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If you’ve ever been at a gig or festival and seen a dog-eared old t-shirt from tours decades passed and thought, ‘Christ, that belongs in a museum’… You might be right. In June 2025, Birmingham Museum & Art Gallery unveiled a special exhibition dedicated to the life and career of Ozzy Osbourne. Titled Ozzy Osbourne: Working Class Hero, the pop-up has received over 450,000 visitors since it opened and has now been extended to September 2026.
“We knew from previous shows we’ve put on that something like this would attract a big audience,” says Toby Watley, Director of Collections and Estates for Birmingham Museum’s Trust. “The level of interest has far exceeded what we were expecting. Older generations might bring along their grandkids or children to share that experience. So you can’t assume it’ll be a bunch of old rockers turning up; in August [2025] we had our busiest day in ten years.”
Ozzy Osbourne: Working Class Hero traces its roots to Sharon Osbourne’s enthusiastic archiving of Ozzy memorabilia from over the decades. The exhibition covers Ozzy’s solo career and early life in Birmingham, even including a few of his Grammy Awards.
“Sharon’s seen great importance in keeping everything in good condition for his fans,” explains Steve Hewlitt, of Central BID Birmingham, who worked directly with the Osbourne family to bring the exhibition to life. “She’s got a huge collection in America, a huge collection in the UK; we had no idea just how much she’d collected. We knew the Back To The Beginning concert was coming, so it was like, ‘The time is now.’”
The exhibition opened to the public for the first time on June 25 2025, just weeks before Black Sabbath and Ozzy’s emotional farewell gig at the city’s Villa Park stadium. Although that gig might’ve had some eye-watering ticket prices, early on it was decided in the Osbourne camp that the Working Class Hero needed to be open to everyone. To that end, the museum’s website even offers visitors a chance to explore the exhibition digitally if they can’t come in person.
“Sharon insisted early on that this exhibition had to be free,” Steve says. “She thought it was incredible important that this working class hero exhibition is available to every single member of the public.”
We knew the Back To The Beginning concert was coming, so it was like, ‘The time is now’
Steve Hewlitt, Central BID Birmingham
Working Class Hero marks an important shift in the city of Birmingham’s bid to embrace its musical heritage in recent years, via everything from the Black Sabbath Bridge to a giant mechanical bull named Ozzy sitting in Birmingham New Street Station and even a bid to rename the city’s airport after the great man. Toby is keen to point out that Birmingham Museum has hosted similar exhibitions in the past, however – including the richHome Of Metal pop-up in 2019.
“This project has been very different in focusing on him, his career and his achievements,” Toby explains. “It’s made it a unique experience for visitors as a lot of this stuff is on public display for the first time; Sharon came to the opening and was actually in tears because she’d never seen it displayed in frames and presented in a formal way as opposed to just clustered on shelves in a warehouse. It’s all beautifully presented and makes it look important because it is important.”
“Birmingham hasn’t done particularly well in celebrating its heritage over the years,” admits Jez Collins, founder of Birmingham Music Archive – an organisation dedicated to documenting and celebrating the musical heritage of Birmingham. “With Ozzy, it’s an odd one: he hasn’t lived in the city for decades, but he’s absolutely beloved here. Sabbath and Ozzy always retained their roots. It’s a global phenomenon but there’s a real club feeling among the audience that you can easily identity if you’re a metalhead.”
With Ozzy Osbourne: Working Class Hero extended to September 27 2026, the question now becomes, ‘What comes next?’ Each of the men behind this exhibition shares a different vision for how they can continue the good work.
“We know we could do an exhibition five times the size of this one,” Steve says. “We’re blessed that Sharon allowed us to see part of this collection, but we also know it could still get bigger!”
“It’s more than just an exhibition,” Toby adds. “We have people coming because they want to be part of something, whether that’s signing the condolence book or just being part of a bigger event.”
While Sabbath might be Birmingham’s favourite sons, they’re by no means the only world-conquering, influential act to emerge from the city.
“It’s amazing; it gives us a sense that there’s a real appetite for this [kind of thing],” Jez enthuses. “Sabbath are Sabbath, but there’s maybe another couple of bands from Birmingham who belong on that pedestal with them.”
Napalm Death in a museum? It wouldn’t be the maddest thing to ever happen.
Ozzy Osbourne: Working Class Hero is open until September 27 2026. Visit www.birminghammuseums.org.uk to learn more about the exhibition and opening times
