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By the mid 1990s, touring festivals were big business in the U.S. Encouraged by the success of the pioneering Lollapalooza, new names like Blues Traveler’s jam-oriented H.O.R.D.E. Festival and Kevin Lyman’s punk-focused Warped Tour became major players in the summer live music landscape.
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But no festival served to both bolster and encapsulate a scene as wholly and perfectly as Ozzfest, the heavy metal juggernaut that slashed its way across America – and, in time, much of the world – from 1996 to 2018. Conceived by Sharon Osbourne, manager and wife of Ozzy Osbourne, as something of a middle finger to Lollapalooza, Ozzfest quickly defined itself as much more than mere payback. Rather, it was a roving nerve center for the multi-generational metal faithful, as well as a breeding ground and sometimes kingmaker for a wave of new (or, as some would label them, “nu”) metal superstars. “Anybody who was anybody played,” says Slipknot percussionist Shawn “Clown” Crahan. “Socially, culturally, it was the place to be.”
The cred was built in from day one: Sharon and Ozzy were metal royalty, and for the two inaugural Ozzfest dates in 1996, and most tours thereafter, Ozzy served as main stage (and, occasionally, second stage) headliner. The following year, Sharon engineered a Black Sabbath reunion – at that time, a Halley’s Comet-like event – as the main attraction. For metal fans, Ozzfest was a can’t-miss affair; for bands, especially newer ones, a slot on the bill was akin to being anointed. “The value that Sharon brought to the entire industry with Ozzfest can’t be amplified enough,” says Judas Priest singer Rob Halford.
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Ozzfest staged its final show, a one-off, in 2018, and its days as a touring concern ended years earlier. But its impact is still apparent today, whether in the success of gold- and platinum-selling, arena-dwelling metal bands – Slipknot, Disturbed, System of a Down and Lamb of God among them – that cut their teeth on the tour, or in the many metal-focused festivals and cruises, from Slipknot’s Knotfest to Lamb of God’s Headbangers Boat to 2023’s Power Trip extravaganza at the Coachella site, that emerged in its wake. Whether the tour will one day be resurrected, as is occasionally rumored, remains to be seen. Until then, here is the story of Ozzfest, as told by Ozzy, Sharon and many of the principals and players who were there.
In 1996, Ozzfest is born.
Rob Halford (singer, Judas Priest): Sharon was the first person to put together a touring festival of this magnitude for heavy metal. And what she created was opportunity – not only for new metal bands, but for all types of metal bands. All dimensions of metal were being displayed, from classic metal like Priest and Sabbath to nu metal, death metal, black metal… every kind of metal experience was shown from those stages.
Dale “Opie” Skjerseth (production manager, Ozzfest): There was Lollapalooza at the time, and there were a few other festivals. But this was a fully heavy metal fest. I’d never seen anything like that.
Sharon Osbourne (manager; cofounder, Ozzfest): So what happened was, in 1996 I said to my agents for Ozzy, “Ozzy should be on Lollapalooza.” They went and asked, and the response was, “Ozzy’s not relevant.”
Ozzy Osbourne (artist; cofounder, Ozzfest): They said, “Ozzy is a dinosaur.” Sharon got pissed off about that.
Sharon Osbourne: I said, basically, “F–k you – I’ll show you how relevant he is!” I was so furious at the way they disrespected him as an artist.
Ozzy Osbourne: “You know what I’m gonna do? I’m gonna do the Ozzfest.” I thought she’d f–king gone nuts.
Jane Holman (promotor liaison, Ozzfest): The prototype for the touring Ozzfest was in 1996, and it was just two shows – Arizona [at the Blockbuster Desert Sky Pavilion in Phoenix] and Southern California [at the Blockbuster Pavilion in San Bernardino, Calif.]. I had just moved to Los Angeles from Houston to work with John Meglen on creating PACE Touring, and we all went to the Ozzfest in San Bernardino and said, “Ooh, this is cool.”
The seven-band main stage bill that year was headlined by Ozzy Osbourne, with direct support from metal heavyweights Slayer and Danzig. A smaller second stage featured newcomers and cult acts like hardcore unit Earth Crisis, industrial-metal combo Fear Factory and L.A. “spookycore” troupe Coal Chamber.
Dez Fafara (singer, Coal Chamber, DevilDriver): In San Bernardino, Coal Chamber played the second stage – basically a makeshift thing in the center of a field, maybe 11:00 in the morning. But I looked to the left of me, and there was Sharon Osbourne. When I got offstage, she said, “Hey, when you cool off I wanna have a conversation with you.” Which of course made me a little nervous. But we talked and she said, “I’d love to manage you, and I’d love to put you on the rest of these Ozzfests. We’re gonna be moving this thing around the country next year.” I was a street kid from L.A., living with my whole band in a tiny studio. It changed my life.
Holman: I talked with Sharon after that show and she expressed an interest in making Ozzfest a touring property. So we launched in 1997 and just cruised for the next five, six years, 10 years.
Sharon Osbourne: I was like, “I believe in it, let’s go for it.”
Holman: We were pretty sold that it was going to work. And we liked the idea of staying true to metal. At that time Lollapalooza was kind of all over the board as far as genres go. But we said, “We are metal.” We stuck to that theme and the lifestyle around it.
Sharon Osbourne: In the U.K. and Europe all the festivals were very mix-and-match. I mean, Black Sabbath played with Rod Stewart. We loved that, but we wanted one genre. We wanted to do a heavy metal/hard rock tour.
Halford: The enthusiasm was just ginormous in ’96. And you’ve got to remember, this is in the advent of the internet days, so people are still looking at Metal Maniacs and all these magazines for information and listening to the ever-important radio for news about this thing called Ozzfest. Ozzy and Sharon have put it together, and there’s all these bands and… Ozzy’s going to play, too! And the kids were going, “We want this.” Because it was an experience. And it was not happening anywhere else.
Shawn “Clown” Crahan (percussionist, background vocalist, Slipknot): Slipknot was just starting out, and after practices we would watch that little VHS video tape they put out of the first year [The Ozzfest: Live] that had Earth Crisis, Coal Chamber, Neurosis, Slayer, a bunch of the bands. We’re practicing, practicing, practicing, we’re watching the tape over and over and over, just dreaming: “Wouldn’t it be cool if one day we could be accepted, and people liked us? We could be on this festival, we could play, and then, you know, go watch Earth Crisis!”
Fafara: I remember sitting on the bus that night after the San Bernardino show and having a conversation with my guitar player, Miguel, saying, “If this festival happens next year, it’s gonna be massive. And it’s gonna move heaven and earth for a lot of heavy metal bands that get the chance to be on it.”
Ozzfest kicked off in earnest in 1997 and did it in grand fashion. The tour’s first year as a moving festival boasted a co-headlining package of monumental proportions: Ozzy performing a solo set, followed by the long-awaited reunion of the original Black Sabbath (albeit with Faith No More and Osbourne solo band drummer Mike Bordin in place of Sabbath’s Bill Ward, who was not invited to participate). The remainder of the main stage lineup was star-packed, highlighted by Marilyn Manson, then in full Antichrist Superstar mode (at the time, Manson and his band were labeled “the sickest group ever promoted by a mainstream record company” by then Connecticut senator Joe Lieberman, and were routinely picketed by Christian groups at venues), Pantera and Type O Negative.
