Ozzy Osbourne, the legendary Black Sabbath frontman who died earlier this month at age 76, spent his life defying expectations: musically, personally, and even politically.
Long after the hype of his early years, and well into his final act, Ozzy delivered a quieter kind of statement that still echoes: “I’m an American.”
Back in 2022, tabloids jumped on the news that Ozzy and his wife, Sharon, were planning to leave the United States to film another reality show in the U.K, per Billboard. The headlines connected the family’s move to everything from rising crime to political chaos. Ozzy himself would cite the rise in shootings that year as his motivation to leave the country. Other Hollywood elites have echoed this sentiment, such as Rosie O’Donnell and Ellen DeGeneres.
Unlike other celebrities, however, Ozzy seemed reluctant to part ways with the USA, despite being born in Birmingham, England. For much of his life, and in spirit, Ozzy was a self-proclaimed proud American.
Ozzy had lived in Los Angeles for decades by 2022, building a family and becoming a fixture in American pop culture in a way few British artists ever had since The Beatles.
“To be honest with you, if I had my way, I’d stay in America. I’m American now,” The rockstar said bluntly in a 2022 interview with Consequence of Sound.
“To be honest with you, I don’t want to go back [to England]. F*** that,” Ozzy added.
The Osbournes did eventually move back to the U.K.
Ozzy’s words reflected the complicated relationship many immigrants and expats have with the United States — a country they choose because of what it still promises: reinvention, freedom, and the room to be exactly who you are — ideals that Ozzy, an enigmatic outlier, leaned into, living over two decades in the United States.
Ozzy wasn’t just pretending to be American: he felt American and said so proudly.