Legacy lasts a long time, and now music artists that have passed away make their legacy known further. As of late 2025, many popular music artists such as John Michael Osbourne, Sam Rivers, and Michael Eugene Archer have passed away in such a short time.
John Micheal Osbourne, famously known as “Ozzy Osbourne,” a founding member of the band “Black Sabbath,” passed away at the age of 76 on July 22, 2025. Osbourne died due to a heart attack and suffered from coronary artery disease and Parkinson’s, according to a death certificate filed at a registry in London. Osbourne was born on December 3rd, 1948 and has been dubbed titles such as “Prince of Darkness” and “Godfather of Metal,” due to his huge impact on the entire metal genre of music. Osbourne had helped produce and feature in famous songs such as “Crazy Train”, with 882,948,106 streams on Spotify, “War Pigs”, with 426,889,273 streams on Spotify, “Paranoid”, with 1,502,554,625 streams on Spotify, “Iron Man”, with 642,721,531 streams on Spotify, and many other songs. His death had a long lasting legacy of the metal genre as many metal fans had been grieving over the loss of one of the founders of metal.
You can listen to his song “Crazy Train” here:
“I had found out he died from my dad telling me, and I thought it was sad because Ozzy started the heavy metal genre and inspired a lot of other rock genres,” freshman Riley Joyce said. Joyce is an avid listener of Osbourne and had been upset due to the most iconic metal artist passing away. “His best accomplishment was starting and influencing a bunch of other artists to start their music careers under the metal genre” Joyce said.
Another artist in the metal genre had also passed away: Sam Rivers who was the lead bassist of the nu-metal band “Limp Bizkit.” “Nu-metal” is a subgenre of metal that arose within the early 2000s, combining rap and metal into one genre. River’s loss had left a huge impact on fans of the nu-metal band due to Limp Bizkit being one of the founding nu-metal bands. Limp Bizkit had become a band after the founding member Fred Durst, had done tattoo art for the lead members of the other iconic nu-metal band, “Korn”. According to metalinjection.net, “I’m so grateful, so incredibly grateful to have shared part of this journey with Sam Rivers. He really did have an impact on the world, and his music and his gift is the one that’s gonna keep on giving” Durst had expressed. Popular and well known songs from Limp Bizkit such as, “Rollin’ (Air Raid Vehicle),” with 806,353,042 streams on Spotify, “Stuck”, with 17,896,840 streams on Spotify, “Nookie”, with 261,905,683 streams on Spotify, and “Break Stuff” with 1,013,468,366 streams on Spotify could not have been made without Rivers’ astounding bass performance.
You can listen to “Rollin” here:
“I actually dressed up as Fred Durst this year for Halloween and started listening to Limp Bizkit around nine to ten months, and then I saw the post on Tik Tok that Sam had passed, and I just thought it was crazy that he passed away only at 48 years old” sophomore Marcus Juarez had said. Juarez had been caught off guard and also sorrowful as he found out about the leading bassist passing away. “Some of my favorite songs have his most noticeable bassline, there’s the songs ‘Stuck’, ‘Pollution’, and ‘Rollin’’ where the bassline is easier to hear and notice” Juarez had said.
Michael Eugene Archer, also known as the artist “D’Angelo” passed away at the age of 51 on October 14, 2025. Archer was born on February 11th, 1974 and died due to pancreatic cancer after a long battle with the disease. Archer composed music that was mainly a genre-crossing mix of neo-soul, R&B, funk, soul, and jazz. Archer has been widely known as a pioneer of the neo-soul movement in music, and his masterwork of fusing funk, soul, and R&B into his songs. Some of Archer’s most widely known songs being, “Lady” with 95,259,073 songs streamed on Spotify, “Untitled (How Does It Feel)” with 75,539,217 streams on Spotify, and “Brown Sugar” with 85,354,228 streams on Spotify.
You can listen to “Untitled (How Does It Feel)” here:
“It was really surprising but also upsetting to hear that D’Angelo died. I’ve been listening to him since I was about six years old because my dad and uncle listened to him a lot. It really sucks that he lost to cancer but i t’s also amazing that he fought the battle for so long, I’m glad though he can finally rest along with his many achievements,” An anonymous PRHS student mentioned. This student had felt sorrow, yet also acceptance over the loss of Archer. “Even though it hurts that he’s gone, he left behind so much—his music, his impact, everything he contributed. That is going to stick around forever,” Anonymous student said.
With these artist’s unfortunate passings, Bearcat listeners among listeners in general don’t stop to mourn, but to also look back on their legacy and positive actions towards music as a whole.