Holman: We launched with Black Sabbath in 1997, and that gave it a little bit more of a push.
Sharon Osbourne: There were still a lot of personal feelings between everybody in the band. It gets to that silly level where you start nitpicking at each other, but I was ready for that. The guys met a few times, sorted it out, and it was great.
Randy Blythe (singer, Lamb of God): It made sense to have them there because they’re the very first heavy metal band. And I’ll fight anybody that wants to argue with me about it.
Skjerseth: It was a huge deal having Sabbath there. It was important to everybody. And it was the beginning of them reuniting for a few Ozzfests over the years, eventually with Bill Ward again. Every single one of those bands had such respect for those guys.
Blythe: We’re all just like a bunch of younger moons orbiting around the planet of Black Sabbath.
On the day of the June 17 show at the Polaris Amphitheater in Columbus, Ohio, Osbourne lost his voice. Following Marilyn Manson’s set, an announcement was made that neither Black Sabbath nor Ozzy would be performing that evening, resulting in a riot at the venue.
Ozzy Osbourne: When you go on the road and you’ve gotta do two sets, it’s too much. It’s all right for a couple of shows, but that was too much for me. I took on more than I could deal with.
Holman: We knew early in the afternoon that Ozzy wasn’t feeling well, and that he wasn’t going to be able to make it to the show. But we got through Manson, and then we had to make the announcement: “We’re sorry. Ozzy’s not well. He’s not going to appear.” Pantera came out with guys from a couple of the other bands and they did some Ozzy songs, which was great. But these were people that had been out there all day, jazzed up to see Black Sabbath. The sh-t hit the fan.
Sharon Osbourne: There was chaos at the venue. We were stuck on a plane on the runway, trying to get a doctor for Ozzy, and I was getting all this information on the phone. It was like, “Oh my god, what do we do?” It was not good.
Skjerseth: The crowd went bananas. Tore the grass up and threw it at us, giant mud fights and bonfires out in the field…
Holman: The box office manager was hiding in the safe, as I recall. Because it was a lot of destruction. And that stuff builds on itself. There was a bomb scare. They ripped the air conditioner unit off the box office building. Destroyed a display car on the plaza. It was scary.
Skjerseth: Well, I worked for Guns N’ Roses before that, so honestly not much scared me anymore.
Over the next few years Ozzfest continued to stack the festival’s main stage with metal’s biggest names: Tool, Megadeth, Judas Priest, Iron Maiden, and return trips for Ozzy, Sabbath, Pantera, Slayer and others. But for many fans, the main attraction was the up-and-comers raising hell on the much smaller, often much wilder, second stage.
Ozzy Osbourne: I know what it’s like to start a band off. When Sabbath started, we couldn’t get a gig in f–king hell. So Sharon says, “We’re gonna have two stages, and we’re gonna have big bands, and also new bands.” Which is a great idea.
Sharon Osbourne: In a way that second stage was more important to us, because to give new bands the opportunity of playing in front of a large audience is an amazing thing to do. You want to pass the torch from one to another.
Fafara: Instead of spending four years in the trenches, traveling from town to town in a van and opening up shows in clubs, you could get out and play in front of so many more people and elevate your career with a quickness.
Shawn Crahan of Slipknot performing at Ozzfest in 2001.
J. Shearer/WireImage)
Ozzy Osbourne: I remember when Slipknot broke through. It was f–king great.
Mick Thomson (guitarist, Slipknot): Ozzfest in ’99 was our first-ever tour. Our first record didn’t even come out until halfway through it. If I was the one running things, I would’ve been like, “Hey, your record’s not out yet? Get f–ked!” Thankfully I wasn’t in charge of band selection that day.
Crahan: Slipknot, we owe the Osbournes a lot. They launched us. Because we were nothing. So we had to go out there and prove it. But the thing with us is when we’re together and we’re onstage, it’s us against everybody. Six songs, 25 minutes, we went hard that summer.
Fafara: I mean, it’s nine guys in masks. Like, what are you gonna do? I’m a huge KISS fan – I grew up in the KISS Army. And that generation’s KISS is f–king Slipknot, you know?
David Draiman (singer, Disturbed): We opened the side stage on the very first day of Ozzfest 2000. Way the hell early. There was, literally, 20, 30 people in front of us when we first got up there. By the time the set was done, there were about four or 5,000. It was a very surreal moment. Like, “This is the stage you wanted to be on. Now you’ve gotta show them why you belong up here.”
Skjerseth: We’d be ready for a band to start playing on the second stage at eight o’clock in the morning. And changeovers between bands were one to two minutes. The last three bands would be the headliners, and then the other second stage acts would rotate. So somebody different would get that sh-t slot at eight, 8:20 a.m. or whatever.
Holman: I think that most often those rotating bands were paid. But they weren’t paid a heck of a lot. It was exposure. Some were supported by their record company, because you could still actually get record company money back then.
Sharon Osbourne: When you’re doing a festival, there’s press from all over the world at every gig. So if the record company wanted to pay, it was like, “We’ll take it.” But we would only book a band if we liked them. I wouldn’t put on a sh-t band just to take the money.
Ozzy Osbourne: Everybody thought we were making millions of dollars off it, which we weren’t.
Blythe: For us it was just huge crowds at the second stage. We had our fans that came, but then we were also getting a lot of exposure to old-school Black Sabbath fans. Judas Priest fans. Slayer fans. Because all those bands were on the bill, too. It was a real expansion of our base. I can’t even count how many times over the years I’ve heard, “I saw Lamb of God for the first time on Ozzfest ‘04 and instantly became a fan.”
Skjerseth: There was structure on the second stage, but we had to go out there and police it a few times because it got kind of… it became the Wild West.
Draiman: A pavilion has seats, and that has sort of an anesthetizing effect on a crowd. A side stage is not the same environment. You have to move the mass of bodies that are all up against one another. It’s a different type of energy that’s required.
Blythe: We just caused massive, massive amounts of chaos on that ’04 tour when we played. It was a take-no-prisoners, f–k everyone sort of vibe. But in a friendly sense, of course.
Crahan: Slipknot were playing Spokane, Washington, the Gorge [Amphitheatre], and I cut my head open onstage. I cut it on a mic stand – it’s a long story. I was totally unconscious, and they pulled me down the ramp and tried to take me away in an ambulance. I was like, “Hold on, I wanna watch the rest of ‘Wait and Bleed.’ ” And I just kept telling the ambulance people, “Look at that band!” I’m watching my band play, and they’re f–king out of control. They didn’t even know I was gone!
Sharon Osbourne: The adrenaline with that band, on that stage… they would bash into each other, it was wild. I’m going, “Oh god, one of these guys is going to get really badly hurt.”
Crahan: I went to the hospital and got stitches in my eyes. And when I got back I was told I had to go talk to Sharon. I was so scared. I got there and she just reprimanded me… the way that I needed to be reprimanded, honestly. I needed someone to remind me of my responsibilities. It was something to the effect of, “I’m not your mother, and I’m not gonna be your mother. You need chill the f–k out.”
Blythe: I developed a bit of a relationship with Sharon because I would get called to the office for whatever misbehaving I had done. Like, we weren’t supposed to stage dive because of insurance and all that, so that didn’t go over well. So I would get scolded. But it was always a little bit of a “You’re a naughty boy” kind of vibe. Like, “You shouldn’t be doing this, but it’s pretty funny.”
