Twisted Sister frontman Dee Snider issued a public apology to Kelly Osbourne regarding his recent comments about the late Ozzy Osbourne’s songwriting credits, but the gesture felt notably forced as Snider visibly copy-pasted a response suggested by a fan on X to craft his message.
A fan responded to Dee Snider on X after he said “I’ve heard nothing from Kelly” following their fallout, writing: “From what I saw on Instagram, Kelly seemed hurt because she took it as diminishing Ozzy’s legacy—not because the songwriting history itself is false. Text strips away tone. I know you respect Ozzy. If it were me, I’d simply say: ‘I’m sorry it hurt you. That was never my intent.'”
Dee Snider responded to the fan: “Thank you Steve, I’ve been looking for the right response.”
Snider then posted a tweet tagging Kelly Osbourne: “I’m sorry what I said hurt you. It was never my intent. My sympathies on the loss of your dad.”
The apology, while addressing the immediate tension, has drawn renewed attention to the original remarks that sparked the dispute between Snider and the Osbourne family.
The dispute began after Snider argued that Ozzy Osbourne relied heavily on other musicians for lyrics, including bassists such as Geezer Butler, Bob Daisley and Lemmy Kilmister. Snider wrote on X that “Ozzy always had bass players write his lyrics,” and added that Butler “wrote ALL of @BlackSabbath lyrics,” while Daisley wrote lyrics for Ozzy’s first solo albums.
The controversy comes a little over a year after Ozzy Osbourne died on July 22, 2025, at age 76. He died from a heart attack, with his death certificate listing out-of-hospital cardiac arrest and acute myocardial infarction, alongside coronary artery disease and Parkinson’s disease with autonomic dysfunction as joint causes.
Snider’s comments also landed in the middle of a long-running debate about Ozzy’s songwriting credits. The issue involved claims that musicians such as Daisley and Lemmy contributed heavily to Ozzy’s catalog, while Geezer Butler was widely credited as Black Sabbath’s main lyricist during the band’s original run.
There is also a broader history between the artists. Snider and Ozzy both came up in the heavy metal era and have long been associated with the same classic-rock orbit, which made Snider’s remarks especially sensitive to fans who saw them as a challenge to Ozzy’s legacy. Kelly Osbourne said Snider’s comments were hurtful because she viewed them as diminishing her father’s legacy rather than simply disputing old credit disputes.
Snider has since tried to soften the fallout, but the apology has only sharpened attention on the original remarks and the family tension they triggered.
