John Michael Osbourne—better known as Ozzy Osbourne—succumbed to his battle with Parkinsons disease this past week at the age of 76. Much has already been written about the former frontman of Black Sabbath and how his legacy shaped not only the emergence of heavy metal but of the broader entertainment culture as well.
What’s perhaps most interesting—and maybe unexpected—is the number of conversations his death has sparked about spiritual things. Chief among them, his own spiritual beliefs.
Now, a casual observer might quickly reply, “Wait—isn’t this the guy who bit the head off a bat in 1982? The guy who terrorized conservative moms with his satanic schtick in the ‘80s? The guy whose nickname was ‘The Prince of Darkness’?” Yup, we’re talking about the same guy.
Curiously, though, Ozzy’s anti-Christian reputation may not be wholly deserved, and it cloaks a more complex story about his relationship with the religion, the church and perhaps Jesus Himself.
I just searched online for the phrase “Ozzy Osbourne Christian,” and I found a raft of articles exploring what we know about Ozzy’s spiritual experiences and convictions. Their titles actually tell us quite a lot without even clicking on the links: “Ozzy Osbourne (1948-2025): Prince of Darkness or man of faith?” (Premiere Christianity Magazine). “Ozzy Osbourne dies at 76: rock legend’s life marked by music, turmoil and a complex faith” (christiandaily.com). “Ozzy Osbourne heard the gospel weeks before his death, says evangelist” (Premiere Christian News).
You’ll find many more similar pieces with a similar search. But almost all of them get at a paradoxical question: Was this guy who was best known for seeming antagonism to Christianity actually someone who knew Jesus?
In 2014, he addressed that question pretty directly in an interview with The Guardian: “I’m a Christian. I was christened as a Christian. I used to go to Sunday school.” He grew up in a poor home with a non-practicing Catholic mother and a father who was reportedly a nominal member of the Church of England. In another interview from 1992 (posted on the YouTube channel Audacy), he said, “I believe in God. I don’t go to church, but I don’t think you have to … go to church to believe in God.”
Much more recently, in 2023, Dylan Novak (who founded the ministry Celebrity Evangelist), said he had a chance to share the gospel with the entire Osbourne family. He gave Ozzy a NLT Bible with Ozzy’s name on it, which Ozzy’s son Jack said became a prized possession that his father kept on his nightstand.
Ozzy also concluded his recent reunion show with Black Sabbath with the words, “God bless you all, and goodnight!” I find it poignantly ironic that a man known as the “Prince of Darkness” finished his last public performance with a word of blessing—and one that he reportedly has proffered at the end of every show for many years.
Was Ozzy Osbourne a Christian? I’d like to believe that maybe he was, that perhaps he’s been spared an eternity with the real Prince of Darkness. I hope his last ride on the “Crazy Train” went up, not down.
Having said that, I’ll also quickly add that neither I—nor anyone else, for that matter—knows the answer to that question. It’s far above all our paygrades.
But I do find it interesting that one of the questions people are curious about in the wake of Ozzy’s passing is the state of his soul. And perhaps this cultural inflection point is one that we, too, might ponder: Do we know God? Have we experienced His forgiveness in Christ? Do you think God could use someone like Ozzy Osbourne, as crazy as it might seem on the surface, to be an unlikely messenger for the Gospel?
When a celebrity the magnitude of Ozzy Osbourne dies, it serves as a profound and sobering reminder of the Latin saying memento mori: “Remember, we all die.”
And with that reality in front of us, the question for those of us who remain is this: How will we live in light of the truth of the Gospel today?
