FORMER Twisted Sister frontman Dee Snider has apologised to Kelly Osbourne after an ugly social media dispute sparked by him pointing out her father Ozzy did not write his own music.
Snider, 71, made the original comments on X in a conversation with fans, saying he knew “too much about the truth behind the scenes” about the way the Osbournes have operated in terms of giving Ozzy’s collaborators proper credit.
Snider further claimed that Osbourne “always had bass players write his lyrics,” elaborating that “Geezer Butler wrote ALL of Black Sabbath lyrics. [Bob] Daisley wrote lyrics for the first two solo albums (I’m pretty sure he was paid to write on other records but not credited) and Lemmy wrote lyrics.”
He also remarked of Osbourne’s widow and longtime manager:c“Let’s just say that Sharon doesn’t like to share,” after a fan noted Lemmy’s co-writing credits on several tracks from the 1991 solo album No More Tears.
Kelly Osbourne responded on Instagram, stating: “My father’s legacy as a musician, songwriter, singer and bandleader speaks for itself. His friends, those who worked with him, those who loved him and millions of fans around the world that still continue to buy his records know exactly what he meant, what he contributed and what he leaves behind. His legacy will live on eternally.”
In a more pointed follow-up she wrote: “Your last hit … not to age myself was the year I was born over 40 years ago.”
She continued: “There’s something spectacularly classless about Dee Snider trying to diminish my father Ozzy Osbourne and his extraordinary abilities and achievements when he’s no longer here to challenge his allegations, particularly when Snider cannot claim to know the private reality of my father’s life simply by looking in from the outside or from hearsay from a delusional man with a vendetta against my father, when to the best of my knowledge they were maybe in the same room once if even at all.”
Osbourne added that any career comparison was “devastating enough on its own,” noting Snider’s brief mainstream success decades earlier against her father’s nearly six-decade span that helped define heavy metal and built a major solo catalogue.
“Trying to make my father smaller won’t make Dee Snider bigger,” she said. “It only reminds everyone of the enormous difference between their legacies and further proves just how irrelevant Snider is to the music industry and society as a whole. However, I would like to thank Dee Snider for allowing the world to see how truly desperate he really is!”
Snider later sought to clarify his position, writing: “And again. To be clear, I HAVE NOTHING BUT LOVE FOR OZZY. He was always lovely to me.@BlackSabbath changed my life! As a songwriter I can be a little touchy about credit and royalties.”
On August 18 he replied to a fan who suggested a simple apology might address the perceived slight to Ozzy’s legacy, saying: “Thank you Steve, I’ve been looking for the right response.”
He then tagged Kelly Osbourne directly: “I’m sorry what I said hurt you. It was never my intent. My sympathies on the loss of your dad.”
Kelly Osbourne has not yet publicly acknowledged the apology. Ozzy Osbourne died on July 22, 2025, aged 76.
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