As the Prince of Darkness made his final journey through his hometown, emotional Jen Butler and Ozzy Osbourne fans crowded the streets of Birmingham yesterday.
An Ozzy Osbourne superfan thought “it was a prank” when the the Prince of Darkness died.
Jen Butler was among thousands of mourners gathered in Birmingham city centre yesterday as Ozzy, the frontman of Black Sabbath, made his final journey through his home city. Jen arrived at 5.45am to pay her respects to the legendary heavy metal icon, who died aged 76 last week after a battle with Parkinson’s disease.
Jen, 46, initially believed she was being pranked, but it took her a week to accept the tragedy. Despite only having lived in Smethwick, West Midlands, about four miles away, she resisted spending days visiting the site of floral tributes on Broad Street in Birmingham.
Fighting the emotion as she spoke to a reporter at the scene of the funeral procession yesterday, Jen said: “Honestly, when he passed, I thought it was a prank, it’s only today that I’ve had enough courage to come down and see the memorial. It’s starting to sink in that he’s really gone.”
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The Black Sabbath Bridge, which has been transformed into a gigantic shrine with hundreds of flowers and tributes, was where the funeral procession went. Jen continued, “I became a fan when I was eight years old, by the bridge on Broad Street in the city center.” This man has literally been my life.
There were already many people present when we arrived, and it was at 5:30 am. I anticipated this level of cramming when I went to camp overnight. We rock fans, and we typically don’t rise until midday.
“I would get up that early for him,” he said. At the time, there were probably 30 or so people present, and things have gotten even worse.
Ozzy has provided us with such beautiful music over the years, and the least we could do was to visit him and take him off… I didn’t even attend the Queen’s funeral.
Ozzy Ozzy Ozzy chants could be heard in city center bars blasting Black Sabbath hits. Bostin’ Brass, a brass band from Birmingham, performed music at the cortège that passed these bars.
Following the hearse through the city center, the Osbourne family followed the event and all associated costs. Kelly, Jack, Aimee, and Louis, the children of Ozzy’s wife Sharon, and their relatives also walked over the bridge to pay their respects to the star.
Source: Mirror
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