The Osbourne family have opened up on the emotional reactions they've had to the "overwhelming" outpouring of grief, love and support following Ozzy Osbourne's death earlier this year.
Ozzy died on July 22 following a heart attack, just over two weeks after performing his final ever show at Black Sabbath's triumphant Back To The Beginning farewell concert at Villa Park in Birmingham. His death prompted a near unprecedented wave of public mourning, with thousands turning up to his public funeral procession through Birmingham town centre and everyone from the Royal Family to The Muppets sending their condolensces.
Speaking on The Osbournes Podcast, Ozzy's wife and manager Sharon, and the couple's children Jack and Kelly, discuss the response to Ozzy's death, and how it helped comfort them over a devastating few months.
"So many people have reached out to us," says Sharon (as transcribed by Blabbermouth). "It's just been overwhelmingly wonderful, everybody's reaction, for the loss of Ozzy. Everybody's reached out to us that we know that we love, thousands and thousands of people who we've never met, and I just want everybody to know that everything that has been sent to us we've read, we appreciate."
"The outpouring of love has been so helpful to us. I never could have even imagined it to be as helpful as it has been, to know that we are not alone in our grief and our sadness, and that the rest of the world loved him as much as we did."
"I haven't seen an outpouring like that since Princess Diana died," says Kelly. "I didn't expect it.
"It wasn't just the heavy metal community, it was the entire world," she later adds.
"It definitely added a different element to it," suggests Jack, who later plays a voicemail left by US President Donald Trump offering his sympathies to the Osbourne clan. "I was doing an interview for Dad's book, and what I said was, when you grow up, you're, like, 'I wonder what's gonna happen when my dad's gonna die. I wonder what's gonna happen when my mum dies.' It's just normal, I think; everyone has those thoughts. And it never crossed my mind that it would impact anyone outside… I didn't think it was gonna be like it was."
Sharon goes on to highlight how Ozzy remained humble 'til the end, adding: "He never took it for granted from anyone. He never took it for granted, 'I'm this, I'm that.' He had no idea. He was so living in his bubble. He never had any idea how much people loved him, admired him. Even if they didn't like his music, they liked him. And he was just larger than life. He was one in a zillion."
Watch the full Podcast below.
Ozzy Osbourne's final show alongside his original Black Sabbath bandmates of Tony Iommi, Geezer Butler and Bill Ward took place at Aston Villa FC's home ground, just down the road from where the four men grew up and began their careers. It was the first time the metal legends' founding four members had performed together in twenty years.
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