Latest news with #PrinceOfDarkness
The Independent
12 minutes ago
- Entertainment
- The Independent
Birmingham says final goodbye to Ozzy Osbourne
Thousands of fans lined the streets of Birmingham to pay their final respects to Black Sabbath frontman Ozzy Osbourne during his funeral procession on Wednesday. The hearse, adorned with purple flowers spelling 'Ozzy', travelled from his childhood home in Aston to Broad Street, where fans had gathered. Admirers, some who had waited overnight, chanted 'Ozzy, Ozzy, Ozzy', with many climbing structures for a better view of the cortege. The procession was accompanied by Bostin Brass playing Osbourne's iconic music, and family members, including wife Sharon Osbourne, viewed tributes at the Black Sabbath bench. Attendees of all ages highlighted Osbourne's impact as a working-class hero and a significant figure for Birmingham and the heavy metal world. 'Ozzy Osbourne was the best of us': Thousands turn out in Birmingham to bid farewell to the prince of darkness
Khaleej Times
40 minutes ago
- Entertainment
- Khaleej Times
Ozzy Osbourne funeral procession: Thousands honour 'Prince of Darkness' in UK hometown
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. Black Sabbath frontman Osbourne, who earned the nicknamed the "Prince of Darkness" and once bit a bat while on stage, died on July 22 at the age of 76. He had been diagnosed with Parkinson's disease in 2019 and died 17 days after playing a final gig to a sold-out crowd in Birmingham. Osbourne's funeral procession set off at around 1200 GMT on a route planned with the rocker's family through the English city. Chants of "Ozzy! Ozzy! Ozzy!" could be heard, with one fan crying out "we love you Ozzy!" as his coffin — sitting in a stately black Jaguar hearse topped with flower arrangements — and other vehicles crawled by. The procession, which earlier passed the star's childhood home in the city's Aston area, was accompanied by a live brass band performance by local musicians from Bostin' Brass. Fan Reece Sargeant came with friends to say goodbye. "I think it was important to come and pay our respects.... Ozzy and Black Sabbath really put Birmingham on the map," he said. The 16-year-old told AFP the band's last concert had been "out of this world". Osbourne famously once said he wanted his funeral to be a celebration of his life and not a "mope-fest". The procession paused at the Black Sabbath bench — an art installation featuring headshots of each member on a bridge also named after the band. 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. Thousands of fans have gathered at the bridge in recent days, mourning the death of the musician who was instrumental in pioneering heavy metal. The cortege, led by police motorbikes, then continued its slow journey towards a private funeral service. 'Tribute' "Ozzy was more than a music legend — he was a son of Birmingham," Zafar Iqbal, the lord mayor of the central English city, said in a statement. "It was important to the city that we support a fitting, dignified tribute ahead of a private family funeral. "We're proud to host it here with his loving family in the place where it all began," Iqbal, who could be seen hugging family members when the procession stopped in central Birmingham, added. 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, Paranoid. The group went on to sell more than 75 million albums worldwide and were inducted into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame in 2006. Osbourne was added for a second time last year as a solo artist. Osbourne gained notoriety for his outlandish stunts, many fuelled by his legendary indulgence in drugs and alcohol. In 1989, he was arrested for drunkenly trying to strangle his wife, which he once mentioned in a 2007 interview. 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. 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.
France 24
an hour ago
- Entertainment
- France 24
Thousands honour Ozzy Osbourne at UK hometown funeral procession
Black Sabbath frontman Osbourne, who earned the nicknamed the "Prince of Darkness" and once bit a bat while on stage, died on July 22 at the age of 76. He had been diagnosed with Parkinson's disease in 2019 and died 17 days after playing a final gig to a sold-out crowd in Birmingham. Osbourne's funeral procession set off at around 1200 GMT on a route planned with the rocker's family through the English city. Chants of "Ozzy! Ozzy! Ozzy!" could be heard, with one fan crying out "we love you Ozzy!" as his coffin -- sitting in a stately black Jaguar hearse topped with flower arrangements -- and other vehicles crawled by. The procession, which earlier passed the star's childhood home in the city's Aston area, was accompanied by a live brass band performance by local musicians from Bostin' Brass. Fan Reece Sargeant came with friends to say goodbye. "I think it was important to come and pay our respects.... Ozzy and Black Sabbath really put Birmingham on the map," he said. The 16-year-old told AFP the band's last concert had been "out of this world". Osbourne famously once said he wanted his funeral to be a celebration of his life and not a "mope-fest". The procession paused at the Black Sabbath bench -- an art installation featuring headshots of each member on a bridge also named after the band. 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. Thousands of fans have gathered at the bridge in recent days, mourning the death of the musician who was instrumental in pioneering heavy metal. The cortege, led by police motorbikes, then continued its slow journey towards a private funeral service. 'Tribute' "Ozzy was more than a music legend - he was a son of Birmingham," Zafar Iqbal, the lord mayor of the central English city, said in a statement. "It was important to the city that we support a fitting, dignified tribute ahead of a private family funeral. "We're proud to host it here with his loving family in the place where it all began," Iqbal, who could be seen hugging family members when the procession stopped in central Birmingham, added. 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 "Paranoid". The group went on to sell more than 75 million albums worldwide and were inducted into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame in 2006. Osbourne was added for a second time last year as a solo artist. Osbourne gained notoriety for his outlandish stunts, many fuelled by his legendary indulgence in drugs and alcohol. In 1989, he was arrested for drunkenly trying to strangle his wife Sharon, which he once mentioned in a 2007 interview. 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. 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.
