Ozzy Osbourne's home city hails star who 'lived life in rock n' roll'

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BIRMINGHAM — Fans gathered in Ozzy Osbourne’s home city Wednesday to pay homage to the heavy metal music icon.

Floral tributes piled up for the legendary Black Sabbath frontman, just over two weeks after he and his fellow band mates filled a stadium in the central English city of Birmingham for a memorable reunion concert.

Nigel O’Connell, 63, visiting a mural honouring the group with his grandson, told AFP he was saddened to hear of Osbourne’s death on Tuesday but not surprised “because he lived his life in rock and roll”.

“Ozzy was just a bit of an icon of the city — he was a bit of a fool, but everybody loved him!” he said, adding Osbourne had “done the city proud”.

Elsewhere in the city centre, posters of the singer sprang up on walls while flowers also appeared at the Black Sabbath canal bridge.

Fans left lit candles, flowers, soft toys and even cans of beer at a bench on the bridge decorated with the faces of the four band members.

Fresh in everyone’s mind is the July 5 concert at Birmingham’s Villa Park football stadium in front of tens of thousands of adoring heavy metal fans from around the world.

Weak from Parkinson’s disease, the 76-year-old singer had to stay seated throughout the sell-out gig, the first they had performed in 20 years.

His performance moved many in the crowd to tears.

Rebecca Brownell and her 13-year-old son Billy, a recent convert to heavy metal, were among those leaving flowers at the mural.

The 45-year-old seamstress described Osbourne’s death as both “sad and not sad because, you know, he had a great last few months”.

She said the heavy metal scene was “big for Birmingham” and the concert had “brought it all back”.

“Hopefully that will carry on for a little while … and a new generation of kids will learn all about it,” she said.

Black Sabbath’s first manager Jim Simpson, visiting the bridge, said the number and range of people who had turned out following his death showed the impact his music had on people.

“There are people here who are 80 years of age or eight years of age and all stages in between and it shows he had a remarkable way of contacting people,” he said.

“It has been 55 years and still (Black Sabbath) are more popular than ever.”

The world had lost “an inordinately nice, balanced, human being” in Osbourne, he said.

Fan O’Connell added that the concert had revived memories of the fun he enjoyed when he saw Black Sabbath live 40 years ago.

“All the concerts were mad, everyone was just jumping around and having a good time… mad days, but it was good fun, good memories,” he said.

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