People are remembering the life of late rocker Ozzy Osbourne as he was laid to rest during a funeral service this week.
Aimee Osbourne, one of Ozzy’s three children that he shared with wife Sharon but who was not well known, made a rare appearance to say goodbye to her father.
Two of Ozzy’s children from his first marriage, including an adopted son, were not at the event.
As tributes continue pouring in, people are talking about the moving ways his wife and kids remembered their husband and father during the service.
Aimee Osbourne’s appearance at Ozzy’s funeral is getting noticed
Under partly cloudy skies in Birmingham, England, on Wednesday, July 30th, the Prince of Darkness’ friends, family, and fans gathered to say goodbye.
A hearse decorated with purple flowers, led by a marching band that played Black Sabbath songs, made its way across his hometown, with tens of thousands of fans lining the streets.
Ozzy passed away on July 22, “surrounded by love,” his family said in a press release at the time. “We ask everyone to respect our family privacy at this time,” the release said.
But during the procession, Sharon, along with their three children, Jack, Kelly, and daughter Aimee, as well as son Louis from his first marriage, were openly grieving Ozzy’s passing.
Many people noted Aimee’s presence, as she is not as widely known as her sister Kelly or brother Jack.
Sharon has said that her eldest daughter wanted no part in their show
While her birth brother and sister and parents all gained a new level of fame during the early 2000s with their MTV reality show, The Osbournes, Aimee chose not to participate.
In previous interviews, her mother, Sharon, said that Aimee was totally against sharing her life with the world.
“I know that my eldest girl, Aimée, left home at 16 and she couldn’t live in our house because we were filming and it drove her insane,” Sharon said on CBS’s The Talk in 2018.
“She felt too that she didn’t want to grow up on camera. She hated the idea. It was appalling to her.”
“It didn’t line up”: Aimee has talked about why she didn’t join The Osbournes
Aimee, meanwhile, has also talked about not wanting to be so public with her life.
In an interview with New York radio station Q104.3 in 2020, Aimee said she always knew she had no desire to appear on MTV.
“I always really valued my privacy within that family,” she told the radio station.
“And for me personally, and for who I am, you know, as far as morally and also just to give myself a chance to actually develop into a human being as opposed to just being remembered for being a teenager, it didn’t really line up with what I saw my future as.”
She ended by saying that while “It definitely worked great for the rest of my family, but for me and who I am, I just knew it was never something that I would have been able to consider realistically.”
Aimee had been at the radio station to promote her band ARO, named after her initials, Aimee Rachael Osbourne.
Pronounced like “arrow,” Rolling Stone has compared the band’s sound to Portishead, PJ Harvey, and Massive Attack.
Aimee sings lead vocals and is still active with the band today.
Two of Ozzy’s children from his first marriage did not attend the service
Two other children, meanwhile, were noticeably absent from Ozzy’s funeral service – Jessica and Elliot from his first marriage.
After marrying his first wife, Riley, in 1971, Ozzy fathered Jessica and Louis, and formally adopted Elliot, a son from Riley’s first marriage.
Louis, who was seen attending Ozzy’s final concert with Black Sabbath days before his passing, also attended the funeral services.
Ozzy’s daughter Jessica and his adopted son Elliot did not.
The pair were also left off the family’s official announcement given to the media when Ozzy passed.
People are noticing the heartfelt ways his family remembered him
Eagle-eyed netizens also noticed something else at the service: the personal ways in which his family paid tribute.
“Sharon Osbourne wearing Ozzy’s wedding ring in a chain around her neck while mourning him,” one person wrote on X.
They later wrote that the couple had exchanged the rings when they renewed their marriage in 2017, and that Ozzy used to “wear both this and the original wedding band from when they got married in 1982.”
Other people noted daughter Kelly’s round sunglasses, which were similar to the kind her father always wore.
And then there was Sharon’s final tribute: two raised hands flashing the peace sign.
Contrary to popular belief, Ozzy and Black Sabbath did not popularize the so-called “devil horns” hand gesture that is often associated with heavy metal music.
One person on Facebook noted: “It was [Ronnie James] Dio that did the horns and made them popular with rock and roll long after Ozzy had been doing the double peace signs. Let’s all please remember just another one of the things that Ozzy brought us!”
Tributes are once again pouring in from netizens as they pay tribute to late rocker Ozzy Osbourne
