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The Hindu
3 hours ago
- Entertainment
- The Hindu
Ozzy Osbourne laid to rest: Birmingham gives an emotional farewell to Black Sabbath legend as tearful family lead tributes
Ozzy Osbourne returned to the 'home of metal' for the last time on Wednesday as an emotional Birmingham honoured one of its most cherished sons. Thousands of Black Sabbath fans paid their respects to the band's frontman as his hearse made its way through the city center followed by his tearful wife and children. The hearse carrying Osbourne, who died last Tuesday at the age of 76, went down Broad Street, one of the city's major thoroughfares, to the Black Sabbath bench, which was unveiled on the Broad Street canal bridge in 2019. 'Ozzy, Ozzy, Ozzy, oi, oi, oi,' fans screamed. Six vehicles carrying the Osbourne family followed the hearse, accompanied by police motorcycle riders and a police car. The family emerged briefly to inspect the array of tributes, with his wife of 43 years, Sharon, visibly moved and wiping away tears. And long after the hearse had moved on for the private funeral, the city, which has embraced its reputation as the citadel of heavy metal, was pounding to the beat of Black Sabbath. It was in Birmingham, where he grew up, that the world-conquering heavy metal band was formed in 1968. Osbourne embraced the city in central England as much as it embraced him, as was evident on the streets. Long-time fan Antony Hunt said it has been an 'emotional' day and that he wanted to be in the city to pay his respects. 'What's amazing is there's so many, such a wide variety of age groups, from little, little children, teenagers to people in their 60s, 70s, so it's great to see that,' he said. Katie Brazier, head of events at Birmingham City Council, said Osbourne meant 'everything' to the city. 'He never forgot where he came from,' she said. 'You could still hear that Brummie accent wherever he was, you know, I think some people have hidden away from the fact that they are from Birmingham and they've got that accent but he kept it all the way through.' Osbourne and his Black Sabbath bandmates — Terence Butler, Tony Iommi and Bill Ward — were recently awarded the Freedom of the City in recognition of their services to Birmingham. Black Sabbath's story began in Birmingham in 1968 when the four original members were looking to escape a life of factory work. Without doubt, the sound and fury of heavy metal had its roots in the city's manufacturing heritage. Osbourne never forgot his working-class roots. The band has been widely credited with defining and popularizing the sound of heavy metal — aggressive, but full of melodies. Osbourne was Black Sabbath's frontman during its peak period in the 1970s. His antics, on and off stage, were legendary, and often fueled by drink and drugs. He was widely known as the 'Prince of Darkness.' The band's eponymous debut album in 1970 made the U.K. top 10 and paved the way for a string of hit albums, including 1971's 'Master of Reality' and 'Vol. 4' a year later. It went on to become one of the most influential and successful metal bands of all time, selling more than 75 million albums worldwide. At the final show on July 5, 42,000 fans watched the band perform for the first time in 20 years at Villa Park, home of the city's biggest soccer club, Aston Villa, with Osbourne seated on a black throne. Osbourne had been in poor health in recent years, especially after being diagnosed with Parkinson's disease in 2019. Osbourne, who also had a successful solo career, found a new legion of fans in the early 2000s reality show The Osbournes, in which he starred alongside Sharon and two youngest children, Kelly and Jack.
