Ozzy Osbourne tributes flood in as hometown Birmingham mourns

By Gerhard Mey and Sarah Mills

BIRMINGHAM, England (Reuters) -Hundreds of Ozzy Osbourne fans gathered at landmarks linked to the rocker in his birthplace of Birmingham on Wednesday, while artists paid tribute to his influence on heavy metal music.

Fans laid floral tributes at a bench and bridge in central England named after Black Sabbath, the band with whom Osbourne pioneered the heavy metal genre in the late 1960s, after his death on Tuesday at the age of 76.

Chloe Allen, a 25-year-old student who was visiting the Sabbath bench, said Osbourne's "Crazy Train" introduced her to metal music.

"(His music made me) realise that actually, you can be alternative, you can wear black, you can rock on, and you can just be you," she said, speaking from the Sabbath bench.

Osbourne died 17 days after enthralling thousands of adoring fans in an emotional farewell gig in Birmingham featuring dozens of other performances including by Metallica, Guns N' Roses and Aerosmith's Steven Tyler in day-long heavy metal extravaganza.

"It's impossible to put into words what Ozzy Osbourne has meant to Metallica," the band said on X. "He taught us how to play in the big leagues while at the same time being warm, welcoming, engaging, and all around brilliant."

Sabbath guitarist Tony Iommi said the band had "lost our brother".

"He loved what he did, he loved music, he loved playing together, and I'm so glad we had the opportunity of getting together again to do the (farewell) show," Iommi told BBC Radio.

Many fans also gathered at The Crown, a now-closed pub where Sabbath performed in their early years and at the site of a mural of the band near Birmingham's main railway station.

Merlin Alderslade, executive editor at the Louder group of rock and metal magazines, told Reuters it was "impossible" to overstate Osbourne's importance to heavy metal, and that his last show was a fitting farewell.

"We were quite shocked at the news," Alderslade said. "But what an amazing way to go out."

(Writing by Sachin Ravikumar; Editing by Alison Williams)