Ozzy Osbourne Believed in Euthanasia but Here’s What Really Killed the Rock Legend
In the wake of Ozzy Osbourne’s death, an unexpected conversation has emerged not about what killed him, but whether he chose to go out on his own terms. When fans speculated that the 76-year-old rock legend may have intentionally ended his life, they weren’t necessarily speaking from a place of scandal.
Because for decades, Ozzy wasn’t just a man; he was the embodiment of chaos, survival, rebellion, and power. He bit the head off a bat. He outlived most of his peers. He made pain marketable. And in that way, some fans imagined he’d always be in charge, even of death.
In Sharon Osbourne's, 72, 2007 memoir Survivor: My Story—The Next Chapter, she mentioned her assisted suicide plan. "I’ve discussed it with my family and we have a plan in place," she wrote. "My kids would take me to Switzerland where euthanasia is legal, and you can die with dignity.”
Later, in a 2007 interview with The Mirror, Sharon mentioned Ozzy's involvement in the plan, too. "Ozzy and I have absolutely come to the same decision," the Osbourne matriarch explained. "We believe 100 per cent in euthanasia so have drawn up plans to go to the assisted suicide flat in Switzerland if we ever have an illness that affects our brains. If Ozzy or I ever got Alzheimer's, that's it - we'd be off."
But the reality, confirmed by the Prince of Darkness' death certificate as obtained by The New York Times, is more human: he died of cardiac arrest and Parkinson’s disease. Years of declining health, spinal damage, and public admissions of immobility told a slower, more painful truth. But the myth that Ozzy could somehow "opt out" at the end, burn out on purpose, lingered like a last riff.
There's something to unpack in that. We’re deeply uncomfortable watching our legends decay. Especially someone like Ozzy, who represented ageless rebellion and built a career laughing in the face of mortality. When he dies the way so many ordinary people die of heart failure, in a hospital, with a helicopter waiting helplessly outside, it makes him mortal.
Worse, it makes us mortal.
And maybe, in a culture that increasingly romanticizes the idea of death with agency "going out on your own terms," "leaving before the decline"—Ozzy’s natural passing felt out of sync with the narrative. But if the Prince of Darkness taught us anything, it's that living a long, messy, defiant life might be the most metal thing of all.