Ozzy Osbourne is synonymous with heavy metal. Older fans know him as the Godfather of Heavy Metal and newer know him as the namesake for the ever-popular Ozzfest. Ozzy Ozbourne tickets for a truly Ozzy-only tour are rare, but with the release of Scream in 2010 metal maniacs can look forward to seeing this metal legend alone on stage.

Being born and raised in the age before metal, when psychedelic music was popular in the 1960s, Ozzy had no blue print for success as a heavy metal artist. He and the original band members of Black Sabbath took a dark blues riff, dreary lyrics, and the recognition of humanity's fascination with being scared and began one of the formative bands of heavy metal. They began playing in 1968 and found a fan base willing to pay for concert tickets and albums nearly right away.

Ozzy and Black Sabbath had a strained relationship as the group played into the 1970s. Drugs and alcohol took the life of the original guitarist and made Ozzy Osbourne increasingly unreliable as a performer. Worse yet, the band became so closely linked with drug abuse the potential for turning off the public became too great and Ozzy was fired in 1979.

After being forced out of the band he helped to popularize, Ozzy began to pursue a solo career. Some may question why this popular media figure chose to go it alone instead of finding another group (of course he did find another group, but mostly as a backing band, a supremely talented backing band). Ozzy was born John Osbourne on December 3, 1948 in Aston, England. There he was raised by his loving, hard-working parents. His life outside of the home was not so peaceful. A group of older boys in school routinely molested him, driving him farther from even the possibility of a normal existence.