1News
6 hours ago
- Entertainment
- 1News
Birmingham bids farewell to Ozzy Osbourne, tearful family lead tributes
Ozzy Osbourne returned to the 'home of metal' for the last time on Thursday as an emotional Birmingham honoured one of its most cherished sons. Thousands of Black Sabbath fans paid their respects to the band's frontman as his hearse made its way through the city centre, followed by his tearful wife and children. The hearse carrying Osbourne, who died last week at the age of 76, went down Broad Street, one of the city's major thoroughfare, to the Black Sabbath bench, which was unveiled on the Broad Street canal bridge in 2019. 'Ozzy, Ozzy, Ozzy, oi, oi, oi,' fans screamed. Six vehicles carrying the Osbourne family followed the hearse, accompanied by police motorcycle riders and a police car. ADVERTISEMENT The family emerged briefly to inspect the array of tributes, with his wife of 43 years, Sharon, visibly moved and wiping away tears. And long after the hearse had moved on for the private funeral, the city, which has embraced its reputation as the citadel of heavy metal, was pounding to the beat of Black Sabbath. It was in Birmingham, where he grew up, that the world-conquering heavy metal band was formed in 1968. The funeral cortege of Black Sabbath frontman Ozzy Osbourne travels along Broad Street during his funeral procession, in Birmingham, England (Source: Associated Press) Osbourne embraced the city in central England as much as it embraced him, as was evident on the streets. Long-time fan Antony Hunt said it has been an 'emotional' day and that he wanted to be in the city to pay his respects. 'What's amazing is there's so many, such a wide variety of age groups, from little, little children, teenagers to people in their 60s, 70s, so it's great to see that,' he said. ADVERTISEMENT Katie Brazier, head of events at Birmingham City Council, said Osbourne meant 'everything' to the city. Fans queue to view and leave tributes to musician Ozzy Osbourne, as thousands of fans gathered to watch a funeral procession for Black Sabbath frontman Ozzy Osbourne following his death aged 76, in Birmingham, England (Source: Associated Press) 'He never forgot where he came from,' she said. 'You could still hear that Brummie accent wherever he was, you know, I think some people have hidden away from the fact that they are from Birmingham and they've got that accent but he kept it all the way through.' Osbourne and his Black Sabbath bandmates — Terence Butler, Tony Iommi and Bill Ward — were recently awarded the Freedom of the City in recognition of their services to Birmingham. Black Sabbath's story began in Birmingham in 1968 when the four original members were looking to escape a life of factory work. Without doubt, the sound and fury of heavy metal had its roots in the city's manufacturing heritage. Osbourne never forgot his working-class roots. The band has been widely credited with defining and popularising the sound of heavy metal — aggressive, but full of melodies. Floral tributes left at the Black Sabbath Bridge bench on Broad Street in memory of Black Sabbath frontman Ozzy Osbourne ahead of the funeral procession, in Birmingham (Source: Associated Press) ADVERTISEMENT Osbourne was Black Sabbath's frontman during its peak period in the 1970s. His antics, on and off stage, were legendary, and often fueled by drink and drugs. He was widely known as the 'Prince of Darkness'. The band's eponymous debut album in 1970 made the UK top 10 and paved the way for a string of hit albums, including 1971's Master of Reality and Vol. 4 a year later. It went on to become one of the most influential and successful metal bands of all time, selling more than 75 million albums worldwide. At the final show on July 5, 42,000 fans watched the band perform for the first time in 20 years at Villa Park, home of the city's biggest football club, Aston Villa, with Osbourne seated on a black throne. Osbourne had been in poor health in recent years, especially after being diagnosed with Parkinson's disease in 2019. Osbourne, who also had a successful solo career, found a new legion of fans in the early 2000s reality show The Osbournes in which he starred alongside Sharon and two youngest children, Kelly and Jack.
West Australian
9 hours ago
- Entertainment
- West Australian
THE WASHINGTON POST: Emotional scenes in Birmingham as fans and family honour metal icon Ozzy Osbourne
