Ozzy Osbourne Being Posthumously Honored With the Lord Mayor’s Award in His Hometown

Months after his death, Ozzy Osbourne is being given one of the highest honors his hometown of Birmingham, England, can bestow. The heavy metal godfather will posthumously receive the Lord Mayor’s Award.

The award recognizes “outstanding achievement or exceptional service to the city and people of Birmingham.” It will be presented on Wednesday, December 3, which would have been Ozzy’s 77th birthday. Birmingham’s Lord Mayor Zafar Iqbal MBE and Deputy Lord Mayor Ken Wood will present the tribute, and members of the Osbourne family will attend to accept on behalf of the late rock icon.

View this post on Instagram

“On 3 December—Ozzy Osbourne’s birthday—his family will receive the Lord Mayor’s Award in a heartfelt tribute to his life and legacy,” Iqbal wrote in a social media statement. “From Aston to the world stage, Ozzy defined heavy metal and carried Birmingham in his heart every step of the way. Ozzy forever!”

Ozzy’s final performance was at the ‘Back to the Beginning’ concert in July

Ozzy passed away on Tuesday, July 22. He was 76. His death came just weeks after the Back To The Beginning concert, which was the last time that Ozzy and the original lineup of Black Sabbath performed together live.

Ozzy had been living with Parkinson’s and faced multiple health issues over the last several years. His cause of death was ultimately ruled as being due to acute myocardial infarction (heart attack) and out-of-hospital cardiac arrest. Other associated factors were coronary artery disease and Parkinson’s disease with autonomic dysfunction.

Matthew Perry went to AA meetings at the Osbourne House

Following his death, Ozzy’s second, and final, memoir was published. Titled Last Rites, the book is full of interesting stories from Ozzy’s life. One such story finds Ozzy reflecting on hosting AA meetings in his home. One person who attended was the late Friends actor, Matthew Perry.

“He used to come to our house for AA meetings, or so my wife tells me,” Ozzy wrote. “The funniest, most talented bloke. And he was trying so hard to stay on the right path.”

“Then one day he listened to his addiction telling him it was OK to get loaded, and that was it—game over,” Ozzy added, referring to Perry’s tragic death at the age of 54. “I felt so sad when they said he’d been found in his hot tub, unresponsive, with ketamine in his system. He’d given everything he had to stay clean. But it wasn’t enough.”

On October 28, 2023, Perry was found unresponsive in a hot tub in his Los Angeles home. His death was later determined to have been caused by multiple factors, including the acute effects of ketamine, drowning, and coronary artery disease.