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Ozzy Osbourne died at the age of 76 on Tuesday morning, July 22nd.

“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,” his family said in a statement. “He was with his family and surrounded by love. We ask everyone to respect our family privacy at this time.”

No cause of death was given, though the last several years leading up to his passing had been a rough ride for Ozzy in terms of his health. He was forced to postpone his “No More Tours 2” farewell tour, first due to a bout with pneumonia, then due to a serious fall while at home in Los Angeles, which resulted in multiple surgeries. In early 2020, he went public with Parkinson’s disease, just before the pandemic hit.

Despite his ailments, Osbourne mustered the strength to play one...

Ozzy Osbourne, the pioneering heavy metal singer who rose to prominence in the early ‘70s with Black Sabbath before establishing a successful solo career and playing himself on reality TV, died Tuesday. He was 76.

“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,” Osbourne’s family confirmed in statement. “He was with his family and surrounded by love. We ask everyone to respect our family privacy at this time.”

His death comes just 17 days after he played his final show in Birmingham, England on July 5, reuniting with Black Sabbath and joined by a star-studded roster including Metallica, Guns n’ Roses and Steven Tyler, among others.

Osbourne is known as one of the most influential artists of his generation, an instrumental force in establishing metal music. He was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame...

Jake E. Lee has led a fairly successful career as a musician, jumping to work with major talents like Ozzy Osbourne and the heavy metal band Badlands. In fact, after working with all these noteworthy artists, the 67-year-old even went on to form his own band in 2013, Red Dragon Cartel. Then there are all the solo works he delivered under his own name, like his instrumental album A Fine Pink Mist (1996) and cover album Retraced (2005).

Jake E. Lee. | Credits: @reddragoncartel/Ig.

Amidst all of this, the one period that holds significance in Lee’s career was the time he replaced guitarist Brad Gillis to work for Ozzy Osbourne. From 1982 to 1987, he began composing music and recording with other members, with one of his most notable contributions being the significant amount of music he composed for the 1983 album Bark at the Moon, which has sold around three million copies in the U.

Ozzy Osbourne’s former lead guitarist, Jake E. Lee was shot multiple times on 15 October 2024. The veteran performer had been absent from the public eye for several years before returning with his Patina tour which was sadly cancelled due to Covid.

In an older interview, the former Badlands member spoke about his experiences with the famous musician and his band. E. Lee also revealed the incident that motivated him to quit drinking for good. Amid the chaos of his injury and confirmed recovery, looking back to the past proves the artist came a long way in his path to success.

The harrowing burdens of a star performer

The fact that Jake E. Lee was signed by the legendary musician Ozzy Osbourne to replace Randy Rhoads was not hidden from him. The guitarist as well as fans of the band knew of the big shoes he had to fill, but the former was not panicked.

Bernie Tormé, a guitarist who had played with Ozzy Osbourne and former Deep Purple singer Ian Gillan’s band Gillan, died on Sunday at the age of 66. Mik Gaffney, Tormé drummer, confirmed the news on Facebook. Last month, his Twitter account posted that he was extremely ill and in intensive care with virulent double pneumonia.

“I am absolutely numb,” Gaffney wrote. “Got the news this morning that Bernie Tormé has died. It’s been a thrill playing drums for him for the past couple of years. He was loud, passionate,...

In the spring of 1982, Ozzy Osbourne’s life changed in an instant. In the years since Black Sabbath had fired him, in 1979, he’d picked himself up again, put out two successful albums that helped redefine heavy metal and garnered a following that rivaled that of his previous band. A big part of why things came together so easily for him was because he’d forged a creative partnership with a flashy young guitarist named Randy Rhoads who helped him work out his musical ideas in a way his previous bandmates hadn’t.

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