Birmingham mourns the death of native son Ozzy Osbourne

BIRMINGHAM, England (AP) – Ozzy Osbourne’s fans had sensed the end was near.

At his final show just a few weeks ago, admirers watched the heavy metal icon perform while seated on a black throne and knew it would likely be the last time they saw the lead singer of Black Sabbath. He died Tuesday at age 76.

So there was little surprise Wednesday as they made pilgrimages to sites around Birmingham, the city in central England where Osbourne grew up and the band was formed.

Outside the Crown Pub, where Black Sabbath played its first gig, Daria DeBuono, 59, and Stephen Voland, 32, both from New York, described the bond the rockstar had with his fans during that farewell show at the city’s Villa Park stadium. Even though he stayed seated throughout, the man nicknamed the Prince of Darkness reveled in the embrace of the crowd, they said.

“It’s like that is what he was living for, that is what he was keeping himself alive for, was to have that final glorious moment of love,” DeBuono said. “And being in the crowd you can just feel the love in the arena that day. It was just very emotional.”

Voland completed her thought.

“When I was watching the show I told her, ‘This is like a living memorial that he gets to enjoy,'” he said. “All this hard work and everyone is here for him. I just felt like it was a cool thing not knowing that this was happening very soon after.”

The original members of Black Sabbath reunited for the first time in 20 years on July 5 for what Osbourne said would be his final concert. Osbourne had been diagnosed with Parkinson’s disease in 2019.

“Let the madness begin!” he told the 42,000 fans packed into Villa Park as the show got underway.

On Wednesday, Birmingham sites linked to Black Sabbath became magnets for fans of the band’s front man, who built a second career as a star of the reality TV show “The Osbournes.”

They gathered around the bull in Birmingham New Street station, which was created for the 2022 Commonwealth Games and is known as Ozzy. And they trooped to a mural on Navigation Street that was painted in honor of Black Sabbath’s farewell concert.

“He’s one of us,” West Midlands region Mayor Richard Parker said at the mural. “There is an enormous amount of pride – he was forged by this place and he put this place on the map, and everyone could relate to him.”

But the biggest draw was the Black Sabbath bench, where fans can take selfies alongside life-size images of the four band members.

The bench, which was unveiled on the Broad Street canal bridge in 2019, has been surrounded by tributes to Osbourne.

“I think it is so beautiful that he got to finish and do his wish before he finally passed,” said Matthew Caldwell, 36, of Stourbridge, just west of Birmingham. “Very sad but incredible.”

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Kirka reported from London.