That thousands of fans lined the route of Ozzy Osbourne’s funeral procession in Birmingham, England, on July 30 wasn’t the day’s most telling manifestation of his public persona’s complete rehabilitation.

That same afternoon outside Buckingham Palace in London, the Band of the Coldstream Guards stepped out smartly in their red uniform coats and black stovepipe hats for the Changing of the Guard ceremony.

Standing ramrod straight in their customary formation, they rendered a crisp, brassy arrangement of “Paranoid,” the signature anthem of Osbourne’s former band, Black Sabbath.

Short of knighthood, this was perhaps the greatest official honor to which Osbourne could have aspired.

The message delivered by the royal family’s uniformed musicians was clear: Ozzy Osbourne was a Brit in whom t

See Full Page