Sharon Osbourne: It was like going to the head mistress.
Skjerseth: We had people hijacking golf carts and driving them through the audience, all that kind of stuff.
Blythe: I don’t know if anybody knows how easy it is to steal a golf cart. You ruin the ignition jamming a screwdriver in there, but we were always stealing golf carts and rolling them and destroying them. Me and [late Slipknot bassist] Paul Gray, rest in peace, stole quite a few golf carts together and went on adventures. I remember one time at Isleta Amphitheater [formerly Journal Pavilion] in New Mexico, we rolled one of those things down a hill with, like, 10 or 12 people hanging off the side. I’m surprised nobody broke their neck, man.
Draiman: We’d have races, we’d go down hills with them. We’d do things that we really were not supposed to do with them by any sense of safety or decorum or anything else. It was nuts. But we were young and it was celebratory and we were all in our time.
Blythe: The second stage, we were all just a bunch of savage animals basically. It was a separate world. But there was a real feeling of community. I made lifelong friends.
Fafara: That was the first place I ever met Randy. He was hilarious. He used to walk around with a bottle of whiskey and a whip in his hand, whipping everything in the air. People would go in the porta potties he’d be whipping the porta potties. And I just remember going, “What the f–k has this guy got this whip for?”
Ozzy Osbourne: The spirit of the Ozzfest backstage was like a f–king campout.
Fafara: What was going on backstage and the that was going on in tour buses, you couldn’t do that now. People would go to court, to jail. It was insane both in its excess and its debauchery.
As much as the stacked Ozzfest lineups excited fans, the bills were similarly thrilling for the acts playing the shows. Bands could watch one another perform, and sometimes even play together, and younger musicians often got to meet their heroes for the first time.
Draiman: The Pantera guys were a huge part of teaching us the ropes on Ozzfest. [Drummer] Vinnie [Paul] and Dime [guitarist “Dimebag” Darrell], may they both rest in peace, were huge fans. When we were on the main stage [in 2003] they came out and played with us. We used to make that a tradition. They were a huge part of what made us fall in love with Ozzfest, you know, other than Ozzy himself, of course.
Maynard James Keenan (singer, Tool): Ozzy, I mean, that’s why I was there.
Draiman: I would always go watch Ozzy. I would always go watch Pantera. That first year I would watch Kittie. There were so many great bands, and I have no problem being the spectator. I love being the spectator. It inspires me. Watching other bands throw down, it made you want to play harder.
Crahan: I got to watch Bill Ward play, bro! And then everybody under Sabbath – Slayer, Rob Zombie, Deftones supporting White Pony, just one act after another.
Fafara: I remember catering was the most fun thing in the world on those tours. Because everybody was in catering. And I was wide-eyed. That’s the first time I met [Pantera singer] Phil Anselmo. I’d be having a conversation with Rob Halford. Or Ozzy’s sitting there – “Dez, come sit down!” It’s like, “Holy f–k – I’m eating with Ozzy!”
Crahan: All your peers were there. I would go watch everybody, and just sit and learn.
Draiman: You get up there and you’ve got, you know, members of Slipknot or Manson or whoever watching from both sides of the stage… and over in Stage Left monitor world, there’s Ozzy himself! We all felt like the spotlight was on us and we did our best to rise to the occasion.
Crahan: Ozzy would come out once in a while when we were playing and lean over the monitor board and kind of wave at us.
Ozzy Osbourne: I would occasionally try and go watch the bands. Sometimes I was doing other things. But Slipknot, that was f–king so entertaining. Korn were f–king great as well. So were Tool. Rob Zombie. Judas Priest, great. Motörhead, of course. I miss Lemmy [Kilmister] every f–king day.
Keenan: We got the Melvins on the second stage [with Motörhead, in 1998]. I was excited to watch them really annoy the f–k out of people. They have so many amazing songs, but they were like, “You know what? We’re just gonna play that one-note song for 25 minutes today…”
Blythe: I remember sitting side stage once in California for Black Sabbath, and James Hetfield was there. I didn’t really know him then, but all I could think was, I’m right behind James Hetfield, looking at him looking at Bill Ward playing drums with Black Sabbath. This is incredible!
Mark Morton and Randy Blythe of Lamb of God at OZZFEST in 2004.
Mick Hutson/Redferns
In its first few summers, Ozzfest emerged as an immediate triumph. Its debut traveling outing in 1997 was that year’s second-highest grossing touring festival, behind the similarly new Lilith Fair. Taking stock of its run between 1996 and 2003, Billboard Boxscore reported that Ozzfest grossed $147.4 million and sold 3.8 million tickets over 237 dates. In time, Ozzfest shows were staged everywhere from the U.K. and mainland Europe to Israel and Japan.
Halford: The start of the 2000s, Ozzfest was just larger than life. It was the event that everybody looked forward to. Everybody was eager to find out, you know, “On this date, Sharon and Ozzy are going to let us know who’s gonna appear on the fest this year.” There was a tremendous, tremendous amounts of energy around it.
Holman: As I recall, 2000, 2001, that period, were the bonus years. I think we were either the highest or the second highest-grossing festival for a couple of those years.
Skjerseth: It was running very well. And in that time, what was the other one? Warped Tour was out there. And then there were a few others that were moving along. But Ozzfest was one of the biggest, because of what it was achieving and what we were making happen.
Fafara: Sharon knew it was a smart idea to put a on a heavy metal, that’s-all-that-we’re-playing-today festival. And that if she made sure that that genre had its comeuppance, and had its day in court, everybody would come. And surely everybody did.
As much as Ozzfest functioned as a showcase for burgeoning acts on the second stage, it was the festival’s ability to line up colossal metal legends next to one another on the main stage – sometimes for the first time ever – that made it an experience unlike any other for fans of the genre. One such bill came in 2004, when Ozzfest was headlined by a fully reunited Black Sabbath, with metal icons and fellow Birmingham, England, natives Judas Priest – also in the midst of an historic reunion moment, with the return of singer Rob Halford after an eleven-year absence – in direct support. (The main stage was rounded out by Slayer, Dimmu Borgir, Superjoint Ritual and Black Label Society.)
Halford: To get Priest and Sabbath, the originators of heavy metal, side by side? That was a really big deal.
Holman: I thought a highlight of the whole thing, maybe other people disagreed, was the show [on Aug. 26, in Camden, New Jersey] when Rob Halford came out and did all the Black Sabbath songs. Which was freaking awesome.
Halford: That was an extraordinary day. I got a call from Sharon at my hotel, saying, “Ozzy’s not feeling too well. I don’t think he’s going to be able to perform. Would you help out?” I said, “Yeah, any time. When do you want me to do it?” She goes, “Tonight.” This is, like, about five hours before showtime.
Sharon Osbourne: I knew that Rob wouldn’t let us down. First of all, the friendship goes back so many years.
Ozzy Osbourne: Priest, my mates.
Halford: Sharon said, “You can do it. You can do it.” So I asked her, “Can you quickly send me the show?” They couriered a VHS tape to the hotel, and on the way from the hotel to the venue I put the VHS on in the bus and just sang along with the Sabbath performance. When I got there, I did the pre-show, had a shower, and then went out and did the Sabbath gig 20 minutes later.
