Ozzy Osbourne's cheeky nod to controversial career moment in his final farewell
Black Sabbath legend Ozzy Osbourne has proved just as batty in death as he was in life. The Prince of Darkness has created a light-hearted moment from beyond the grave because his final resting place is surrounded by bat boxes.
Heavy metal singer Ozzy caused the most controversy in his colourful career by biting off a bat's head. On Wednesday, thousands of fans in Birmingham paid their respects to Ozzy as his cortege passed through the streets of his home city.
The next day, the 76-year-old was laid to rest beside a serene lake in a private ceremony at his Buckinghamshire country estate. Alongside the lake was a giant floral tribute saying: 'Ozzy F***ing Osbourne'. It comes after wife Sharon broke down in tears at Ozzy's funeral in heartbreaking scenes.
A family friend said the bat boxes in trees by the lake, installed a few years ago in an estate upgrade, had provided moments of humour as they grieved.
The insider said: 'This was like a classic Ozzy move. The man loved humour and this sure would have tickled him pink knowing how close friends reacted to this bat situation.
'After all those decades caught up in this drama around bats and animal rights groups, here at his final resting place there are bespoke bat boxes to help encourage the animals thrive in the UK countryside. It has prompted quite a few laughs and funny reactions. It is just like Ozzy had the last laugh.'
Ozzy bit the bat during his Diary of a Madman tour in Des Moines' Veterans Memorial Auditorium in January 1982 thinking it was a toy. The infamous incident outraged animal charities, but cemented his place into rock and roll history as the craziest artist of all time.
In 2010 memoir I Am Ozzy, the star insisted that the bat was already dead, but regretted his action after needing daily rabies shots for months.
Buckinghamshire has focused on improving the 'conservation of bats and their habitats' and encourages many planning applicants to include bird or bat boxes in schemes. The region is home to many brown-long eared and pipistrelle bats.
Ozzy and wife Sharon, 72, spent more than £1million upgrading Welders House estate for their return to the UK in 2023, including a new wing to the mansion, a gym, recording facilities and lift giving the rocker, who had Parkinson's disease, access to the upstairs bedroom. The lake was doubled in size with fish added.
Sharon and Ozzy's children – Jack, 39, Kelly, 40, Aimee, 41, and Louis, 50 – were joined by music stars for Thursday's ceremony at the250-acre estate near Gerrards Cross.
Among them were his bandmates, including Zakk Wylde, Metallica frontman James Hetfield, rock star Marilyn Manson, Sir Elton John and singer Yungblud.
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The Herald Scotland
18 hours ago
- The Herald Scotland
The Scots who were the world's first Black Sabbath tribute group
ON a Sunday night in mid-November 1969, a new heavy metal band, Black Sabbath, played a gig at a venue in Dumfries. Earlier that month, the group, which had recently changed its name from Earth, had recorded their self-titled debut album at a London studio. Rugman's Youth Club in Dumfries was a small, railway-tunnel shaped venue, some 80 feet long with two-feet-high stages at either end, on which bands played. In the audience of between 80 and 100 teenagers that evening was Alex Wilson, a young man in flared trousers who was there to record another band on his Grundig reel-to-reel tape recorder via a Grundig 4 channel Magic Eye mixer. He wasn't to know it then, but the events of November 16 would change his life, and not just because he happened to make the earliest known recording at that time of a live gig by Black Sabbath – Ozzy Osbourne, Tony Iommi, Geezer Butler and Bill Ward. What would follow was one of the most curious episodes in Scottish rock music: the story of Iron Claw, a band which Alex was already in the process of forming. Encouraged by the experience of seeing Black Sabbath live and talking to them informally afterwards, Alex created a musical project by writing original songs with sledgehammer riffs and powerful