Sharon Osbourne is openly considering reviving Ozzfest. In a new interview with Billboard, she said she’s already in discussions with Live Nation about what a new edition could look like, and why it mattered so much to Ozzy Osbourne in the first place.
“I’ve been talking to Live Nation about bringing [Ozzfest] back recently,” she revealed. “It was something Ozzy was very passionate about: giving young talent a stage in front of a lot of people. We really started metal festivals in this country. It was replicated but never done with the spirit of what ours was, because ours was a place for new talent. It was like summer camp for kids.”
She also put a rough window on it, saying the next iteration could potentially launch as soon as 2027, while hinting it would arrive with a different approach than the old blueprint: “I’d like to mix up the genres.”
In the same conversation, Sharon said she’s working with Live Nation on something else that’s very different from a touring metal festival: a classical tour built around Black Sabbath’s catalog, performed by local orchestras and paired with modern visuals.
The festival began 30 years ago and became a major turning point for hard rock and metal touring in the U.S., especially in terms of giving rising bands real exposure in front of massive crowds. But it hasn’t operated as a full U.S. traveling festival since the “free” edition in 2007. After that, it shifted into limited and one-off formats: a single Dallas event in 2008, a year off in 2009, and then a run of just six cities in 2010.
The modern-era highlights were more event-style than full tours. In 2017, an all-day Ozzfest drew more than 17,000 attendees, headlined by Ozzy, with Rob Zombie closing out the next day’s bill. That was also the second year Ozzfest merged with Slipknot’s Knotfest into a two-day heavy metal blowout.
Then came the one-night-only New Year’s Eve Ozzfest on December 31, 2018, at Kia Forum in Los Angeles. According to Pollstar, it drew 12,465 fans and generated $1.2 million in ticket sales, with prices ranging from $59.50 to $179.50. The lineup included Ozzy at the top, plus Rob Zombie, Marilyn Manson, Korn’s Jonathan Davis performing a solo set, and Body Count. A second stage featured Zakk Sabbath—the Black Sabbath tribute band fronted by Ozzy guitarist Zakk Wylde.
If Ozzfest really does come back, the question is whether it returns as a full-on touring institution again or evolves into a new hybrid, especially with Sharon talking about mixing genres while still keeping the original point intact: breaking newer acts in front of big crowds.