Holman: I mean, this is a once-in-a-lifetime event. I thought people should pay double for it.
Sharon Osbourne: It was fantastic for everybody involved, for the audience, for everyone there. Rob saved our ass, because we didn’t want to let the fans down.
Halford: I’ve made it known throughout my years as a metal singer that the two biggest bands in my life are Priest and Sabbath. There’s just an affinity between us. So it felt like not only the right thing for me to do, but the natural thing for me to do. And it was an absolute thrill.
The following summer, Ozzfest lined up another must-see British metal twosome: Black Sabbath headlining again, this time preceded by Iron Maiden. Unlike with Judas Priest, the pairing was not copacetic. Throughout the summer, reports surfaced of Maiden vocalist Bruce Dickinson taking public shots at Ozzy, including mocking him for appearing in a reality television show [the then-popular The Osbournes], and criticizing aspects of the tour itself.
Holman: Having Iron Maiden on Ozzfest, although it was good for ticket sales, probably wasn’t a very good idea. There had always been bad blood between Sabbath and Iron Maiden. And I’d rather not go into specifics on that. But I don’t think Sharon was crazy about having them there.
Sharon Osbourne: It was just the singer. The other guys in the band are great, great people. No problem at all. But when you’ve got a singer that is so eaten up with jealousy for the headliner, it never goes well.
Ozzy Osbourne: He would go on the stage and turn to the audience and say bad things. Be disrespectful. “I didn’t condone the f–king lights,” and all this. If you don’t want the gig, just say, “I don’t want the gig.” But it’s pretty f–king stupid if you accept the gig and all you do is complain about it.
Sharon Osbourne: I just kept saying, “Let him do it. Let him do it. He’ll get it.” And on the last day, he did.
Holman: It did not end well, on any level.
On Aug. 20 in San Bernardino, Iron Maiden’s final show of the tour, Sharon took revenge. During Maiden’s set, audience members began hurling eggs and other debris at the stage. Mid-set, frontman Dickinson responded: “You may have noticed a few wise asses that decided they would go down to the supermarket and buy a few f–king eggs and start throwing them at us down in the front. I guess they thought it would be funny. Well, this is an English f–king flag and these colors do not f–king run from you a–wipes!” Eventually the band’s power was cut.
Sharon Osbourne: I had been having cancer treatments, and all the nurses that I had met over my year in chemo came to the show and they said, “Can we do anything for you?” And I’m like, “Yes, you can.” I loaded them up with cans of bean soup, vegetables, eggs, and I said, “Pelt the singer.” And that’s what they did.
Crahan: Slipknot played that show. And I was very close to the front of the stage and saw it all start to happen. I saw people come out and I could feel something was going on. And I also felt, “There’s a lot of English stuff happening here.” It just felt very personal and very serious. I thought, I probably shouldn’t be here… So I got out of there.
Sharon Osbourne: It was like, “You wanna talk? You think you’re clever? Well, watch this – you’re gonna get covered in tomato soup in L.A.”
Blythe: Sharon is a no-nonsense lady.
Holman: I love Sharon to death. She’s absolutely great. But if I did anything that she didn’t like, I have no doubt that she would murder me.
Sharon Osbourne: I just thought, “You’re taking the money to be on this tour, and you’re disrespecting the namesake of the tour. You’re disrespecting him by knocking him every night to the fans.” I don’t like that. It’s not in the spirit of what we do.
Ozzy Osbourne: If you feel that bad about the tour, f–king leave!
In 2007, Ozzfest organizers took a radical approach to ticketing in an effort to keep excitement around the festival at a peak. That year, Ozzfest announced a first-of-its-kind “free” tour, dubbed “Freefest,” with tickets given away to fans.
Holman: Everything has a shelf life. Look at Lollapalooza, before it came back in the 2000s. Scenes change. Generations change. By 2007, we wanted to try something new. That’s when we thought, “Well, why don’t we make it a free show?”
Per a Live Nation press release from June 14, 2007: “More than 428,000 tickets in all were given away through LiveNation.com, marking the largest number of free tickets distributed in the United States in the history of the concert business. The tickets were completely free without surcharges of any kind.”
Sharon Osbourne: It had never been done. And you explain to me, it was free… and it didn’t sell out! Can you believe that? Because everybody was going, “Well, what’s the twist here?”
Fafara: I just said to myself, “How the hell are you gonna pay anybody?”
Blythe: We got paid.
Skjerseth: We were on a tight budget. But we adapted. You just had to work a little harder to make things right.
Holman: It was, “Let’s go out and get the most sponsors that we can,” things like that. But financially it was just one of those things. Because a lot of the tickets ended up going to scalpers, which… don’t get me started on scalpers.
Skjerseth: I didn’t feel that year was successful in the sense of, when you give something away for free, that’s all it is to people – free. You give something away, people are like, “Oh, it’s raining out, I’m not going.”
Fafara: It definitely worked. I mean, it was insane. [DevilDriver]’s merch numbers were crazy. Our show was amazing. And the Jägermeister tent was kicking hard.
Blythe: It was successful. I can’t remember the business of it, but I was like, “Whoa, I don’t know how they pulled it off.” And we were grateful to be there. God bless them for somehow pulling off the free Ozzfest. We had a good time.
In 2010, Ozzfest staged its final tour. In subsequent years, the Ozzfest brand came back for one-off shows: in Japan in 2013 and 2015, and in San Bernardino in 2016 and 2017, in tandem with the Slipknot-led Knotfest, for two-day events dubbed Ozzfest Meets Knotfest. A 2018 show on New Year’s Eve at the Forum in Inglewood, Calif. — headlined by Ozzy — currently stands as the last-ever Ozzfest show.
Skjerseth: The last year Ozzfest toured was the one with Mötley Crüe. After that they would do a show here and there. I was in and out. I did the Knotfest one, which was great. It was one night of Ozzfest and one night of Knotfest.
Ozzy Osbourne: Knotfest, we passed the torch on.
Crahan: When we were coming up with Knotfest, a lot of the embedded ideas obviously came from Ozzfest. Like, second stage, with a great band to headline it, other bands doing it, different things going on, all these nuts and bolts were all driven home by Ozzfest. And so when we did that joint thing, it made sense. I mean, that’s our lineage.
Holman: We did a 20-year reunion at the Ozzfest Meets Knotfest show in San Bernardino in 2016. We had a lot of the veterans from previous Ozzfests come out, which was great. Because you become a family. You’re getting together every year, like freak Thanksgiving.
Sharon Osbourne: I just remember the last Ozzfest we did [in 2018] was Ozzy’s very last show. He had two-and-a-half years of dates booked after that. Who knew that he would have a major accident that would end it all. Who knew? [In 2019, Osbourne suffered a fall at his Los Angeles home, aggravating injuries from an earlier ATV accident and requiring multiple surgeries.]
Halford: I hope that Sharon is thinking about bringing the Ozzfest back. Because people want to go to an Ozzfest experience. And what she did was generate an enormous amount of interest beyond the Ozzfest experience. She brought a lot of people to the table, and that’s often overlooked.
