Ozzy Osbourne, who died Tuesday, was not Jewish but reportedly developed a strong connection to Judaism and support for Israel through his wife, twice giving concerts in the country and taking a stance against antisemitism and anti-Israel bias.

Raised in the Church of England, the legendary rocker was married to Sharon Osbourne, daughter of Jewish music promoter and manager Don Arden.

Sharon told the UK’s Jewish News outlet in December 2023 how her husband was baffled by a spike in global antisemitism following the start of the Gaza war triggered by the Hamas-led attack on Israel.

“Ozzy is so confused by it all and just keeps asking me to explain why there is so much hatred of Jews,” she said at the time in an interview. “What do I say?”

Earlier this year, he was among over 200 entertainment and business figures who signed a letter calling for a probe of “systematic bias against Israel” at the BBC.

A year earlier, he refused to let rapper Ye use a sample of his music for one of his songs, due to the latter’s antisemitism. In a post to social media, Osbourne said he declined Ye’s request “because he is an antisemite,” adding, “I want no association with this man.”

Osbourne twice gave sold-out concerts in Israel. On the first occasion, on September 29, 2010, he headlined the Ozzfest in Tel Aviv’s Yarkon Park. He and his wife Sharon spent a day in the Old City of Jerusalem and visited the Western Wall and the Yad Vashem Holocaust Memorial Museum.

He was back eight years later as part of his “No More Tours 2” farewell series of concerts with a live performance in Rishon Lezion on July 8, 2018.

As for his band’s name, Black Sabbath — that came from the world of movies, rather than from Judaism.

In the late 1960s, Osbourne had formed a band that they wanted to call Earth but discovered there was already another group using the title. They instead chose Black Sabbath, the American title for the 1963 Italian horror movie “I Tre Volti Della Paura” (The Three Faces of Fear).

In a January 2024 interview with the Jewish Chronicle, Sharon said, “We were brought up in basically a Jewish household,” describing her father’s family as observant Jews.

“Judaism is the only religion I have, and the only one with which I feel comfortable,” she said at the time.

The couple had three children: Jack, Kelly, and Aimee.