Bandmates and followers pay tribute to Black Sabbath singer

Followers, musicians and former bandmates have paid tribute to Ozzy Osbourne, the frontman of pioneering heavy steel band Black Sabbath, who has died aged 76.

Black Sabbath have “misplaced our brother”, says the band’s co-founder Tony Iommi, whereas bassist Terence “Geezer” Butler remembered their remaining gig and drummer Invoice Ward shared a photograph of them collectively.

The music icon’s loss of life on Tuesday, introduced by his household, got here simply weeks after his band performed their farewell gig in his residence metropolis of Birmingham.

“It’s with extra disappointment than mere phrases can convey that we have now to report that our beloved Ozzy Osbourne has handed away this morning,” his household mentioned. “He was along with his household and surrounded by love.”

Osbourne, identified for energetic and controversial reside reveals, impressed a era of musicians.

US heavy steel band Metallica mentioned “it is inconceivable to place into phrases” what Osbourne meant to them.

“Hero, icon, pioneer, inspiration, mentor, and, most of all, good friend are just a few that come to thoughts,” Metallica members Noah Abrams and Ross Halfin wrote on X.

American rock band Aerosmith known as him “our brother in rock”, saying its love “goes out to… the thousands and thousands all over the world who felt his hearth”.

Lower than three weeks in the past, the self-styled “prince of darkness” carried out in Birmingham supported by most of the musicians he had impressed, together with Metallica and Weapons ‘n’ Roses.

Billy Corgan, lead singer of The Smashing Pumpkins – one of many many bands that carried out alongside them – mentioned: “Among the largest musical artists on the planet travelled from everywhere in the world to be there actually to rejoice the legacy of this band.

“It is one of many best musical moments of my life,” added Corgan, who spoke to BBC Radio 4’s The World Tonight.

“For him to have been that near loss of life on July 5 and nonetheless stand up there and carry out like he promised… Wow! That places him in a class of his personal,” Sammy Hagar, the lead vocalist of Van Halen who additionally performed on the farewell live performance for Osbourne, wrote on Instagram.

Others shared fond recollections of Osbourne’s larger-than-life character.

Selection journal’s senior leisure editor Jem Aswad recalled the primary time he met Osbourne, he was “nervous” to satisfy the prince of darkness.

“It was simply this form of actually weird scene,” Aswad advised the BBC.

Osbourne entered the room close to midday in a bathrobe, having “simply woken up”, carrying a great deal of jewelry and equipment and “numerous gold”, Aswad mentioned, although including that Osbourne was “completely good, completely pleasant”.

In the meantime, followers gathered on the Hollywood Stroll of Fame in Los Angeles, the place they laid flowers on the star devoted to Osbourne.

“Osbourne was greater than a rock legend – he was a cultural icon who reshaped music and defied expectations,” mentioned Ana Martinez, the venue’s producer.

Black Sabbath have been pioneers within the heavy steel style of music, writing basic tracks like Paranoid, Battle Pigs and Iron Man.

After leaving the band in 1979 over rising tensions with its different members, Osbourne had a prolonged solo music profession releasing greater than a dozen albums. His debut single launched the following yr, Loopy Prepare, is arguably one in every of his most well-known songs.

Osbourne is survived by his spouse Sharon and 6 youngsters, three from every of his two marriages.