As well as pasting a 12ft mural on a building in Broad Street the day before Ozzy’s funeral, he has created a series of commemorative banknote designs in tribute to the Black Sabbath singer, with 30 per cent of the proceeds from each sale going to Parkinson’s UK.
And the £5, £10 and £20 notes, which all feature different images of Ozzy, are flying off his website, with more than 1,000 sold already since they went online at the weekend. He has also created one dedicated to Ozzy’s Black Sabbath bandmate Tony Iommi.
Dion, aged 30 who was born in Dudley, is no stranger to creating new trends.
Billing himself as an artist, designer, protestor and activator, his portfolio of work spans sculpture, film, collage, text art, and sound. Cigarettes as well as kebabs and other foods like Haribo sweets and Monster Munch crisps feature in his collection and he also designed a series of jewellery for high street bakers Greggs.
The banknotes are printed on cotton and linen paper with a security thread and a watermark.
Dion said the reason behind the Parkinson’s UK donations was that Ozzy, who died last month at the age of 76, was diagnosed with the disease in 2019, a condition that significantly impacted his health and career until his death on July 22.
He said he painted a mural of Ozzy Osbourne on a building on Broad Street in Birmingham the day before the funeral two weeks ago and also watched the procession.
Dion said: “Ozzy has obviously been in the news with his death prompting an outpouring of grief and tributes and thousands coming out to see his funeral cortege in Birmingham. where he was born and which I was at after doing a mural of him just days before.
“To quote someone else, Ozzy was my North Star, he was the people’s prince: the Prince of Darkness and Birmingham’s son.
“He deserves to be recognised so I thought I would create the designs as a homage to him and raise money for a cause that was dear to his and of course his family’s heart.
“I think it is over 1,000 that have been sold, it seems to be one every minute – and they will remain on the website as long as they are selling and doing well for the deserving charity which is the most important thing.”
To view and buy the notes go to https://www.dionkitson.com/product-page/ozzy-osbourne-bank-notes.