Rock 'n' roll legend and Black Sabbath frontman Ozzy Osbourne died earlier this week at age 76.
He was an enigmatic figure known for many things – being a forefather of heavy metal, biting the head off a bat onstage and dramatically screaming his wife's name, Sharon, on the small screen.
But he also had an unmistakable look: tiny, round sunglasses; dark, shoulder-length hair; a cane, a coat and a cross pendant necklace.
And much like with music and television, he dug a stake into the world of fashion over many years.
Osbourne's first half of fashion
In 1968, Osbourne, along with Tony Iommi, Geezer Butler and Bill Ward formed a blues band, Earth Blues Company. Rock in the 1970s still had strong elements of the genre's beginnings in funk, blues and soul, apparent in the works of musicians such as Jimi Hendrix, The Stooges and Cream, said Martin Popoff, a heavy metal historian.
Butler suggested the band start making music that sounded like horror flicks, and Black Sabbath was born in 1970, according to the band's website. But bands' aesthetics were still characterized by the hippie and "flower power" look of that decade -- handlebar mustaches, bell bottoms, deep V-cut shirts and fringe.
"In their fashion sense, on their album covers, they were just kind of like a general-looking sort of band, kind of like everybody was," Popoff said.
But even when following trends, Osbourne managed to stand out. For example, his platform boots were sparkly (which he would later call one of his fashion faux pas). He was often shirtless on stage. Bryan Rolli, a music journalist, points to the cover of Black Sabbath's 1975 album Sabotage, in which Osbourne's bandmates have on jackets and trousers. Then, all the way to the right is Osbourne.
"Ozzy has this big, ornate robe on, with this crazy pattern that looks like an antique rug or something."
Popoff said, "What Ozzy establishes in the '70s is this idea that Ozzy is so cool and such a central point of this big band, Black Sabbath...that whatever he chooses as a fashion statement onstage, essentially becomes cool."
As the themes in his music got darker, so did his clothes. There was also a bigger emphasis on fashion among musicians, with the launch of MTV in 1981, Popoff said. Osbourne began experimenting with his hair in the early part of the decade, including perming it and shaving it off.
Around the release of his fourth solo album, The Ultimate Sin in 1986, Osbourne's style began brightening up a bit, drawing ire from audiences. He went blonde, began toying with makeup and wore lots of sequins.
"He goes full on Liberace dressing like a Christmas tree, hair metal for a little while," Popoff said. "And this is the stage where people accuse him of looking like [comedian] Phyllis Diller or somebody's grandmother or aunt."
By the late '80s and '90s, Osbourne joined his rock band peers in adopting parts of the grunge look.
"There's a lot more black being introduced into what they're wearing, but they're still trying to look kind of classy and expensive-looking," Popoff said.
The Ozzy Osbourne "uniform"
In the 1990s and 2000s, the quintessential Ozzy Osbourne wardrobe was born.
He goes goth. He adopts small, round glasses akin to John Lennon. He carries a cane. He is often in all black, topped with an overcoat. He wears chunky, silver jewelry, including cross pendants that his father, a toolmaker, handcrafted for him.
He stuck with that look, more or less, until his death. Popoff and Rolli say they aren't completely sure why his style settled there, but they have their theories.
"That's really when Ozzy developed that sound and image that were no longer tied to a specific moment," Rolli said. "It was like, this is the Ozzy that people will think of all the time."
In 2002, The Osbournes premiered on MTV, showcasing the ups and downs of Osbourne, his wife, Sharon, and two of their children, Kelly and Jack. It won an Emmy for best reality program in its first year and, at its peak, drew in almost 7 million viewers, according to Billboard.
"Maybe [his staple look] had something to do with The Osbournes show, where you're thinking branding in a big way," Popoff said.
Mainstream culture largely perceived Osbourne as a devil worshipper, according to Popoff. ("He was almost more scared of Satan than anything," he said.) But the reality series showed a softer, more relatable side of Osbourne – peeled down to T-shirts, jerseys and sweatpants.
"Under that, you can still see he's covered in tattoos," Rolli said. "He's still got the crazy hair, with any number of extensions or dreads or dyed bits in it. And it's like yeah, you can dress that down as much as you want, but it's still Ozzy Osbourne below there."
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