“It’s more than just an exhibition. People want to be part of something, whether that’s signing the condolence book or just being part of a bigger event”: Inside the Birmingham museum that’s keeping Ozzy Osbourne’s legacy alive

Ozzy Osbourne posing for a photograph in the early 2000s.

If you’ve ever been at a gig or festival and seen a threadbare old t-shirt from tours decades past and thought, ‘Christ, that belongsin 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, it has received around 450,000 visitors since it opened, and has now been extended to September.

“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 Museums Trust. “But 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 10 years.”