The headbangers threw flowers atop the black hearse, as a brass band played a cover of Iron Man. Thousands of mourners came out to watch the funeral procession. They chanted 'Ozzy!' and raised their hands in 'devil's horns' sign as his cortege rolled down Broad Street in Birmingham's city centre. The world last week lost Ozzy Osbourne, the front man of Black Sabbath, heavy metal founder and bat-munching TV dad. But Birmingham lost a native son, a 'Brummie lad' and 'working class hero' from the Aston neighbourhood, where parents toiled in the local factories as their kids learned to bang on drums and guitars. Amid the tribute, deeply moving moments unfolded as Ozzy's wife Sharon Osbourne and their children, Kelly and Jack, stepped forward to place roses atop the growing mound of flowers at the 'Black Sabbath Bench'. He was born John Michael Osbourne and died on July 22, at 76, of a variant of Parkinson's disease, likely not helped much by a once-wild lifestyle of drugs and alcohol. He performed - sitting on a black throne - in a farewell concert at Birmingham's Villa Park soccer stadium earlier this month. Because of the Emmy-winning MTV reality show, 'The Osbournes,' many Americans might remember him best as an economic migrant to Beverly Hills. But 90210 was not his forever home. He was buried Wednesday in England. Tracey Beebee, 60, a lifelong fan from an old coal mining village north of Birmingham, wept openly. 'At a time in my life when I didn't fit - when a lot of us didn't fit in - we had Ozzy,' Beebee said. 'All the odd people didn't feel so odd because we had Black Sabbath.' Black Sabbath is widely credited as a foundational heavy metal band, noted for its dark, heavy, loud blues rock-influenced sound, with lyrics about doom and destruction. 'No band is more influential on heavy music than Black Sabbath, - a truism we might even extend to the idea of heavy metal thinking,' wrote the Washington Post pop music critic Chris Richards in a recent appreciation, 'that is, a heightened state of youthful ennui and fomenting skepticism routinely dismissed throughout the pop culture of the '80s and '90s as loser juvenilia.' In Birmingham, England's second city, the metalheads waited quietly for the hearse to appear, with many mourners dressed in black jeans and leather vests, sporting old and new concert T-shirts, celebrating not only Black Sabbath but also their spawn, bands named Cannibal Corpse, Hell Storm and Slayer. Though some in the crowd discretely sucked down cans of beer, it was a kid-friendly celebration for the Prince of Darkness, who liked to describe himself as 'a family man.' In interviews here, ageing thrashers pointed at Gen Z fans and nodded appreciatively. 'The young will keep the tradition alive,' said John Cooper, 69, a lifelong local Sabbath fan and retiree who spent his working life in a factory that made nuts and bolts. His friend, Baz Drew, 53, showed off a tattoo on his left arm. It featured a fading visage of Ozzy in his younger years, but underneath he had just added the dates marking the rocker's birth and death, '1948 to 2025.' 'He was from this place, he was this place,' Drew explained, which, in honesty, 'he might have described as a slum.' 'He remained a Brummie lad,' he said. 'He was humble. But he was huge.' Drew's friend, Chris Carpenter, 51, who works at a factory making Land Rovers, showed off his four fingers, which were also tattooed, to read 'O-Z-Z-Y.' 'He was bigger than the queen, really,' Carpenter said. The mourners agreed it was a travesty that Osbourne wasn't knighted by King Charles III, who was a fan of sorts. The British press revealed that the two exchanged correspondence over the years. Osbourne performed at Queen Elizabeth II's Golden Jubilee concert at Buckingham Palace in 2002, playing the Black Sabbath hit 'Paranoid.' In a less regal, if no less memorable, moment, during a solo performance in Des Moines on Jan. 20, 1982, Osbourne bit the head off of a bat. He later joked that the stunt would appear in his obituary. At one point Wednesday, the crowd grew silent as Ozzy's wife, Sharon Osbourne, and two of their children, Kelly and Jack, stepped out of a black car to place roses beside the mountain of flowers left on top of the 'Black Sabbath Bench' next to the 'Black Sabbath Bridge,' just down the road from the Birmingham Museum and Art Gallery, which is featuring the exhibit 'Ozzy Osbourne: Working Class Hero.' Osbourne and his band mates were from the Aston neighborhood. His dad was a toolmaker; his mum worked at an auto parts factory. The bassist for Black Sabbath, Geezer Butler, was from down the road. The Butler family's home had been bombed by the Luftwaffe in World War II. The band's guitarist, Tony Iommi, lost the tips of the middle and ring fingers of his right hand at his job at a sheet metal plant. Osbourne was scheduled to be buried at a private ceremony. The Lord Mayor of Birmingham, Zafar Iqbal, said Osbourne put Birmingham 'on the map.' 'I think it was a fitting tribute to a legend who was a Brummie through and through,' Iqbal said. 'Like his final gig, he came back home and we were proud to have him.' David Winser, 20, was carrying a bouquet of red roses, with a handwritten note thanking Osbourne for all he meant to him, adding, 'Heroes get remembered and legends never die.' Winser plays guitar and has dreams, too, and a band. What's it called? 'Doesn't have a name yet,' he said. Along the curb, Mel Higgins, 21, a student, said her favorite Osbourne song was probably 'No More Tears' from 1991, which the singer once called 'a gift from God.' Asked how long she's been a fan, Higgins said, 'Since I was a baby.' 'My dad used to play Black Sabbath records all the time,' she said, adding that she was happy to celebrate the passing star. 'Because not really anybody famous is from Birmingham,' she said. © 2025 , The Washington Post
