Birmingham Airport to Be Renamed for Ozzy Osborne?

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The UK’s Birmingham International Airport may soon be renamed for rocker Ozzy Osbourne if one record executive gets his way.

Jim Simpson, boss of Big Bear Music, is behind the effort, reports the Birmingham Mail. The call to rename the airport comes after plans for a Black Sabbath Day in the city were apparently shelved.

“Ozzy might not always have been a paragon of virtue, but he is a genuine flesh and blood Brummie,” the paper quoted Simpson as saying about the heavy metal vocalist and songwriter.

Renaming the airport for the so-called Prince of Darkness would fit right into the city’s hope to market Birmingham to tourists as a music destination. Though that plan may not come to fruition, the councilman behind the idea is open-minded about a freshly-minted airport named for Osbourne.

Councilman Philip Parkin told the Birmingham Mail, ”It’s an interesting idea and I’ve got an open mind but I think something like that would need to be consulted on fairly widely because it’s a significant part of our infrastructure.  I would be interested to know what people thought about that as an idea. I still feel in general we need to be making the most of the talent we have got and did have in this city and with something like this we have to ask people their opinion.”

Of course, if Birmingham International was named for Osbourne, it wouldn’t be the first airport in the UK to be named for a rocker. Liverpool John Lennon Airport is named for the famous Beatles member who was also a Liverpool native.