Hundreds Gather To Say Goodbye To Ozzy Osbourne

BIRMINGHAM, England (AP) — Ozzy Osbourne returned to the “home of metal” for the last time on Wednesday as an emotional Birmingham honored one of its most cherished sons.  Thousands of Black Sabbath fans paid their respects to the band’s front-man as his hearse made its way through the city center followed by his tearful wife and children.  The hearse carrying Osbourne, who died last Tuesday at the age of 76, went down Broad Street, one of the city’s major thoroughfare, to the Black Sabbath bench, which was unveiled on the Broad Street canal bridge in 2019. “Ozzy, Ozzy, Ozzy, oi, oi, oi,” fans screamed.  Six vehicles carrying the Osbourne family followed the hearse, accompanied by police motorcycle riders and a police car.  The family emerged briefly to inspect the array of tributes, with his wife of 43 years, Sharon, visibly moved and wiping away tears.  And long after the hearse had moved on for the private funeral, the city, which has embraced its reputation as the citadel of heavy metal, was pounding to the beat of Black Sabbath.  It was in Birmingham, where he grew up, that the world-conquering heavy metal band was formed in 1968.