Perth Now
9 hours ago
- Entertainment
- Perth Now
Ozzy Osbourne's family breaks down as metal icon farewelled
The headbangers threw flowers atop the black hearse, as a brass band played a cover of Iron Man. Thousands of mourners came out to watch the funeral procession. They chanted 'Ozzy!' and raised their hands in 'devil's horns' sign as his cortege rolled down Broad Street in Birmingham's city centre. The world last week lost Ozzy Osbourne, the front man of Black Sabbath, heavy metal founder and bat-munching TV dad. But Birmingham lost a native son, a 'Brummie lad' and 'working class hero' from the Aston neighbourhood, where parents toiled in the local factories as their kids learned to bang on drums and guitars. If you'd like to view this content, please adjust your . To find out more about how we use cookies, please see our Cookie Guide. Amid the tribute, deeply moving moments unfolded as Ozzy's wife Sharon Osbourne and their children, Kelly and Jack, stepped forward to place roses atop the growing mound of flowers at the 'Black Sabbath Bench'. The family of Ozzy Osbourne: Jack, Sharon and Kelly Osbourne. Credit: Joe Giddens / PA If you'd like to view this content, please adjust your . To find out more about how we use cookies, please see our Cookie Guide. He was born John Michael Osbourne and died on July 22, at 76, of a variant of Parkinson's disease, likely not helped much by a once-wild lifestyle of drugs and alcohol. He performed - sitting on a black throne - in a farewell concert at Birmingham's Villa Park soccer stadium earlier this month. Because of the Emmy-winning MTV reality show, 'The Osbournes,' many Americans might remember him best as an economic migrant to Beverly Hills. But 90210 was not his forever home. He was buried Wednesday in England. Tracey Beebee, 60, a lifelong fan from an old coal mining village north of Birmingham, wept openly. 'At a time in my life when I didn't fit - when a lot of us didn't fit in - we had Ozzy,' Beebee said. 'All the odd people didn't feel so odd because we had Black Sabbath.' Black Sabbath is widely credited as a foundational heavy metal band, noted for its dark, heavy, loud blues rock-influenced sound, with lyrics about doom and destruction. 'No band is more influential on heavy music than Black Sabbath, - a truism we might even extend to the idea of heavy metal thinking,' wrote the Washington Post pop music critic Chris Richards in a recent appreciation, 'that is, a heightened state of youthful ennui and fomenting skepticism routinely dismissed throughout the pop culture of the '80s and '90s as loser juvenilia.' In Birmingham, England's second city, the metalheads waited quietly for the hearse to appear, with many mourners dressed in black jeans and leather vests, sporting old and new concert T-shirts, celebrating not only Black Sabbath but also their spawn, bands named Cannibal Corpse, Hell Storm and Slayer. Though some in the crowd discretely sucked down cans of beer, it was a kid-friendly celebration for the Prince of Darkness, who liked to describe himself as 'a family man.' If you'd like to view this content, please adjust your . To find out more about how we use cookies, please see our Cookie Guide. Sharon Osbourne lays flowers at the Black Sabbath Bridge bench on Broad Street in Birmingham. Credit: Jacob King / PA Sharon Osbourne and Kelly Osbourne lay flowers and view the messages. Credit: Jacob King / PA In interviews here, ageing thrashers pointed at Gen Z fans and nodded appreciatively. 'The young will keep the tradition alive,' said John Cooper, 69, a lifelong local Sabbath fan and retiree who spent his working life in a factory that made nuts and bolts. His friend, Baz Drew, 53, showed off a tattoo on his left arm. It featured a fading visage of Ozzy in his younger years, but underneath he had just added the dates marking the rocker's birth and death, '1948 to 2025.' 'He was from this place, he was this place,' Drew explained, which, in honesty, 'he might have described as a slum.' 'He remained a Brummie lad,' he said. 'He was humble. But he was huge.' Drew's friend, Chris Carpenter, 51, who works at a factory making Land Rovers, showed off his four fingers, which were also tattooed, to read 'O-Z-Z-Y.' 