Several shared their personal stories, including Tom and Kellie who told the BBC how the Sabbath frontman's memory would always be kept alive at home. They named their nine-year-old son after him. "It started off as a joke really," Tom said. "We couldn't agree on a name and we just kept coming back to Ozzy.

So there was little surprise Wednesday as they made pilgrimages to sites around Birmingham, the city in central England where Osbourne grew up and the band was formed. Outside the Crown Pub, where Black Sabbath played its first gig,

Hundreds of Ozzy Osbourne fans gathered at landmarks linked to the rocker in his birthplace of Birmingham on Wednesday, while artists paid tribute to his influence on heavy metal music. Fans laid floral tributes at a bench and bridge in central England named after Black Sabbath,