interplay between lead guitar, bass and drums. Such was the motivation that night that Iron Claw learned to play all the early Sabbath songs and in the process of performing them live became the world's first Sabbath tribute band, in 1970. Iron Claw didn't make it into the big time in those pre-internet days, mostly because they were based in Dumfries and not in London, the then music capital of the UK, but also because the only financial input into the band was from Alex himself. The Iron Claw songs written and recorded at the dawn of the Seventies would not see the light of the day for nearly 40 years. A double vinyl album was released in 2009, covering the recordings made between 1970 and 1973, its 16 songs including Clawstrophobia, Sabotage, Skullcrusher, Pavement Artist and Winter. And – irony of ironies – that record, Iron Claw, has just been described as one of the 200 greatest heavy rock albums. The earliest version of the band consisted of four highly talented musicians: Jimmy Ronnie (16) on guitar, Ian McDougall (16) on drums, Mike Waller (17) on vocals and Alex Wilson (21) on bass. Alex, now 77, takes up the story. 'I was 20 when I started in 1968 assisting in the management of a local band, Amplified Heat, and used to record them regularly. After the best part of a couple of years I thought, I could do better than this – I can't sculpt, I can't paint, but I could maybe make some music. 'I went to see Led Zeppelin on their first tour, 1969. It was at Newcastle City Hall, that June. Fifteen pence to get in, and it wasn't even sold out! That was the first really big band I had seen, and of course I noticed right away that they didn't make any mistakes during a set. That showed me the standard that you've really got to achieve if you want to make a record'. Alex began putting together the eventual Iron Claw in the summer of 1969 choosing their name after a line in a King Crimson song. ('We liked the sound of it', Jimmy Ronnie told Psychedelic Baby magazine in 2011. 'It sounded heavy'). Between them, the quartet made a powerful outfit. Jimmy himself was something of a guitar prodigy. 'He had come up to me at an Amplified Heat open-air show in 1969 and asked if he could have a shot on my guitar', Alex recalls. 'I had a Gibson SG Standard which I had loaned to the Amplified Heat guitarist to use and I told Jimmy, 'aye, sure'. I heard him play, and he was impressive so I took a mental note. 'Jimmy said, 'I live in the flats just behind you'. And I thought, right enough: when I was going to work at eight in the morning I could hear this guitar being practised. Then I found Ian, who'd asked for a shot on Amplified Heat's drums at a Rugman's gig. He was very good; another mental note. Ian was only 15 at the time. Mike had previously been in Amplified Heat and was only 17 when he joined.' Iron Claw learned how to gel together, playing blues songs by the likes of Free, Taste and Johnny Winter. 'And then, one night', says Alex, 'Amplified Heat were backing Black Sabbath at Rugman's. I used to record Amplified Heat every night so that we could iron out any mistakes. Sabbath started off and I thought, My God! They were as good as Zeppelin, I thought. I was absolutely astonished, so I recorded their second half. Black Sabbath were all younger than me. Ozzy never swore that night. He was a really well-mannered guy, and so was [guitarist] Tony Iommi. They were all great lads. 'I was talking to them afterwards and they said they were writing their own stuff. They were on the blues circuit at the time, '68-69, and I thought, well, if they can write their own songs … the songs were quite basic but I loved the power of them'. Iron Claw were really taken with the Sabbath sound. 'We were the first Black Sabbath tribute band', is how Alex terms it. 'It was quite an interesting period. We got really tight and we learned all their songs. 'In those days there was no internet, of course. There was no radio or TV exposure. If you wanted to get anywhere you had to play live. That was it. We learned a good 30, 40 songs or whatever, and practiced, recording rehearsals to ensure no mistakes. Writing Iron Claw material, we recorded firstly in Edinburgh and then in London on very primitive equipment, in 1970. The last studio recordings we made were in Newcastle in 1973. 