Ozzy's eldest son Louis Osbourne on being stunned by "awe inspiring" turnout at Prince of Darkness' funeral

Mourners and music fans line the streets to pay their respects as the funeral cortege of Ozzy Osbourne, the late lead singer of Black Sabbath, makes its way through Birmingham, central England on July 30, 2025. — (Image credit: BEN STANSALL/AFP via Getty Images)

Ozzy Osbourne's eldest son Louis has spoken about the "awe inspiring" scale of his late father's funeral.

Louis, 50, made a rare public appearance as a guest on his half brother Jack's podcast Trying Not to Die and spoke candidly about the Black Sabbath icon's cultural impact and the overwhelming outpouring of love that followed his death.

Ozzy passed away in July at the age of 76, just weeks after stars from across the world of rock gathered to help him celebrate his retirement.

His funeral was held in his hometown of Birmingham, England, and was an emotional mass gathering of heartbroken friends, family and fans.

Louis says: "Before we turned onto the street, I just thought it was going to be like two or three people deep for like half a kilometre before where the Black Sabbath bridge was, and it would be a throng."

Instead, fans were "climbing up lampposts, hanging out of windows, standing on top of bus stops to get a look of it. It kept on going for another half a mile and then people were following us all around town."

He says it was "awe inspiring" and opened his eyes to the scale of the impact his father had on the world.

"I knew people loved him, but I didn’t have a sense of how many and how much," he says. "'I’ve never got my head round the fact of just how much of a cultural impact he had and how culturally important he was."

Louis also reveals that Ozzy had been at peace with the realisation that he was nearing the end of his life.

He says: "I'm not saying he was ready to go, but I think I definitely think he knew his time was coming from the conversations we had. And to some degree, I think he was kind of at peace with that because he'd been in so much pain for so long."

Louis Osbourne Tries Not To Die: Triathlons, DJ Sets and Life Inside the Hurricane - YouTube

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Stef wrote close to 5,000 stories during his time as assistant online news editor and later as online news editor between 2014-2016. An accomplished reporter and journalist, Stef has written extensively for a number of UK newspapers and also played bass with UK rock favourites Logan. His favourite bands are Pixies and Clap Your Hands Say Yeah. Stef left the world of rock'n'roll news behind when he moved to his beloved Canada in 2016, but he started on his next 5000 stories in 2022.

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