Ozzy OsbourneOzzy Osbourne will live on as a digital interactive avatar, according to his wife, Sharon and his son, Jack Osbourne.
The pair discussed their plans to remember the late heavy metal icon on the second day of this year’s Licensing Expo. They opened up about the ideas in “The Enduring Legacy of a Rock Icon and His Family: Ozzy Osbourne and The Osbournes” panel.
During the panel, Jack revealed that the family had joined forces with a company called Hyperreal, which is known for providing large AI avatars at concerts and other live events. According to Jack, they’re aiming to re-create the “digital DNA of Ozzy Osbourne, voice, image [and] movement,” License Global reports.
Sharon added that the opportunities with digital avatars are “endless.”
“It’s kind of scary how it’s really very accurate,” Jack continued. “He will exist digitally as himself for as long as we have computers.
“Technology has come such a long way to where it’s almost drag and drop. You could shoot a template for a commercial... literally prompt what you want Digital Ozzy to do in that commercial, and you just drop it in. It’s that simple now."
Sharon said the avatar would speak to people “in his own voice.” She explained, “You can ask Ozzy anything, and he will answer you in his own voice – and the answers will be what Ozzy would have said.
“We’re going to take it all around the world. People can talk to him, and he will talk back.”
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In the discussions, Sharon hinted at ideas about legacy and not forgetting a star like Ozzy Osbourne. “Elvis died 50 years ago, and everybody knows Elvis,” she said. “I just want that for Ozzy.”
As Consequence of Sound notes, Hyperreal has plenty of experience in the digital avatar space. In 2021, it produced a digitally de-aged version of Paul McCartney to feature in a music video with Beck, and at last year’s Los Angeles Comic Con, punters witnessed a digital interactive avatar of the comic book hero, Stan Lee.
Ozzy Osbourne passed away last July, just seventeen days after taking to the stage for the final time at Black Sabbath’s Back to the Beginning farewell concert.
Numerous artists paid tribute to Ozzy, including Metallica, Oasis, Yungblud, Evanescence, Judas Priest, Fall Out Boy, Halestorm, Elton John, and many others.
While Osbourne’s family were set to hold a private funeral to farewell the singer, the City of Birmingham honoured him with a public procession on 30 July.
