-Ozzy Osbourne-

John Michael Osbourne was born on December 3, 1948 in Birmingham, England. Throughout an extraordinary career, which has so far spanned three decades, Osbourne has made major contributions to the worlds of music and popular culture. As co-founder, lead singer, and songwriter for Black Sabbath (1970-79) he was, in effect, a chief architect of the genre now known as "heavy metal", creating the powerful new sound and provocative performance style that would forever expand the definition of rock music. Black Sabbath has sold more than 25 million records in the U.S. alone.

In 1980, Osbourne debuted as a solo artist to widespread popular claim. Over the next two decades, his career continued to gain momentum with a series of highly successful albums, and he has brought his notorious live show to sold-out arenas in virtually every corner of the world. As a solo artist, Osbourne has sold more than 35 million records worldwide, bringing his cumulative sales to more than 60 million albums.

Osbourne is currently visible on the smash MTV series "The Osbournes", a melding of reality show, soap opera, and sitcom that follows the lives of Ozzy and his family. It recently became the highest rated original program in MTV's 24-year history. The show is so popular in part because Ozzy's loving wife Sharon and children Aimee, Kelly, and Jack (Ozzy has two grown children, Louis and Jessica, from a previous marriage) provide Ozzy a nuclear family life that one would not normally associate with a star sometimes referred to as the "Madman of Rock".

As the founder and star attraction of the annual "Ozzfest" tour, he continues to win legions of new fans while at the same time building the hard rock audience by introducing standing-room-only crowds to emerging artists in the genre. Ozzfest was launched in 1996, and since its inception has sold over four million tickets for a total of more than $80 million dollars in revenue. Ozzfest is scheduled for a July 6 U.S. kick-off this summer and will visit the United Kingdom, Holland, Germany, Spain, Italy, and Russia, among other countries Osbourne's latest release, Down to Earth, is rapidly approaching Platinum in the U.S, while his other 23 albums (including those with Black Sabbath) have all achieved at least Gold certification, with all but a handful passing the 1,000,000 mark in sales. Blockbusters such as Black Sabbath's seminal Paranoid and Ozzy's solo smashes Blizzard of Ozz and No More Tears are 4x Platinum and still selling thousands of copies each week. Moreover, the influence of Ozzy Osbourne can be felt just as strong, if not stronger, in 2002 as it was in the Seventies. As the principal member of the founding heavy metal band, Black Sabbath, and throughout his enormously successful solo career (and now, television popularity) Ozzy has transcended all boundaries and categories and is now among the elite few who can lay claim to being eternally "cool", viable, and vital in a pop world under constant upheaval and change. Put simply, Ozzy rocks!