Legend Osbourne signs Stony Stratford illustrator’s painting.
A local artist who loves heavy rock says meeting Ozzy Osbourne felt like he was saying goodbye to his ‘Grandad’.
Illustrator Luke McDonnell, from Stony Stratford, was backstage for last weekend’s final Black Sabbath show in Birmingham after being asked to paint a picture depicting the legendary band who are attributed with inventing heavy metal.
And iconic front man Osbourne, who has Parkinson’s Disease, visited in a wheelchair to sign the painting, which later fetched £16,000 for charity at auction.
“It was great meeting Ozzy,” said Luke. “They were just about to wheel him off to his hotel and he saw the painting. They brought him over and he put his signature on there, gave me a bit of his time and we had a chat. We shook hands and he was very complimentary about the painting.
“There wasn’t a dry eye backstage. Everyone was welling up because it felt like your Grandad was saying goodbye – the grandfather of heavy metal. It was like a send-off when he left.”
Luke, a former musician, was asked by an events company to create the artwork specially for the final Black Sabbath appearance.
“They said to me ‘you’re the man for this job’ to which I replied ‘yes, I was born to do this’,” said Luke. “I snapped up the chance.
“I spent a month waiting on the call expecting to do something mega like a huge mural that was going to take weeks. In the end I had to do it on canvas in two days.
Luke plans to continue raising money for the charity Cure Parkinson’s, and other good causes including Birmingham Children’s Hospital and Acorns Children’s Hospice.
More details on Facebook: @LukeMcDonnellArt.
