Black Sabbath’s Ozzy Osbourne ‘under consideration’ for knighthood

The campaign to get Black Sabbath’s Ozzy Osbourne a knighthood has received a boost after a petition organiser received a letter from the government confirming that he is under consideration for the accolade.

Birmingham rocker Ozzy missed out on a knighthood in the latest New Year Honours list, despite the fact that thousands of people have signed a petiton aimed at getting the singer a knigthood. And won Best Rock Album and Best Metal Performance at the Grammy’s last night (Sunday, February 5) - his first Grammy since 1994. The 74 year-old Brummie legend announced his retirement from touring last week due to health issues.

Just under 35,000 have signed Helen Maidiotis’ petition for Ozzy to get knighted, and in the summer, Birmingham’s MPs called for Ozzy to be knighted. Writing to the Queen, Khalid Mahmood, Preet Gill, Gary Sambrook, Andrew Mitchell, Jess Phillips, Liam Byrne an Shabana Mahmood all called for Ozzy to receive his accolade.

Now, petition organiser Helen, who lives in Sydney, has received a letter from the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport about her quest to get the Sabbath frontman the prestigious award.

What did the letter say?

The department confirmed that the case for Ozzy to receive a knighthood remains ‘under consideration’.

The letter said: “As you aware Mr OSbourne has been under consideration for an honour for a while. Unfortunately to date he has been usuccessful. As I am sure you will appreciate there is extremely fierce competition for the very limited number of awards available.

“The fact that Mr OSbourne is not recognised by an honour does not mean that his contribution is not appreciated. With some 1,000 awards available in each round, and perhaps seix or seven times, unfortunately it is not possible for every candidate, however valuable their service, to succeed.

“However I can confirm this case remains under consideration at this time. However, we can unfortunately give no guarantee as to the eventual outcome or timescale.”