Fans across the world are paying tribute to heavy metal icon Ozzy Osbourne as he is laid to rest in his native Birmingham. Now we take a look at some more out-there celebrity funerals
Family, friends and fans are gathering for the funeral of Ozzy Osbourne in his beloved Birmingham hometown. It’s sure to be a memorable send-off after today’s triumphant parade through the city streets.
And in tribute to the bat-biting rock legend, we’ve been digging through hearse-tory. Here we reveal the most brilliant – and bonkers – celebrity burial requests…
That’s a rap: Shockwaves rippled when Tupac Shakur was shot dead aged 25 in 1996. On his track Black Jesuz, recorded a month before the tragedy, the hip-hop star asked friends to one day smoke his ashes – and they obliged.
“We took that s*** serious,” confirmed pal E.D.I Mean, a member of his Outlawz crew. What a spliffin’ send-off!
A little respect: Aretha Franklin hit all the right notes for her final act. In a celebration fit for the Queen of Soul, who died in 2018, she was brought to and from the service in a vintage 1940 hearse that had previously carried Rosa Parks.
Stylish Aretha also dressed in four different fabulous outfits for her open-casket viewings. A diva until the end, she was buried in a gold gown and sparkling pumps.
A wake all night… No-one can accuse American icon Janis Joplin of being a party pooper. Days before her untimely demise from a heroin overdose in October 1970, the then-27-year-old requested that $2,500 be put aside for her wake.
It paid for chums to throw an absolute rager at her favourite bar, The Lion’s Share, in California. Invitations read “Drinks are on Pearl” – Janis’s nickname.
Leia’d to rest: Carrie Fisher, aka Star Wars icon Princess Leia, never lost her morbid sense of humour, even on her deathbed in 2016.
Fisher, who was always refreshingly frank about her bipolar disorder, had one last laugh when her ashes were placed inside a large Prozac pill-shaped urn. Her brother Todd quipped it “was where she would want to be.”
Beam me up: Gene Roddenberry, the creator of Star Trek, wasn’t afraid to boldly go where no man has gone before – even when he was six feet under.
Unsurprisingly, Gene’s lifelong desire was to travel space. So, when he passed in October 1991, missus Majel asked NASA to help fulfill his wish. They agreed and, the following year, his ashes were launched into the Great Unknown aboard the shuttle Columbia.
Blast off: US journalist and author Hunter S. Thompson, best known for his tome Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas, left no page unturned before shuffling off this mortal coil. The writer, who died by suicide at 67 in 2005, requested that his ashes be shot out of a cannon.
During the ceremony, attended by actor Johnny Depp, Hunter’s remnants were catapulted from a 153ft-tower amid a fireworks display as Norman Greenbaum’s Spirit in the Sky played.
Such a funghi: Former teen heartthrob Luke Perry, of Beverly Hills 90210 fame, did his bit for the planet thanks to an eco-friendly compostible mushroom suit.
The actor – who passed away from a massive stroke at 52 in 2019 – was an avid environmentalist. His daughter Sophie shared that he wanted to be buried in said suit to neutralise toxins and help surrounding plant life.
Source: Celebrities - dailystar.co.uk
