just days earlier his daughter Kelly, 40, had assured fans that Osbourne was “not dying” and slammed rumors that he and wife Sharon, 72, had made a suicide pact.