HEARTBREAKING MOMENT: Dolly Parton Shares Her Experience at Ozzy Osbourne’s Funeral.

Ozzy Osbourne’s Final Years: Facing Mortality with Grit, Humor, and a Rocker’s Heart

Few artists embodied rebellion and resilience like Ozzy Osbourne, and in the final chapter of his life, the “Prince of Darkness” remained true to form — candid, defiant, and deeply human. The legendary Black Sabbath frontman passed away on July 22, 2025, at the age of 76, just weeks after performing his emotional farewell concert and witnessing his daughter’s engagement backstage. Surrounded by family and love, Ozzy’s passing marked the end of an era — but not the silencing of a spirit that refused to be tamed.

In a November 2023 interview with Rolling Stone UK, Ozzy opened up about his evolving view on life, aging, and the inevitability of death. In typical irreverent fashion, he recounted a conversation with his wife Sharon: “I said to Sharon that I’d smoked a joint recently and she said, ‘What are you doing that for! It’ll f—ing kill you!’ I said, ‘How long do you want me to f—ing live for?!’” It was classic Ozzy — brutally honest, disarming with humor, and never one to tiptoe around life’s biggest questions.

“At best I’ve got 10 years left,” he said at the time. “And when you’re older, time picks up speed.” That sense of time slipping away loomed large for the rocker, who spent his final years balancing a determination to perform with the reality of deteriorating health.

Ozzy’s health battles were well documented — and fiercely fought. After a 2019 fall aggravated a previous spinal injury from an ATV accident 16 years earlier, he underwent multiple surgeries and rehabilitation. The pain, coupled with a Parkinson’s disease diagnosis, forced Ozzy to step back from the stage. In February 2024, he made the difficult announcement: touring was no longer possible. On Instagram, he described the decision as “one of the hardest things I’ve ever had to share.”

“It’s been like saying farewell to the best relationship of my life,” he said, referring to his bond with the stage and his fans. “At the start of my illness, when I stopped touring, I was really pissed off with myself, the doctors and the world. But as time has gone on, I’ve just gone, ‘Well, maybe I’ve just got to accept that fact.’” It was a moment of reckoning — not of giving up, but of finding peace with what could no longer be controlled.

Despite these challenges, Ozzy never lost his edge — or his heart. His final performance with Black Sabbath, part of the “Back to the Beginning” concert, was not just a send-off; it was a triumph of will and spirit. That night, he joked, cursed, and celebrated one of his daughter’s biggest moments: Kelly Osbourne’s engagement to Slipknot’s Sid Wilson, just moments before Ozzy took the stage.

Weeks later, the world lost a giant.

“It is with more sadness than mere words can convey that we have to report that our beloved Ozzy Osbourne has passed away this morning,” the Osbourne family wrote in a statement. “He was with his family and surrounded by love. We ask everyone to respect our family privacy at this time.”

While Ozzy’s health may have limited his body, it never touched the core of who he was. He remained — to the very end — unapologetically Ozzy: a man of music, mischief, and unfiltered honesty. Whether he was biting the head off a bat or baring his soul in interviews, Ozzy reminded the world that rock ’n’ roll was never about perfection — it was about passion, survival, and truth.

Now gone, but never forgotten, Ozzy Osbourne leaves behind not just a catalog of genre-defining music, but a legacy of unrelenting authenticity. His voice may have faded into silence, but the echo of who he was will roar forever in the hearts of those who still dream louder because of him.