{"id":33520,"date":"2025-07-30T22:49:07","date_gmt":"2025-07-30T22:49:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/33520\/"},"modified":"2025-07-30T22:49:07","modified_gmt":"2025-07-30T22:49:07","slug":"thousands-honour-ozzy-osbourne-at-uk-hometown-funeral-procession-world","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/33520\/","title":{"rendered":"Thousands honour Ozzy Osbourne at UK hometown funeral procession – World"},"content":{"rendered":"

Thousands lined the streets of UK city Birmingham on Wednesday to pay an emotional farewell to hometown hero Ozzy Osbourne as the heavy metal hellraiser was laid to rest.<\/p>\n

Black Sabbath frontman Osbourne, who earned the nickname the \u201cPrince of Darkness\u201d and once bit a bat while on stage, died<\/a> on July 22 at the age of 76. He had been diagnosed with Parkinson\u2019s disease in 2019 and died 17 days after playing a final gig to a sold-out crowd in Birmingham.<\/p>\n

Osbourne\u2019s funeral procession set off at around 1200 GMT (5pm PKT) on a route planned with the rocker\u2019s family through the English city.<\/p>\n

Chants of \u201cOzzy! Ozzy! Ozzy!\u201d could be heard, with one fan crying out \u201cwe love you Ozzy!\u201d as his coffin \u2014 sitting in a stately black Jaguar hearse topped with flower arrangements \u2014 and other vehicles crawled by.<\/p>\n

The procession, which earlier passed the star\u2019s childhood home in the city\u2019s Aston area, was accompanied by a live brass band performance by local musicians from Bostin\u2019 Brass.<\/p>\n

Fan Mhairi Larner said it was \u201coverwhelming\u201d and \u201cvery emotional\u201d to be part of the city\u2019s farewell to a star who\u2019d been so \u201cproud of his roots\u201d.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019ve been a fan as long as I can remember, and I raised my son to do the same,\u201d said the 31-year-old carer who had travelled from the central city of Nottingham. \u201cHe was just nuts, a little bit weird, but it\u2019s nice to have someone like this,\u201d she told AFP.<\/p>\n

Another fan, Reece Sargeant, came with friends to say goodbye.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think it was important to come and pay our respects \u2026 Ozzy and Black Sabbath really put Birmingham on the map,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

The 16-year-old described the band\u2019s last concert as \u201cout of this world\u201d.<\/p>\n

Osbourne famously once said he wanted his funeral to be a celebration of his life and not a \u201cmope-fest\u201d.<\/p>\n

The procession paused at the Black Sabbath bench \u2014 an art installation featuring headshots of each member on a bridge also named after the band.<\/p>\n

Visibly emotional family members, including his widow, Sharon Osbourne, laid flowers at the bench and read some of the written tributes that have been left there, along with balloons and flowers.<\/p>\n

Thousands of fans have gathered at the bridge in recent days, mourning the death of the musician who was instrumental in pioneering heavy metal.<\/p>\n

The cortege, led by police motorbikes, then continued its slow journey towards a private funeral service.<\/p>\n

\u2018Tribute\u2019<\/p>\n

\u201cOzzy was more than a music legend \u2014 he was a son of Birmingham,\u201d Zafar Iqbal, the lord mayor of the central English city, said in a statement.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt was important to the city that we support a fitting, dignified tribute ahead of a private family funeral.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019re proud to host it here with his loving family in the place where it all began,\u201d Iqbal, who could be seen hugging family members when the procession stopped in central Birmingham, added.<\/p>\n

Black Sabbath enjoyed huge commercial success in the 1970s and 80s after forming in Birmingham in 1968. Their eponymous 1970 debut album made the UK top 10 and paved the way for a string of hit records, including their most famous song, \u2018Paranoid\u2019.<\/p>\n

The group went on to sell more than 75 million albums worldwide and was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 2006. Osbourne was added for a second time last year as a solo artist.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n

Osbourne gained notoriety for his outlandish stunts, many fuelled by his legendary indulgence in drugs and alcohol.<\/p>\n

In 1989, he was arrested for drunkenly trying to strangle his wife, Sharon, which he once mentioned in a 2007 interview.<\/p>\n

His live performances at the height of his hedonism have gone down in rock folklore, particularly the 1982 gig in the US city of Des Moines when he bit a bat on stage.<\/p>\n

Osbourne said he thought a fan had thrown a rubber bat onstage, and it was not until he took a bite that he realised it was real.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Thousands lined the streets of UK city Birmingham on Wednesday to pay an emotional farewell to hometown hero…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":33521,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[28],"tags":[64,63,134,136],"class_list":["post-33520","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-music","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-entertainment","tag-music"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/33520","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=33520"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/33520\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/33521"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=33520"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=33520"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=33520"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}