Fafara: She changed people’s worlds. I don’t think System of a Down, I don’t think Deftones, I don’t think Slipknot, I don’t think Cold Chamber, I don’t think DevilDriver would’ve been who we are without Sharon Osbourne coming up with the idea for the Ozzfest. I think everybody owes her a great debt. She’s a f–king shot caller and she gave me the shot. She gave me the shot twice.
Crahan: We did Ozzfest three times, did it differently all three times. And it was life-changing all three times.
Blythe: As far as the metal festivals here in America, they’re all kind of “Son of Ozzfest.” That was the first, and to my mind, so far, it’s the best.
Draiman: It was a proving ground. And it was an incubator for the next generation of headliners. The Osbournes created a community with this traveling circus of sorts, and it was an amazing idea.
Ozzy Osbourne: It must’ve been a good idea! Because everybody seems to be doing their own fests now.
Sharon Osbourne: There’s more and more every year. Isn’t it fantastic?
Blythe: I keep waiting for Sharon to resurrect it and bring us all back together one more time.
Halford: I’m sure if she did it, it would be successful.
Fafara: I think there’s so many bands right now that could benefit from it and that need a tour like that. So I’ll just say this now, and it isn’t just me being selfish: I would love nothing more than to have that festival come back. And if it does, put me on the main stage!
Ozzy Osbourne: I’d love it to happen again, yeah. Even if I couldn’t do a gig there myself.
Sharon Osbourne: We get asked about [Ozzfest returning] all the time. And I honestly don’t know. After Ozzy’s accident, I don’t look into the future much. I would love the name to carry on for my husband, but I can’t plan long term right now. I just live in the day.
Keenan: Credit to Sharon for putting it together and doing her best to manage the whole thing.
Sharon Osbourne: I just said, “Let’s just give it a shot,” you know? “I’ve got nothing to lose, let’s try and make it happen.” I went full steam ahead and I was going to have nothing stop me. I was just concerned about doing it and making a statement. And that’s what we did.
When Argentine musicians Gustavo Cerati, Zeta Bosio and Charly Alberti released their debut album as Soda Stereo 40 years ago, regional success was the ceiling for most Latin rock bands. In the early ‘80s, most Latin American rockers didn’t tour outside of their home country, much less play Anglo-style arena rock to tens of thousands of fans.
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Until Soda Stereo.
The band’s eponymous debut album, released on Aug. 27, 1984, on Discos CBS, laid the groundwork for Sodamania — a passion characterized by hordes of screaming fans wherever the trio went, not unlike the frenzy surrounding the band’s Liverpudlian idols, The Beatles. On the strength of their sophisticated songcraft and high-energy live shows, Soda Stereo’s fame spread throughout Latin America; tours would take them as far north as Mexico and even into the U.S., where the band was the first Latin rock act to headline a tour in the country.
For many Latin rock fans, their first concert experience was seeing Soda Stereo live. “Back in the early ‘80s, we had a huge musical void in Latin America,” recalls Miguel Gálvez, a former radio journalist in Mexico who launched a petition to get Soda Stereo inducted into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame.
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“A heavily growing segment of young people, between 15 to 25 years old, was uninterested in what Latin music had to offer — but totally into the music coming from the English-speaking world with bands like U2, The Cure, Depeche Mode and The Police.”
That “void,” he says, was also a result of Latin music at the time not reflecting the reality of millions of young Latin Americans “who were breaking up with old traditions and paradigms” as dictatorships in Argentina and Chile were beginning to crumble. Soda Stereo emerged at an auspicious moment, and the band’s first album even took note of the generational shift underway in the outro of the song “Dietético”: “El regimen se acabó, se acabó!” (the regime is over) Cerati exclaimed. Democracy had returned to his country the prior year, following the collapse of Argentina’s military dictatorship, and the times were changing. “With Soda Stereo,” Gálvez continues, “we discovered that great rock was possible in our own language, with lyrics closer to our own reality. Soda Stereo became the band that made us proud to be Latino.”
By the time the group broke up in 1997, it had produced seven studio albums, sold millions of units and headlined tours that were drawing audiences of more than 100,000 — an unheard-of level of success for a Latin rock group, at least back then. And as a testament to the group’s enduring appeal, Gálvez’s Rock Hall petition has collected more than 36,000 signatures from 67 countries.
Cerati — Soda Stereo’s charismatic frontman, guitarist and principal songwriter — died in 2014 at age 55 of respiratory failure, after suffering a stroke that left him hospitalized in 2010. To mark the band’s 40th anniversary, Billboard caught up with bassist Bosio and drummer Alberti, who not only went deep on four highlights from the group’s discography but revealed that previously unreleased music is on the way.
“About the songs, it was very particular — because, as a matter of fact, the songs would come out from the three of us together,” Alberti says. “We composed and made song bases all the time, we rehearsed all week long, including Saturdays and Sundays, and the song bases were coming from those rehearsals. And Gustavo would add the melody and the lyrics to those bases to finish the songs.”
There’s A Previously Unreleased Song Coming Soon
Alberti confirms the forthcoming release of a song that he declines to name (for the moment) but says it is the first song that the members of Soda Stereo wrote together. “The lyrics talk about a kid who stares at the sky … a very youthful lyric, very naive. But, well, it was the first thing we did.” Alberti found the track on a tape that also included a longer version, with different lyrics, of “Por Qué No Puedo Ser del Jet Set?” — the first song on the first album, in which the singer asks why he can’t be part of the jet-set lifestyle.
As for the new, previously unreleased song, Alberti continues: “The audio is quite good. The most we’re going to do is a little mastering, but the idea is not to do another mix or split the tracks, because I think it would lose the essence of what it means. It’s important that people understand how we started, how the band sounded in that moment — obviously, arrange it to a more current sound, but not much more.”
“Trátame Suavemente” (from Soda Stereo, 1984)
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One of Soda Stereo’s most enduring love songs, “Trátame Suavemente” was at first a faster-paced dance song — and not suggestive of romantic love at all.
“In those days, we went to see a lot of bands, and one of our favorites was Los Encargados,” says Bosio. “They were like a rock-techno band … Richard Coleman was part of that group, and there was also Daniel Melero (the composer of ‘Trátame Suavemente’). We were big fans of them, and we became very close friends.
“We made a slow version of ‘Trátame Suavemente’ because the original one was more dance-oriented. Our version and our vision put the song into a melodic setting, like a love song. But originally, the lyrics were inspired by the Malvinas (Falklands) War. (The singer) is talking to the general, not a girl. We made it into a love song.”
“Cuando Pase El Temblor” (from Nada Personal, 1985)
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From Soda Stereo’s second album, “Cuando Pase El Temblor” — in which the narrator asks to be awoken after a (presumably romantic) tremor passes — would eventually take on outsized significance across Latin America. In Chile, Galvez explains, fans there imagined the “tremor” referred to the dictatorship of Augusto Pinochet.
Fans in Peru and Mexico, meanwhile, interpreted the song as a lament over a literal tremor from an earthquake, all of which helped turn the song into, as Bosio put it, the group’s first genuine anthem.
“We rented a house outside of Buenos Aires, and we went there a couple of months in winter. This song was born in that situation,” said Bosio. “We supposed that we were comfortable to rehearse in that place, but the explosion of the band … we worked a lot. All the days of the week. We didn’t have time to rehearse, because of the success. So, we didn’t have much time, but one day when I went to the supermarket to buy food, and I came back, I found Charly and Gustavo playing this kind of folkloric rhythm — trying to do an adaptation with the drum and bass drum. So I took the bass and began to play.”
