Ozzy Osbourne’s funeral took place in his hometown of Birmingham as the Osbourne family accompanied his coffin in a private procession
The funeral of rock icon Ozzy Osbourne has taken place with his close-knit family stood by his side for one last time.
Crowds of fans gathered in the streets of Birmingham, the rock star’s birthplace, to pay their respect. While the funeral service itself remained private today, fans were given the opportunity to show their love and admiration for Ozzy in a procession down Broad Street on Wednesday.
Ozzy, who was known by many as the Prince of Darkness, joined the procession in a car, as fans watched a heartbroken Sharon Osbourne conceal her face. Lovingly surrounding Sharon were the three children she shared with the singer—Aimee, Kelly, and Jack.
Understandably, they were all visibly distraught, doing all they could to comfort their mother, as well as each other, in what was a tragic moment for their family. Lipreader Nicola Hickling revealed the words she believed were whispered between siblings Jack and Kelly.
According to her, Jack says 10 sweet words to comfort his older sister in the emotional moment—”Come “on now, Dad wanted us to celebrate his life.” Jack and Kelly were heavily featured as teenagers in the reality show The Osbournes, which launched on MTV in the early 2000s.
The scenes were worlds away from their chaotic MTV days where the siblings fought like cat and dog. They once came to blows in spectacular fashion when Jack danced with Kelly’s sworn enemy Christina Aguilera at a party.
“When you hate someone, I hate someone,” she raged before a full-on brawl ensued and Sharon had to step in.
Another time things turned violent over Jack’s refusal to stop throwing parties while their parents were away. Again, it ended with them being prised apart by staff.
It later emerged that the pair were both fighting their own dark demons. Kelly was battling with an addiction to painkillers that she replaced with emotional eating after coming clean. While Jack entered a rehab facility for an addiction to opioid painkiller OxyContin in series two.
He told the camera crew: “I want to be in control of my life. I was really loaded, and I just sat on my mum’s bed, and I just said, ‘I am going to go pack my bags… I’m ready to go. I want to go; I need to go.'”
Jack did manage to get clean and has celebrated his sober milestones. And these days he is extremely close to Kelly, who supported him through his MS diagnosis in 2012 and is proud auntie to his three children with ex-wife Lisa Stelly: Pearl Clementine, Andy Rose, and Minnie Theodora.
Ozzy sadly passed away just weeks after his final show in Birmingham at the start of July. The Back to the Beginning festival was promoted as the star’s last performance and marked the first time in two decades that all members of Black Sabbath—Ozzy, Tony Iommi, Bill Ward, and Geezer Butler—performed on stage as a band.
Reports suggested that the remaining former Black Sabbath bandmates were present at the funeral, along with Metallica’s James Hetfield and singer Yungblud. Elton John was also rumoured to have intended to set out to attend the service.
During the touching moments of the funeral procession, local ensemble Bostin’ Brass performed a grand brass rendition of Ozzy’s hit song ‘Iron Man’ as well as a version of ‘Crazy Train.’ Fans, who had gathered from far and wide, chanted the singer’s name with enthusiasm as his family tearfully watched on.