Ozzy Osbourne is marking the late John Lennon's birthday by releasing a cover of his 1971 song, How?, with proceeds going to Amnesty International.
The single is an extension of the charity's 2007 anthology Instant Karma, which saw acts such as U2 and Green Day covering Lennon classics. With permission from Yoko Ono, Osbourne recorded a mournful, melancholy version of How? The accompanying music video, shot on the streets of New York, sees Osbourne dressed in black and carrying a bouquet of purple flowers. He walks to the Lennon memorial in Central Park, where he lays the flowers beside the word Imagine.
Osbourne was born eight years after Lennon. Now he is 61, there is a real poignancy to the video in which the ageing rocker salutes a peer who never had the chance to grow old. Osbourne called Lennon a "driving force for humanity". "The world stopped for me," he recently told the BBC, recalling when he heard that Lennon had been shot. "I can't even describe how I felt. But the amount of joy and hope that he gave people was just remarkable."
Lennon would have celebrated his 70th birthday on Saturday.