“Luna Roja” (from Dynamo, 1992)
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Like The Beatles they idolized, Soda Stereo’s members were musical chameleons. Their songs veered from new wave to post-punk, shoegaze and symphonic pop. Dynamo, Soda Stereo’s shoegaze record, was the band’s least commercial release but produced several concert staples, like “En Remolinos,” “Fue” and “Luna Roja.”
“The whole concept of (Dynamo) was that we were changing again,” explains Bosio. “The next step was always a challenge for us. What are we doing now? We were getting very into Massive Attack and a lot of things happening in the British scene at the time. The Jesus and Mary Chain. A lot of distortion, and in distortion you can a lot of times find harmonies and different things, very psychedelic. So we got into that with a lot of passion.”
Bosio explains that the creation of a song like “Luna Roja,” with its evocative imagery of a red moon over a black sea, was made possible because “we became an organism that could think together. Like when the brain tells the finger to move, and the finger moves. We were like that, without even talking! We made songs, and we just knew when the chorus has to come. Nobody told us. And it never happened with a band for me again, a thing like this, this kind of feeling. Playing, all floating together.”
“Ella Usó Mi Cabeza Como un Revólver” (from Sueño Stereo, 1995)
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Soda Stereo’s final album found the group at the height of its songcraft. It was also jam-packed with Beatles references. The bass line on “Paseando Por Roma” is reminiscent of Paul McCartney’s in “Taxman,” while the brass-heavy chorus invites a comparison to “Got to Get You Into My Life.”
“Ella Usó Mi Cabeza Como un Revólver,” meanwhile, has a chord structure and backing reminiscent of “I Am the Walrus.” And the song, which laments a woman who used the narrator’s head like a revolver, even has a Beatles album in the title.
“That song was the last song of the record,” explains Bosio. “We had all the record done, but we didn’t feel like we had a hit. We said, ‘Well, let’s make one.’ So we began to work the last two rehearsals on the hit. We said, ‘If it doesn’t happen, we’ll still have good songs — but it needs a hit.’ We began to play almost together, and it comes, almost like water. All the notes — and when we listened to it, we began to imagine something like The Moody Blues, with an orchestra. I couldn’t believe it. But it was like, let’s do a hit.”
“There are phrases like ‘Ella usó mi Cabeza como un Revolver,’ which is something I mentioned to Gustavo once, when I told him about a girlfriend I had who triggered me very intelligently with a very interesting cerebral game. I told Gustavo a very similar phrase,” says Alberti. “Gustavo knew how to take that and develop the idea.”
Jack Black responded to the backlash spurred by an off-color joke by his longtime Tenacious D musical partner Kyle Gass on Tuesday morning (July 16) by apologizing and announcing an indefinite hold on all future creative plans for the comedic rock duo.
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“I was blindsided by what was said at the show on Sunday,” Black wrote of the off-color joke Gass made during the duo’s show on Sunday at the ICC Sydney Theatre in Sydney, Australia. During the gig, Gass was presented with a birthday cake and said, “don’t miss Trump next time” when Black asked him to “make a wish.” The poor taste quip came less than 48 hours after a lone gunman nicked the former president’s ear in an assassination attempt that resulted in the death of an audience member at a rally in Butler, PA and serious injuries to two other attendees.
The immediate response from tour producer Frontier Touring was to postpone a planned Tuesday night (July 16) show at the Newcastle Entertainment Centre in the wake of significant backlash from conservative politicians and talking heads, including an Australian senator demanding that the pair be deported immediately.
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“I would never condone hate speech or encourage political violence in any form,” Black continued about the comment Gass said in a separate statement was improvised and inappropriate, noting that the incident has caused the Kung Fu Panda star to reconsider the group’s future endeavors. “After much reflection, I no longer feel it is appropriate to continue the Tenacious D tour, and all future creative plans are on hold. I am grateful to the fans for their support and understanding.”
In addition to tonight’s scotched show in Newcastle, Tenacious D’s sold out Spicy Meatball tour shows on July 18 (Brisbane), July 20 (Melbourne), July 22 (Adelaide), July 24 (Wellington) and July 26 (Auckland) have also been called off. In June, the duo announced five North American gigs booked for October in Ohio, Indiana, Wisconsin, Michigan and Pennsylvania as part of what they were calling the Rock D Vote tour in advance of November’s presidential election; at press time it was not clear if those sold out dates have also been cancelled.
In a parallel statement, Gass also apologized for his off-color remark, writing, “The line I improvised onstage Sunday night in Sydney was highly inappropriate, dangerous and a terrible mistake. I don’t condone violence of any kind, in any form, against anyone. What happened was a tragedy, and I’m incredibly sorry for my severe lack of judgement. I profoundly apologize to those I’ve let down and truly regret any pain I’ve caused.”
Trump appeared in Milwaukee for the first night of the Republican National Convention on Monday night (July 15) with a white bandage on his right ear over the spot where the gunman’s bullet struck after announcing Ohio Senator J.D. Vance as his vice presidential pick in a bid to re-take the White House.
See Black and Gass’ statements below.
On QUIT!!, HARDY’s new rock album released Friday (July 15) via Big Loud Rock, several of the characters are, to put it mildly, not quite right in the head. “Jim Bob” is a disillusioned pill-popping veteran who “has a breakdown every 45 seconds,” according to the singer-songwriter, while the protagonist on “Psycho” becomes unhinged at the thought of his girlfriend leaving him.
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But HARDY warns not to confuse the characters working out their demons in his songs with their creator. “I’m a pretty tame, surprisingly soft-spoken dude,” he says. That may be, but he’s far from soft-spoken on Quit!!, on which he shows he can unleash a rock-and-roll howl worthy of the best heavy metal singer.
In addition to the songs featuring fictional characters, a number of the tunes are deeply autobiographical, including the title track, which relays the true story of how a patron wrote the word “quit” on a napkin and put it in HARDY’s tip jar while he was playing a bar more than 10 years ago. That insult fueled HARDY’s ambition and put a chip on his shoulder that still drives him today.
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“Feeling like you have something to prove to somebody always I think is important— at least for me for my creative spirit,” he says. “Complacency kills.”
The album also tells the upbeat tale of how he met his wife, Caleigh, on “WHYBMWL,” which stands for “where have you been my whole life,” and the set closer, the deeply romantic (yet fatalistic “Six Feet Under (Caleigh’s Song).”
“I surprised her with ‘Six Feet Under’ and didn’t play her that until my entire record was done and and she like lost it, which was the reaction that I needed,” he says. “I wanted so bad to make her cry. [Laughs.] I mean it was so special, and it was just such an emotional time for us. I’m so thankful that she loves it as much as she does.”
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HARDY came to Nashville more than a decade ago to be a country songwriter and had considerable success, penning hits for artists like Florida Georgia Line, Morgan Wallen and Blake Shelton, before releasing his first album, 2020’s A Rock, which included the multiple ACM and CMA Award winner’s first Billboard Country Airplay No. 1, “One Beer” (featuring Lauren Alaina and Devin Dawson).
He followed with 2023’s The Mockingbird & The Crow, whose tracks were half country and half rock, and established his rock bona fides by topping Billboard’s Top Rock Albums chart and with singles “Jack,” the title track and “Sold Out” all reaching the top 5 of Billboard’s Hot Hard Rock Songs chart.