New York Times
5 hours ago
- Entertainment
- New York Times
A Royal Send-off for Ozzy Osbourne, Prince of Darkness
It's a ceremony fit for royalty. A regal carriage. A procession through crowd-lined streets. A brass band playing. And throngs of devoted, likely tearful, admirers paying their respects as the coffin passes. It's time to say goodbye to the Prince of Darkness. On Wednesday, such a tribute is planned for Ozzy Osbourne, a founder of the pioneering heavy metal band Black Sabbath, in Birmingham, England — his hometown — ahead of a private family funeral. As part of the event, which is scheduled to start at 1 p.m. (8 a.m. Eastern), Osbourne's family is to visit the Black Sabbath Bench, a tourist attraction that has become a place of pilgrimage. It's the third time this month that fans have descended on Birmingham for an Ozzfest of sorts. On July 5, they flocked here for Osbourne's final concert at a soccer stadium just a few minutes from his childhood home. Last week, the black-clad, tattooed throngs returned after the singer died at age 76. Now, they're back for his funeral procession. Some had rushed across borders to make it in time. Niclas Sundsborn, 53, a maintenance worker from Sweden, said that after learning about the procession on Tuesday, he and a metal-loving friend had each spent about $1,300 on plane tickets to fly to Britain. Sundsborn said that his own family 'probably think I'm mad' for spending that much, but that Osbourne was 'an icon.' In Britain, mourners typically take to the streets in large numbers only for the death of queens or kings. After John Lennon died in 1980, some 20,000 fans gathered in Liverpool for a vigil, but few other artists have provoked such devotion. There was no procession for David Bowie's death, in 2016. Want all of The Times? Subscribe.
CBS News
7 hours ago
- Entertainment
- CBS News
Ozzy Osbourne's funeral procession today in U.K. gives Black Sabbath frontman's fans a chance to say farewell
Fans of legendary Black Sabbath frontman Ozzy Osbourne will have a chance to pay their respects to the heavy metal icon today when his funeral procession makes its way through Birmingham, England. Osbourne, who died last week at the age of 76, grew up in Birmingham, and the city in central England is where Black Sabbath was formed. "Ozzy was more than a music legend — he was a son of Birmingham," the Lord Mayor of Birmingham Zafar Iqbal said in a statement Tuesday. The procession is scheduled to start at around 1 p.m. local time (8 a.m. Eastern). It will make its way down Birmingham's Broad Street in the center of the city toward a canal bridge named in honor of Black Sabbath. The bridge features a bench with life-size cutouts of the band's four founding members — Osbourne, Terry "Geezer" Butler, Tony Iommi and Bill Ward. Since Osbourne's death, fans have been flocking to the site to pay tribute to the singer known as the Prince of Darkness, leaving flowers, pictures and notes. "Final Stop On The Crazy Train?" a handwritten message said on an Aston Villa soccer team shirt that was tied to the bridge last week, referring to the single "Crazy Train" from Osbourne's debut solo album in 1980. The message added: "But Metal Lives Forever." After Osbourne's death, "Crazy Train" was streamed and played on the radio so much that the song made it onto the Billboard Hot 100 chart for the first time, ranking at No. 46 on its most recent edition. Fans who couldn't make it to Birmingham to honor Osbourne were invited to watch a livestream of the bench and bridge. Iqbal said it was important for the city to have a "fitting, dignified tribute" to the legendary rocker before the private family funeral. "We know how much this moment will mean to his fans," he said. "We're proud to host it here with his loving family in the place where it all began." Osbourne retired from touring in 2023, three years after revealing that he was diagnosed with Parkinson's disease, a degenerative movement disorder. His death came less than three weeks after he appeared onstage for the final time, reuniting with his Black Sabbath bandmates in a Birmingham concert that featured performances from rock legends influenced by the band. "You have no idea how I feel," Osbourne told the crowd of over 40,000 fans that night, according to BBC News. "Thank you from the bottom of my heart."
