Ozzy Osbourne fans remember Birmingham star who was ‘a big part of our lives'

South Wales Guardian

23-07-2025

The heavy metal vocalist, who was diagnosed with Parkinson's disease in 2019, died at the age of 76 on Tuesday morning surrounded by his family.
Christine Turner, from the Hodge Hill area of Birmingham, wore her Aston Villa football shirt to pay tribute to Osbourne at the Black Sabbath mural in the city.
She said her father was a childhood friend of the rock star and they used to play football together in Lodge Road, where they grew up.
She told the PA news agency: 'He has been a big part of our lives, my dad was childhood best mates with him, so I've come up to pay my respects.'
When asked how she felt when she heard he had died, she said: 'Shocked. I think deep in our hearts we knew it was coming, but it was still a shock last night.
'I was supposed to have done the washing last night but it didn't get done after I found out at about quarter past seven.
'I was upset, tears were shed last night.'
Jimmy Smith, from Bristol, who was in the city to visit the Ozzy Osbourne exhibition at Birmingham Museum, stopped at the scene on Wednesday morning to pay his respects.
He told PA: 'I did like Ozzy, I saw him a few times back in the day. It was quite sad yesterday (when he died), but with the concert at Villa Park a few weeks back, I had a feeling it was coming. It felt like his final bow.
'I was up here a few weeks ago for the Iron Maiden concert so I knew the mural was here, so I thought I would come and have a look, and I'll also go to the Black Sabbath bridge before going to the museum.'
Two Black Sabbath fans from King's Norton jumped on a train to visit the mural of the band in Birmingham to pay their respects to Osbourne following his death.
Megan and Mia, who did not want to give their surnames, said they wished they had been able to go to Osbourne's last show at Villa Park on July 5.
Megan said: 'It was really sad and heart-breaking (to hear he had died), I think I was expecting it to happen soon but not that quick.'
When asked how it felt to visit the mural after Ozzy's death, Mia said: 'It's surreal but it's nice that people have put flowers out.'
Mia added that she believed the next Aston Villa football game would be 'even more packed than usual' in Osbourne's memory.
She said: 'I know there will be some form of respects paid to him at the game, definitely.'
Osbourne played a final farewell concert in front of a home crowd at Villa Park earlier in the month.
Black Sabbath were the last to appear on stage as part of a star-studded line-up for the Back To The Beginning concert that took place not far from the Crown pub where they played their first gig in 1968.
Also paying his respects was Black Sabbath's first manager, Jim Simpson, who spoke on Broad Street, where dozens of fans had gathered to pay tribute to the rock legend.
When asked how he felt when he heard the news Osbourne had died, Mr Simpson said: 'Deep sadness, but no surprise, because it's been on the cards for quite a long time.
'He even said beforehand that he expected to die on the stage at the July the fifth show at Villa Park. The world's lost an inordinately nice, balanced, human being.'
Referencing the amount of people who had turned up to pay tribute to Osbourne following his death, he said: 'The fact is, there are people here who are 80 years of age or eight years of age and all stages in between and it shows he had a remarkable way of contacting people.
'It has been 55 years and still (Black Sabbath) are more popular than ever.
'It is remarkable and they have all done a great job and they should be proud of themselves.'
Black Sabbath, comprised of vocalist Osbourne, drummer Bill Ward, guitarist Tony Iommi, and bassist Terence 'Geezer' Butler, formed in 1968 and were credited with shaping the heavy metal genre.
The group were inducted into the Rock And Roll Hall of Fame in 2006 and Osbourne was added for a second time, as a solo artist, last year.
In the noughties he featured in MTV series The Osbournes, which followed the lives of him, his wife Sharon and two of their children, Kelly and Jack.