To correctly ship off Ozzy Osbourne, the Black Sabbath frontman who died July 22 at age 76, his household wanted the right band. It couldn’t be a metallic band — too loud for a memorial service. And it couldn’t be a funeral band — too solemn and boring. Fortuitously, metropolis officers in Osbourne’s hometown of Birmingham, England, had an answer: Bostin Brass Band, an area, 13-year-old New Orleans-style group that had carried out a number of Ozzy and Sabbath classics at different massive occasions.
“We’d completed that,” trumpeter Aaron Diaz tells Billboard. “Proof of idea.”
Throughout Osbourne’s public memorial Wednesday (July 30), Bostin Brass Band marched on the entrance of 1000’s of Birmingham well-wishers, in addition to the hearse carrying the singer and 5 SUVs containing Osbourne’s widow, Sharon, and his youngsters Jack and Kelly, amongst others. The three members of the family, all in black, congregated on the metropolis’s central Black Sabbath Bridge, taking within the mass of floral tributes, balloons and flags. Bostin Brass had been taking part in “Loopy Practice,” however they stopped because the household mourned, permitting for a quick silence.
“We had been only a conduit of this emotion,” Diaz says. “We’re aiding that collective second.”
Diaz, a longtime Birmingham resident, spoke to Billboard by Zoom and mirrored on what it was like to assist a metropolis say goodbye to its Prince of Darkness.
What was it like being there, emotionally, with so many individuals mourning Ozzy?
All of us have performed in that location 1000’s of instances. We’ve completed parades, we’ve completed live shows, we’ve completed avenue gigs. However there’s by no means been a roped-off crowd. There’s by no means been that form of devotional route of power. You go by and get snippets of “Come on, guys!,” “Sure, son!” and “Pull for Ozzy!” By the tip, on the sq. in the course of the crowd dispersal, we performed “Modifications.” Each time I went to the refrain, I lined my eyes. I don’t suppose I appeared anybody within the eye for quarter-hour. It was an excessive amount of.
The place had been you in relation to the crowds?
We had been sandwiched between the police cordon and motorbikes, and we led the cortege from in entrance of the hearses. There was Ozzy’s hearse up entrance and the household in about 5 black SUVs following us. We processed at first, tailing into the road, taking part in “Iron Man” all the way in which down. The crowds had been singing alongside — half singing and half chanting. It’s like being at a metallic gig. There’s a time period, “oggy, oggy, oggy!” Have you ever heard that one? It’s a rugby shout. However clearly, it’s Ozzy, so everybody’s “Ozzy, Ozzy, Ozzy!” After we reached the tribute, we performed “Loopy Practice” and we stopped and the household got here out.
I might sense from watching the dwell feed from the bridge there have been a gazillion individuals there.
It was people filling up from about half [past] seven. There have been already some people who camped out reverse the bridge. Slowly, over the following three hours, it crammed up. All of the workplaces there had their lunch break and everybody was coming down of their lanyards — anybody and everybody from Birmingham. Lots of people [were] touring from very far afield — in band T-shirts, younger youngsters, grandparents, everybody in between.
How did Bostin Brass get this gig?
We work with an organization referred to as OPUS — Outside Locations Uncommon Areas. They’ve acquired relationship with town council. We began working with them across the Commonwealth Video games, which got here to Birmingham in 2022. Black Sabbath re-formed to do the closing ceremony. Ozzy was there and his chant of “Birmingham eternally!” struck a chord.
Quick-forward to 2023, this animatronic bull turned a vacationer attraction. By public vote, it was referred to as Ozzy the Bull. There was a giant unveiling — Sharon Osbourne was there. We had been concerned with that, by means of our involvement in public occasions. Our baritone participant, Alicia Gardener-Trejo, she’s a giant metallic fan, in addition to her mother. They go to festivals collectively. She was like, “Properly, that is the right alternative. I’m going to start out arranging this metallic live performance for brass band that I’ve wished to do for my mother’s seventieth birthday.” We performed “Paranoid,” “Iron Man” and “Loopy Practice.”
Every week in the past, the occasion organizers come round and say Ozzy Osbourne had died: “We’re sending this, we’re going to get this over to the Osbournes, it’s important to do that, right here’s the knowledge.” I assumed it could be a Birmingham Metropolis Council tepid occasion, however [the public memorial] is an occasion the Osbournes have funded. It form of has been this rising dawning of thought: “That is enormous, that is epic.” We’re very gentle on our toes, we are able to march down the highway, we don’t want any amplification, however we are able to carry that form of massive power. And we’re an uncommon band. We’re not a metallic band, regardless that we’re lovers and devotees of him and his legacy, however we’re actually tied to that New Orleans custom with jazz musicians. So it’s marrying these two issues. Perhaps it places us in a class of 1.
What else do you hope individuals take away from this memorial?
Simply the pleasure we’ve in representing town. Ozzy’s a proxy for the character of town. Birmingham’s used to being sat on quite a bit and never being as prosperous or as a fascinating and celebrated location. But it surely’s fought again. I don’t suppose different locations in our nation get pleasure from that grit, that lineage. It felt important for us to champion that. I don’t suppose Ozzy’s music is one thing that began right here and left. It’s actually stayed right here.