Over the last several years, HARDY, who was named BMI’s 2022 country songwriter of the year, has become one of Nashville’s most reliable and successful writers He credits his way with words to having “a knack for English and the rules of the English language ever since [I] was a kid,” he says. “I was terrible at math. I was okay in science, but only because I thought it was neat … when it came to using your words, I swear to God, it was just from birth, or God-given, or whatever you want to call it.”
Despite the outsider status that many of the album’s character inhabit, HARDY says his experience in Nashville has felt embracing, even as he has toggled back and forth between rock and country, landing on more than a dozen different Billboard charts.
He’s encountered no naysayers discouraging him from following his wandering musical muse, HARDY says. “Not one time,” he says. “I’ve got to say being in [Nashville] for 14 or 15 years, I’ve heard the creative horror stories or people being held back and I give all of the props in the world to Big Loud and to [his publisher] Relative Music Group for never, not one time ever, holding me back.”
Even on a song like “Orphan,” which sounds like a treatise against the country music industry as HARDY sings that he feels like “somebody left me in a basket on the front steps/screaming bloody murder at the church door … the orphan of this country music town,” he stresses he is fighting an “internal battle,” not an external one. “I have not been oppressed in any way. Let’s put it that way,” he says.
The exception is his first publishing deal early in his career, which left a grudge that he can conveniently draw upon to this day over his predilection for drawing on redneck themes in his music (After all, this is someone whose first single in 2019 was titled “Rednecker.”)
“Some of the people that I was working with told me verbatim, ‘This song is good, but that redneck s–t ain’t my jam and it’s gonna be hard for me to pitch those kinds of songs,’” he says. “That lit such a huge fire under me. I think to this day that chip on my shoulder is just constantly coming out because I’m like, ‘I’m gonna prove to you that this redneck s–t works.’ There are a ton of people who grew up like me and want to hear that stuff. There’re a few moments early on in my songwriting career that I felt like maybe I believed in myself more than anybody else did. But some of the stuff is just so deeply cut that it’s just there’s no like healing from it.”
Though his rock songs may sound more visceral and raw because of the intense, defiant delivery, Hardy says country songs allow him to tap more into his emotions.
“There’s more poetry in country,” he says. “I think there’s more demons in country than come out in rock. The country stuff is actually where I get more emotion out into the world with songs like ‘Wait in the Truck,’ ‘Give Heaven Some Hell,’ that kind of thing.”
He’s also pleased that fans seem to accept all sides of his artistry, even though he admits he avoids reading the comments on social media and other posts about him: “I don’t really go in too deep and try to dig into the comments or the articles or anything, because I just am afraid of the one bad comment, and I try to keep that negative energy out of my life. But the reception seems like it’s been pretty good so far.”
HARDY didn’t worry about cohesion when creating the album. “I know it’s a little all over the place sonically,” he says. “At the end of the day, I just wrote a bunch of rock songs that I love and love the sound of.”
And songs that he thought would appeal to his fans — especially in concert, including “Jim Bob.” “I wanted a song that everybody in the crowd would be like, ‘This is who I am, I want to go get drunk and shoot my pistol in the sky and all that kind of s–t,’” he explains. “But I don’t pop Percocet and I didn’t damage my knee in the war and s–t like that. I’ve stuck pretty true to who I am and the best way to do that was to make that song about somebody else.”
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In a career that tolerates, if not encourages, “Jim Bob”-type indulgences, HARDY works to keep himself in check, especially since, as he has previously mentioned, alcohol issues run in his extended family. “Every so often [I] kind of take a look and [am] like, ‘What am I doing? How much am I doing? Let’s maybe back off, take a break.’ You just gotta be aware,” he says. “You can’t let it take control of you too much. Sometimes you can be too late, or you can get in a mess, so just keeping myself in check every now and then.”
The album features high profile guests including Red Hot Chili Peppers drummer Chad Smith, who plays on the ‘90s pop-punk-inspired “Good Girl Phase,” as well as Limp Bizkit’s Fred Durst on “Soul4Sale.”
HARDY met Smith through Nickelback lead singer Chad Kroeger at this year’s Super Bowl — Nickelback and HARDY share producer Joey Moi — and in a playful tribute to Nickelback, HARDY wrote Quitt!! song “Rockstar,” which name drops the band, while paying tribute to its 2005 hit of the same name.
“I didn’t have that on my Bingo card,” HARDY jokes of getting to work with musical inspirations like Kroeger and Durst. “To meet people that like who truly influenced the s–t out of me growing up and then to become friends with them, it’s a very cool thing.”
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The rocker who tops his wish list to share a stage and a scream with is Foo Fighters’ Dave Grohl. “I don’t even know if he even knows I exist, but he would be cool. Alex Terrible from Slaughter to Prevail, he’s a pretty big deal right now. That’s a big one too. But Dave Grohl is definitely No. 1.”
While music is keeping him very busy, HARDY convincingly plays an institutionalized, straight-jacketed mental patient in the “Psycho” video, and says acting is something he would also like to pursue as time allows. “I was actually surprisingly comfortable in that video, which is kind of dark and disturbing,” he admits with a laugh. “I think the further away from myself that I can act, the more comfortable I am doing it. It’s really hard to act like yourself, in my opinion … But I love acting.”
In a milestone moment, HARDY will headline his first stadium gig Sept. 12 in Starkville, Mississippi, 45 minutes from his hometown of Philadelphia, Mississippi.
“It won’t really hit me until I get out there and it’s full of people hopefully,” he says. “It will be really emotional. There’s always a little part of me that’s like, ‘How did I get here?’ But I’m truly ready for this one and I’m truly looking forward to it.”
Sting will make his debut on the stage of the Bourbon & Beyond festival in Louisville, KY in September when the Rock and Roll Hall of Famer and 17-time Grammy-winner slips into the headlining slot just vacated by Neil Young. The fest announced on Monday (July 15) that the former Police frontman and solo star will perform with his new power rock trio, STING 3.0, on Thursday night of the four-day fest slated to take place on the Highland Festival Grounds at Kentucky Exposition Center in Louisville from September 19-22.
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The trio — which features guitarist Dominic Miller and drummer Chris Maas — will top night one of this year’s gathering, where they’ll be joined by Beck, Matchbox Twenty, Fleet Foxes, Maren Morris, Koe Wetzel, Lyle Lovett, the Wallflowers, Arlo Parks and many more.
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Young and longtime backing band Crazy Horse dropped off the roster for the sixth edition of B&B last month when the veteran group paused their Love Earth tour following an undisclosed illness within their touring party. In a statement, Young said the group’s first outing in a decade had been a great experience, but when a “couple of us got sick after Detroit’s Pine Knob, we had to stop,” it read. “We are still not fully recovered, so sadly our great tour will have a big unplanned break.” At press time no additional information was available on when, or if, the group will return to the road.
“While we will miss Neil Young at Bourbon this year, we’re excited to welcome a music legend, Sting, to the Bourbon & Beyond lineup. We’ve been trying to bring Sting to Bourbon for you since 2018 and it’s an incredible honor to have him join us for what will undoubtedly be our biggest and most unforgettable year ever,” said Danny Wimmer Presents founder Danny Wimmer in a statement about Sting replacing Young.