'He was bigger than the queen, really,' Carpenter said. The mourners agreed it was a travesty that Osbourne wasn't knighted by King Charles III, who was a fan of sorts. The British press revealed that the two exchanged correspondence over the years. Osbourne performed at Queen Elizabeth II's Golden Jubilee concert at Buckingham Palace in 2002, playing the Black Sabbath hit 'Paranoid.' In a less regal, if no less memorable, moment, during a solo performance in Des Moines on Jan. 20, 1982, Osbourne bit the head off of a bat. He later joked that the stunt would appear in his obituary. At one point Wednesday, the crowd grew silent as Ozzy's wife, Sharon Osbourne, and two of their children, Kelly and Jack, stepped out of a black car to place roses beside the mountain of flowers left on top of the 'Black Sabbath Bench' next to the 'Black Sabbath Bridge,' just down the road from the Birmingham Museum and Art Gallery, which is featuring the exhibit 'Ozzy Osbourne: Working Class Hero.' If you'd like to view this content, please adjust your . To find out more about how we use cookies, please see our Cookie Guide. Osbourne and his band mates were from the Aston neighborhood. His dad was a toolmaker; his mum worked at an auto parts factory. The bassist for Black Sabbath, Geezer Butler, was from down the road. The Butler family's home had been bombed by the Luftwaffe in World War II. The band's guitarist, Tony Iommi, lost the tips of the middle and ring fingers of his right hand at his job at a sheet metal plant. Osbourne was scheduled to be buried at a private ceremony. The Lord Mayor of Birmingham, Zafar Iqbal, said Osbourne put Birmingham 'on the map.' 'I think it was a fitting tribute to a legend who was a Brummie through and through,' Iqbal said. 'Like his final gig, he came back home and we were proud to have him.' David Winser, 20, was carrying a bouquet of red roses, with a handwritten note thanking Osbourne for all he meant to him, adding, 'Heroes get remembered and legends never die.' Winser plays guitar and has dreams, too, and a band. What's it called? 'Doesn't have a name yet,' he said. Along the curb, Mel Higgins, 21, a student, said her favorite Osbourne song was probably 'No More Tears' from 1991, which the singer once called 'a gift from God.' Asked how long she's been a fan, Higgins said, 'Since I was a baby.' 'My dad used to play Black Sabbath records all the time,' she said, adding that she was happy to celebrate the passing star. 'Because not really anybody famous is from Birmingham,' she said. © 2025 , The Washington Post
The Irish Sun
12 hours ago
- Entertainment
- The Irish Sun
Despite his millions & mansions, Ozzy Osbourne NEVER forgot his humble beginnings
YOU could take the man out of Birmingham, but you could never take Birmingham out of the man. Despite his millions — and his mansions in Los Angeles and Bucks — Ozzy Osbourne never forgot his humble beginnings at 14, Lodge Road, Aston. Advertisement 3 Thousands gather in Birmingham for the funeral of Ozzy Osbourne Credit: Getty 3 On July 5, Ozzy returned to Brum for one last show Credit: Ross Halfin Remember his surprise appearance with He told me afterwards: 'Standing on stage in Birmingham, my home town, playing live — it doesn't get better than that.' Ozzy never lost his endearing Brummie accent, even ramping it up when he recalled the days of his youth. As I sat with him in one of his vast living rooms, he told me: 'Sometimes I go back to my old street. Advertisement READ MORE ON OZZY OSBOURNE 'I heard the guy who lives in my old house charges people 400 quid to stay the night. 'I remember sitting on the steps at Lodge Road as a child and thinking, 'Isn't this a long road?'. Now my drive is bigger than that road. 'I think, 'My God, how did we live in that house?'. There were six of us kids, and mum and dad.' Ozzy pretty much hated his time at Birchfield Road School, Aston, where Iommi was in the year above. Advertisement Most read in Music Breaking 'I couldn't hold a ruler,' he said before breaking into one of his infectious laughs. But he told how, one day in 1963, he strolled down Lodge Road with his blue transistor radio. Tearful Sharon Osbourne reads fans' touching tributes to beloved husband Ozzy as she joins family at funeral procession 'I heard She Loves You by The Beatles. That was it, I knew what I wanted to do.' When considering Black Sabbath, Ozzy said: 'We weren't a creation of some big business mogul saying, 'I know a singer from London and a drummer from Manchester'. Advertisement We were living in f***ing Birmingham, something I'm not ashamed of. Ozzy 'We were four local lads who lived in the same area and had a dream, and it became bigger than our wildest dreams.' When they started out, Ozzy said the music scene was 'all about 'If you're going to San Francisco, be sure to wear some flowers in your hair'. 'But we were living in f***ing Birmingham, something I'm not ashamed of.' Thinking of all the riches that followed, he added: 'We've all gone our separate ways and we're not four crazy kids from Birmingham any more. We have wives, kids, families, houses.' Advertisement But he never lost touch with where he came from. 'Egos will kill you. I just try to be as normal as I can,' he affirmed. 'I remember when I was an ordinary bloke. 'When my mother put food on the table, we didn't go, 'Oh, we can't eat that, it's got too much gluten or fat content'. Advertisement 'We just ate what we got. I never got the chance to say, 'I don't like cabbage'.' On July 5, You could see how much it meant to the city's favourite son when he told the Villa Park crowd: 'Thank you from the bottom of my heart. 'You're all… special. Let's go crazy, come on!' Advertisement 3 Ozzy never lost touch with his home town Birmingham Credit: Getty
