It was a shrine to the Prince of Darkness.
In the hours after the news broke on Tuesday that Ozzy Osbourne, the singer and reality TV star, had died at 76, fans were gathering in Birmingham, England, his hometown. They came to decorate the Black Sabbath Bench, a tourist attraction close to the Black Sabbath Bridge, two of many city landmarks dedicated to Osbourne and his bandmates.
Some had laid bouquets at the bench’s base. Some had left homemade signs with tributes (“Gracias Ozzy!”). And others had placed bottles of beer along the sidewalk as if toasting Osbourne, whose alcohol and drug intake were notorious.
At 1:45 a.m. on Wednesday, an eclectic gaggle of fans reflecting Osbourne’s broad appeal was still milling about the shrine. A teary heavy metal lover who said she had listened to Osbourne’s songs since childhood. A Mexican tourist who had interrupted a vacation and driven four hours to to snap selfies by the bench. And Drake, the Canadian rapper, who was in Birmingham on tour.
Drake got out of a car with blacked-out windows, stood by the bench and then poured some tequila on the ground. “I just came out to pay respects to someone who lived it to the fullest,” Drake said in a brief interview, adding that Osborne was a cultural touchstone, even for people who didn’t know his music.
There aren’t many in Birmingham who don’t know the singer’s back catalog. Born into a working-class family here in 1948, Osborne is one of the city’s most famous sons and put it on the map as the home of heavy metal.
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A mural of Osbourne in Birmingham, celebrating one of the city’s most famous sons.Credit…Ellie Smith for The New York Times
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