'That was it, basically. The rest of the boys were getting older and settling down, you have to remember. I was five years older than most of them and was the only one with a regular job'. The first of the line-up changes occurred when Mike Waller departed in 1972, Alex recruiting Willie Davidson and Donald McLaughlin, briefly, from Amplified Heat. Iron Claw hung together until 1974, when the band went their separate ways. Alex was the one who was left with all the Iron Claw bills to pay, and, seeking to recover some of his outlay, brought out, in 1976, Remains to be Heard, a self-produced cassette of Iron Claw songs. It went on sale locally, and sold out. 'About twenty years later, some German bootleg company got hold of a cassette copy and brought it out on CD. They actually brought it out twice – the first time under the Iron Claw name, and, the second time, under a fake name, Antrobus. That's how Rockadrome got to hear of the music, really'. Rockadrome is a specialist US record label and store that released the double Iron Claw album on vinyl and CD in 2009. The songs were remastered from Alex's original tapes. One critic, writing for the online magazine Terrorizer, noted at the time: 'This Scottish band is just ridiculously heavy and I think it's a travesty that the 16 songs they wrote around 1970/1971 never got an official release until 2009. This whole album is just breathtaking'. Read more On the Record: And what of that recent accolade? It came in a new publication from the makers of Uncut. At number 77 in The 200 Greatest Heavy Rock Albums … Ranked! is that 2009 Iron Claw album, ahead of some records by such renowned acts as AC/DC, Rush, Motorhead, Led Zeppelin and, yes, Black Sabbath. 'Inspired by Zep and Sabbath', the magazine notes, 'Iron Claw were formed in Dumfries in 1969, but didn't receive their due until this fab 2009 release of 16 tracks from the early 70s. Monolithic riffs emerge though the murk as stoner rock is born and promptly forgotten'. Alex is clearly happy with such recognition, as belated as it is, and has posted the news on Iron Claw's Facebook page. He writes: 'There will be some eye-rolling at some albums included BELOW No77!)... All opinions of course, but I still think it's a great honour to be included in such company!' To which one fan has succinctly responded: 'This is f——- great news! Congrats. Well deserved'.
BBC News
20 hours ago
- BBC News
'Bloodstock wouldn't exist without Ozzy Ozbourne'
A man attending a heavy metal festival on the Derbyshire-Staffordshire border said the event would not exist if it was not for his "hero" Ozzy Festival at Catton Hall in Walton-on-Trent runs from Thursday to Sunday and attracts about 20,000 people each year's four-day event is paying tribute to Osbourne with a 55.7ft (17m) banner by the main stage where fans can leave messages of Quantrill, who wrote his own message on the banner, said: "Without Ozzy and Black Sabbath, none of us would be here and I probably wouldn't even have long hair." On the banner, the 23-year-old from Northampton wrote "the legacy will be eternal.""He's a true pioneer and my hero," said Mr well as growing his hair just like Ozzy, Mr Quantrill said he had also got a tattoo of Black Sabbath's first album on his forearm."I hold the tattoo even closer to me now," he on Ozzy's impact on the music industry, Mr Quantrill said: "The fact that four working class kids from Birmingham managed to pioneer a new genre of music, which has inspired the way we live our lives and the sub culture we partake, is amazing."I saw them live for the End Tour in 2017 and it was one of the greatest things I've ever seen." Other fans have flocked to write their own messages on the banner in dedication to the Black Sabbath Quantrill said everyone at the festival was "mourning together"."The news was tough, because he is someone we have all grown up with. He felt like a friend I never met," he said."It's really nice to read some of the other messages, they were really moving to see."The impact he had will never die."
