BIRMINGHAM, England (AP) — The “home of metal” is gearing up to honor one of its most cherished sons.
Thousands of Black Sabbath fans will pay their respects Wednesday to frontman Ozzy Osbourne as his hearse makes its way through the streets of Birmingham, the English city where he grew up and where the band was formed in 1968.
The hearse carrying Osbourne, who died last Tuesday at the age of 76, will make its way down Broad Street, the city’s major thoroughfare, to the Black Sabbath bench, which was unveiled on the Broad Street canal bridge in 2019. Family members are expected to watch the cortege, which will be accompanied by a live brass band.
Since his death was announced, fans have made pilgrimages to sites around Birmingham, which has over the decades embraced its reputation as the birthplace of heavy metal. Among his peers, Osbourne was metal’s godfather.
“Ozzy was more than a music legend — he was a son of Birmingham,” said city official Zafar Iqbal. “We know how much this moment will mean to his fans.”
Broad Street closed to through traffic early Wednesday morning and will only reopen after the funeral finishes. Buses and trams have been diverted.
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.
The group has been widely credited with defining and popularizing the sound of heavy metal. Osbourne was the band’s frontman during its peak period in the 1970s and was widely known as the “Prince of Darkness.” His antics, on and off stage, were legendary, and often fueled by copious amounts of drinks and drugs.
Sabbath’s story began in Birmingham in 1968 when the four original members were looking to escape a life of factory work. Their 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. They went on to become one of the most influential and successful metal bands of all time, selling more than 75 million albums worldwide.
At their 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 he was 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 his wife Sharon and two youngest children, Kelly and Jack.
