On July 22, 2025, heavy metal singer Ozzy Osbourne, known for his work with Black Sabbath and as a solo artist, died at age 76. Following the announcement of his death, a rumor circulated on social media claiming he had broken a boycott to perform in Israel in 2024.
(Kahlisse/X)
For example, one post (archived) on X read: "BREAKING: Hardcore Zionist Ozzy Osbourne broke the boycott to perform in Israel in 2024 and urged other artists to do the same, whilst 1000s of children were being massacred. Anyway, he died today."
The post had more than 612,000 views and over 11,000 likes, as of this writing. Similar claims appeared elsewhere on X.
However, we found this claim to be false.
We found no evidence Osbourne performed in Israel — or anywhere else — in 2024, though he was present at the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame induction ceremony that year. A performance by Osbourne probably would have drawn significant media coverage, yet no such reports were found in searches of Google, Bing (archived) and DuckDuckGo (archived). There also was no evidence of a 2024 performance in the tour history on Osbourne's official website or on the crowdsourced concert-tracking website Setlist.fm.
Osbourne performed publicly in Israel twice: on Sept. 28, 2010, at Ozzfest in Tel Aviv's HaYarkon Park and on July 8, 2018, during his "No More Tours 2" farewell series in Rishon Lezion.
In February 2023, Osbourne announced (archived) his retirement from touring due to medical issues. In January 2024, his wife — and manager — Sharon Osbourne told (archived) Rolling Stone UK that while he wouldn't tour again, they were planning two final farewell shows in Birmingham, England.
Ozzy Osbourne's final concert appearance was at the "Back to the Beginning" farewell concert in Birmingham on July 5, 2025, where he performed seated due to his health.
Osbourne did make public statements related to Israel and antisemitism. In Feburary 2024, he refused to allow rapper Ye (formerly Kanye West) to sample Black Sabbath's "Iron Man," posting on on X (archived) that Ye "IS AN ANTISEMITE AND HAS CAUSED UNTOLD HEARTACHE TO MANY."
In March 2025, he and Sharon Osbourne signed an open letter (archived) with more than 200 entertainment and business leaders calling for an independent inquiry into the BBC's handling of its Gaza documentary "How to Survive a Warzone." The letter alleged the BBC had "a systemic problem of bias against Israel."
Snopes reached out to Osbourne's publicist for comment and will update this article if we receive a response.