Daily Mail
a day ago
- Daily Mail
Sharon Osbourne reveals the 'biggest mistake' she made with husband Ozzy in a candid interview before his death
Sharon Osbourne revealed the 'biggest mistake' she made with her husband Ozzy in a candid interview filmed before his death. The Black Sabbath frontman, famously known as the Prince of Darkness, died last month at the age of 76 - just weeks after performing his final concert. Speaking on the The Magnificent Others with Billy Corgan in February, Sharon, who managed Ozzy from 1979 and helped shape his solo career, discussed the highs and lows. She told host and Smashing Pumpkins frontman Billy: 'Do you want to know the biggest mistake I ever made with Ozzy... I have several billion we could be here all night. 'But he got offered to go and read for Pirates Of The Caribbean. I've never said this to anyone.' 'And you said no?' Billy asked. Sharon confirmed: 'I said no. But wouldn't he have been perfect? Because Johnny Depp wanted Keith Richards to be a pirate, you remember?' Rolling Stones rocker Keith starred as Johnny's character Jack Sparrow's father, Captain Teague, in Dead Man's Chest and At World's End. It comes after Sharon revealed her husband's heartwarming final words about his fans after he said farewell to them with his last Black Sabbath concert. In an interview which took place just five days before his death, Sharon gushed about the concert, admitting it was a 'huge success'. She told Pollstar: 'It was the first time, I think, that anybody's gone into retirement and done it, where the show is streamed and it goes to charity. 'So it's the first time anybody has said goodnight like that, it's the perfect way, when you've had such a long career, to end it - I never wanted Ozzy to just disappear without some big event. The wife of the music legend also revealed how Ozzy was blown away by the support at the concert. She explained: 'He [Ozzy] turned around and he said to me that night, he said, 'I had no idea that so many people liked me'.' Ozzy took to the stage for his farewell concert at Villa Park stadium in his native Birmingham less than three weeks before his death - reuniting with his original Black Sabbath bandmates for the first time since 2005. The concert was to raise money for three charities: Cure Parkinson's, Birmingham Children's Hospital, and Acorns Children's Hospice. More than 42,000 fans packed into the venue for the Back To The Beginning show, during which he told the crowd in his final speech: 'You've no idea how I feel - thank you from the bottom of my heart.' A message on screen then read: 'Thank you for everything, you guys are f***ing amazing. Birmingham Forever,' before the sky lit up with fireworks. Ozzy had told of it being his last performance due to his health, having opened up about his battle with Parkinson's in 2020. The musician had undergone seven surgeries in the past five years, including a fourth spinal operation in 2023, and had been battling Parkinson's disease since 2003. Before his final show, Ozzy said he hoped to continue recording music after retiring from live performing, but he heartbreakingly died before he was able to do so. Ozzy, who had been battling Parkinson's disease since 2003, had some poignant words for Villa Park as he brought the show to an emotional close in his hometown, Birmingham Ozzy's last solo album, 2022's Patient Number 9, featured a long list of guest artists, including hid Black Sabbath bandmate Tony Iommi, Eric Clapton, Jeff Beck, Zakk Wylde, and Pearl Jam's Mike McCready, among others. Last month, huge crowds descended on Birmingham to pay tribute to the beloved Prince of Darkness at his funeral procession. The funeral cortege was led by a live brass band, Bostin' Brass, who performed versions of Black Sabbath songs such as Iron Man, as thousands of tearful devotees lined the streets and sang along in Ozzy's memory. The hearse carrying the singer's coffin - adorned with purple flowers spelling out 'Ozzy' - passed the star's childhood home in Lodge Road, Aston, shortly after midday. Flowers had been placed outside the terraced property, close to Villa Park, while the owners of the house put up a picture of Osbourne in the front bay window. Sharon led the procession with her children Jack, Aimee and Kelly and Ozzy's son Louis from his first marriage as they comforted each other amid their devastating grief. Thousands of people were pictured taking their places not only on Black Sabbath Bridge but along the city centre route along which his cortege travelled towards the Black Sabbath Bridge bench. Fans clapped and cheered chanting 'Ozzy, Ozzy, Ozzy' as the rock legend's hearse passed through the streets of Birmingham as Sharon watched on and brushed away tears. Describing Ozzy as a 'working class hero' who loved his city, the Lord Mayor of Birmingham said: 'I got to know him in the last few weeks when we gave him the freedom of the city and he was just so humble, so down to earth. He was a working class hero. 'I couldn't tell he was a rock star, he was just an ordinary guy, so caring. He had working class roots and his loved his fans, he loved his city, he always promoted Birmingham wherever he went, he was proud to have been born in Aston. 'His slogan was 'Birmingham Forever' and that makes me such a proud citizen. It was a last hurrah for him today.' Ozzy and his Black Sabbath bandmates - Terence 'Geezer' Butler, Tony Iommi and Bill Ward - were recently given the freedom of the city of Birmingham, which recognises people's exceptional service to the city. Ozzy is survived by his wife Sharon and his five children Jessica, Louis, Aimee, Kelly and Jack. In a statement shared by Ozzy's family at the time, it said he died 'surrounded by love', adding: 'It is with more sadness than mere words can convey that we have to report that our beloved Ozzy Osbourne has passed away this morning.'
