Black-Sabbath-Legende Ozzy Osbourne: Birmingham says goodbye to his star

Birmingham is preparing for a historical day: On Wednesday, the city is saying goodbye to its most famous son, Ozzy Osbourne (1948-2025). As the city council announced on Tuesday, the dead car of the late Black Sabbath front man will drive through the streets of the English industrial city from 1 p.m. Push stops are planned in symbolic places such as the Black Sabbath Bridge and the bank.

Thousands of fans have laid out flowers and souvenirs since the death of the heavy metal pioneer last week. The 76-year-old died a few days after a moving farewell concert in Villa Park Stadium. There he had combined on stage one last time with his original Black Sabbath bandmate Tony Iommi (77), Geezer Butler (76) and Bill Ward (77).

“Ozzy was more than a music legend – he was a son of Birmingham,” explains Mayor Zafar Iqbal the exceptional gesture of the city. Accompanied by the Musikgruppe Bostin Brass, the Osbourne family’s funeral procession will give the opportunity to see all the flowers, messages and memorabilia that have left fans from all over the world.

The Broad Street will be closed to traffic from 7 a.m. local time, buses and trams are diverted. The city expects huge crowds to have their last honor to the man who invented the genre heavy metal together with Black Sabbath in 1970.

Less than three weeks before his death, Osbourne had entered the stage again. At his “Back to the Beginning” concert in Villa Park, he said to the 42,000 fans: “You have no idea how I feel – thanks from the bottom of my heart.” A message on the screen announced at the time: “Thank you for everything, you are damn great. Birmingham forever.”

The musician born in Birmingham, born in 1948, had made his Parkinson’s disease public in 2020. He said about his ideas about his own funeral: “I don’t want my funeral to be sad. I want me to say ‘thank you’.”

The public procession is planned as a worthy farewell to the private family mourning celebration. The Osbourne family finances the event itself to enable the city to “give him the farewell that he deserves,” said Lord Mayor. According to reports, his wife Sharon is considering being buried Ozzy on the 350 hectare family property.