{"id":304284,"date":"2025-07-30T15:55:09","date_gmt":"2025-07-30T15:55:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/304284\/"},"modified":"2025-07-30T15:55:09","modified_gmt":"2025-07-30T15:55:09","slug":"fans-line-streets-of-birmingham-to-say-farewell-to-ozzy-osbourne-ozzy-osbourne","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/304284\/","title":{"rendered":"Fans line streets of Birmingham to say farewell to Ozzy Osbourne | Ozzy Osbourne"},"content":{"rendered":"

Thousands of fans lined the streets of Birmingham to watch Ozzy Osbourne<\/a> make his final journey through his home city, with his tearful family laying tributes as crowds chanted the late singer\u2019s name.<\/p>\n

A hearse carrying Osbourne, who died last week aged 76<\/a>, made its way through the city centre on Wednesday afternoon on the way to his private funeral.<\/p>\n

The procession stopped on \u201cBlack Sabbath bridge\u201d, where his family members placed roses among the hundreds of tributes left for the heavy metal pioneer in front of the bench depicting the band.<\/p>\n

A visibly emotional Sharon, who was married to Osbourne for 43 years, was aided by her children, Aimee, Kelly and Jack, as she tearfully took in the sea of tributes, and signalled a peace sign to the crowd before leaving.<\/p>\n

The funeral cortege halted at Black Sabbath bridge in Birmingham so his widow, Sharon, and family could see the flowers left by fans. Photograph: Christopher Thomond\/The Guardian<\/p>\n

They were joined by a number of family members, including some of Osbourne\u2019s grandchildren, who waved to the crowds offering their support.<\/p>\n

People could be seen leaning out of windows, and climbing on top of walls and bus stops, to catch a glimpse of the Prince of Darkness<\/a>\u2019s funeral cortege.<\/p>\n

His coffin began its journey in Aston in the north of the city, passing Osbourne\u2019s childhood home on Lodge Road and the football stadium Villa Park, where he performed a huge farewell concert<\/a> with his Black Sabbath bandmates just weeks ago.<\/p>\n

People chanted his name, held up rock hand gestures, and threw roses at the hearse carrying his coffin adorned with purple flowers spelling out \u201cOzzy\u201d.<\/p>\n

A local brass band, Bostin Brass, played songs including Black Sabbath\u2019s Iron Man ahead of the procession of vehicles.<\/p>\n

In an interview in 2011, Osbourne said he didn\u2019t care what music was played at his funeral, as long as it was \u201ca celebration, not a mope-fest\u201d, and the atmosphere along Broad Street seemed to reflect his wishes.<\/p>\n

\u2018He was a legend\u2019: fan Will Howell. Photograph: Jessica Murray\/The Guardian<\/p>\n

Will Howell, an 18-year-old student, said Osbourne was \u201ca legend, so you know, you gotta go and say goodbye to him\u201d.<\/p>\n

\u201cI got up at six in the morning to go to work, to come here early so I could get here and see it,\u201d he said. He has been listening to Osbourne\u2019s music since his dad introduced it to him aged eight.<\/p>\n

\u201cProbably not the best age,\u201d he said. \u201cOzzy changed music a lot, even inside of metal, and I think it\u2019s just good to say goodbye to him.\u201d<\/p>\n

Marco, from Verona, Italy, and member of a band called Witch Ghetto, said he discovered Black Sabbath 20 years ago and \u201cit really struck a chord\u201d.<\/p>\n

\u201cThey were probably pioneers without knowing they were. They just wanted to play music and have fun and follow their instincts and that\u2019s probably the best thing you can do when you play music,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

\u2018If there\u2019s something after death, then Ozzy is with Rhoads looking down\u2019: Will Taylor. Photograph: Jessica Murray\/The Guardian<\/p>\n

Will Taylor, a musician from Chesterfield, said it was a \u201cno brainer\u201d to come to the city to watch the funeral procession with his wife and dog. He is a massive fan of Black Sabbath, and Osbourne\u2019s collaborations with the American guitarist Randy Rhoads, who died in a plane crash while on tour with Osbourne in 1982.<\/p>\n

\u201cA bit of me thinks if there\u2019s something after death, then Ozzy is with Rhoads looking down wherever they are,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

Osbourne was the lead singer of Black Sabbath, who formed in Birmingham<\/a> in 1968 and were widely credited with defining and popularising heavy metal music.<\/p>\n

Earlier this year Osbourne and his bandmates \u2013 Terence \u201cGeezer\u201d Butler, Tony Iommi and Bill Ward \u2013 were given the freedom of the city of Birmingham<\/a> to recognise their \u201cexceptional service to the city\u201d.<\/p>\n

Osbourne\u2019s health declined in recent years, and he was diagnosed with Parkinson\u2019s disease in 2019.<\/p>\n

He appeared for a surprise performance at the Commonwealth Games closing ceremony in Birmingham in 2022, and performed his last gig on 5 July<\/a> in a farewell concert at Villa Park fearing global metal stars such as Anthrax, Metallica and Guns N\u2019 Roses.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Thousands of fans lined the streets of Birmingham to watch Ozzy Osbourne make his final journey through his…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":304285,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7820],"tags":[855,748,393,4884,16,15],"class_list":{"0":"post-304284","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-birmingham","8":"tag-birmingham","9":"tag-britain","10":"tag-england","11":"tag-great-britain","12":"tag-uk","13":"tag-united-kingdom"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/114943002259113803","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/304284","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=304284"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/304284\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/304285"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=304284"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=304284"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=304284"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}