The second night of this year’s B&B will feature headliners Dave Matthews Band — along with Tedeschi Trucks Band, Black Pumas, the Head and the Heart, Melissa Etheridge and JJ Grey & Mofro — while Zach Bryan will do the honors on night three alongside Whiskey Myers, Cody Jinks, Young the Giant, Teddy Swims, Kaleo and more. Night four will be toplined by Tyler Childers, with My Morning Jacket, The National, The War on Drugs, Beach Boys, Mt. Joy and Sunny Day Real Estate performing as well.
Check out Sting announcing his addition to the B&B roster below.
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Nine Inch Nails and Dr. Martens are collaborating on a new collection in honor of the 30th anniversary of band’s multi-platinum sophomore album, The Downward Spiral.
First teased on July 8 and officially revealed on Monday (July 15), the upcoming footwear collection features artwork from the Grammy-nominated album and a design inspired by NIN’s unforgettable live performances.
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“This collaboration just makes so much sense,” John Crawford, the band’s creative director, said in a statement. “Not just because of the countless fans I’ve seen wearing Dr. Martens at NIN concerts over the years (myself included), but because NIN and Dr. Martens are both known for rejecting convention and expectation in favor of innovation, with their distinctive ability to transcend genres and styles in a way that unique to each person who experiences them. The goal was always to make this collection feel as authentically Nine Inch Nails as possible, and I believe through close collaboration with the team at Doc’s we’ve succeeded in that.”
Dr. Martens X Nine Inch Nails | The Downward Spiral Collection
Dr Martens
The collection includes a 10-eye 1490 boot that is inspired by the band’s cornstarch pre-show ritual. The lace-up boot is made from textured black and white Backhand leather and includes an ankle zipper on the side.
The eight-eye 1460 collab features artist Russell Mills’ album art as well as other references to the album. It also boasts a commando tread sole and multiple fastening options, including a branded ankle zipper.
For those looking for a shoe rather than a boot, the collection includes 1461 three-eyed piece that features The Downward Spiral‘s “crystal teeth” artwork and the name of the album printed in a subtle gloss.
Dr. Martens X Nine Inch Nails | The Downward Spiral Collection
Courtesy of Dr. Martens
The fourth piece of footwear in the collection is one fans won’t be able to purchase, though a few lucky ones will be gifted a pair. The 1490 10-eye boot features all-black leather that is embossed with the album’s artwork. According to the press release, the boot is “a fitting tribute to the unique bond shared by the band and those who have supported them for decades.”
Crawford participated in a Reddit AMA discussing the “inspiration and design choices behind the collaboration.” The AMA was held from 8 to 9 a.m. PT on July 15; fans were able to submit questions ahead of time for a chance to win one of five pairs of the fan-exclusive boot.
Dr. Martens X NIN Collaboration: Reddit AMA with John Crawfordbyu/Leviathant innin
The Nine Inch Nails x Dr. Martens collection drops on Friday, July 19, at drmartens.com and select retailers. Until then, fans can click here to sign up to be first in line to get notified when the collection arrives, and hit the Reddit AMA for more details on the giveaway.
The Downward Spiral, released in 1994, became a pivotal album for Trent Reznor, the band’s mastermind. The critically acclaimed LP debuted at No. 2 on the Billboard 200 chart and went on to sell nearly four million copies.
Atticus Ross, who joined NIN in the early 2000s and with Reznor has become an Oscar-winning scoring duo, teased that he was “excited” to work on a new album. “I think we’re in a place now where we kind of have an idea,” he told GQ in April, as Ross and Reznor discussed their new multimedia company — With Teeth — and hinted at upcoming projects. NIN’s music is currently featured in the new season of The Bear.
Harry Styles, Stevie Nicks and thousands of people at London’s BST Hyde Park gave the most touching birthday salute to the late Christine McVie Friday (July 12).
In honor of her friend — who would’ve turned 81 that day — the Fleetwood Mac frontwoman invited the “As It Was” pop star to join her on stage for an emotional duet of her 1975 masterpiece “Landslide.” “I asked Harry to do this,” she told the crowd at the festival. “It’s always heavy to ask someone to come and sing the song with you when you’re singing about your best friend that died so suddenly and so sadly.”
“What I want you to know is that Christine was Harry’s girl, she was my girl, she was your girl,” Nicks continued as Styles, wearing a songbird pin on his lapel, nodded solemnly. “She was from here. And she loved all of us. And today was her birthday.”
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The pair performed the ballad while making sustained eye contact, the “Edge of Seventeen” musician taking the lead as the One Direction alum sang harmony. “And if you see my reflection in the snow-covered hills,” their intertwining voices belted. “Well, the landslide will bring it down.”
The tribute comes over a year and a half after McVie died at the age of 71 in November 2022, having suffered a stroke with her secondary cause of death being listed as cancer. “She was truly one-of-a-kind, special and talented beyond measure,” wrote Fleetwood Mac in a joint statement at the time. “She was the best musician anyone could have in their band and the best friend anyone could have in their life. We were so lucky to have a life with her.”
Nicks has been open about her grief since losing her bandmate, telling Vulture last fall that she doesn’t anticipate full-band activities continuing in McVie’s absence. “She was like my soul mate, my musical soul mate, and my best friend that I spent more time with than any of my other best friends outside of Fleetwood Mac,” she told the publication. “Christine was my best friend… Who am I going to look over to on the right and have them not be there behind that Hammond organ? When she died, I figured we really can’t go any further with this. There’s no reason to.”
Styles also previously honored McVie on his own by singing “Songbird” at his December 2022 concert in Chile. He and Nicks have performed together several times in the past, including at his 2019 One Night Only show at Los Angeles’ The Forum.
Watch Styles and Nicks perform “Landslide” in McVie’s honor below.
Radiohead off-shoot group The Smile was forced to cancel its European tour last week after guitarist Jonny Greenwood was hospitalized for a serious infection. “A few days ago, Jonny became seriously ill from an infection that needed emergency hospital treatment, some of it in intensive care,” read a statement from the group on Friday about […]
Coldplay premiered a new song for some lucky fans in Italy.
The British band, led by charismatic frontman Chris Martin, debuted the unreleased track “Good Feelings” during its concert at Rome’s Stadio Olimpico on Friday (July 12).
“We fell in love in the summer/I remember baby, we felt the sun shine through/And we were born for each other,” Martin sings on the upbeat tune. “All the good feelings, for one another/As we danced to the radio.”
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Coldplay fans have been familiar with “Good Feelings” for a couple years now. A Max Martin-produced version of the song was rumored to have been intended for the band’s 2021 album, Music of the Spheres, as a collaboration with the Chainsmokers, according to Rolling Stone.
The new rendition of “Good Feelings” will likely appear on Coldplay’s forthcoming tenth album, Moon Music, featuring vocals by Nigerian singer Ayra Starr.
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In June, Coldplay shared the new Martin-produced single “Feelslikeimfallinginlove,” which will appear on Moon Music. On it, Martin sings: “It feels like I’m falling in love/ You’re throwing me a lifeline/ Oh, not for the first time/ I know I’m not alone.”
Moon Music is scheduled for release on Oct. 4. Martin has been teasing the new set for more than a year. In January 2023, he told the Toronto City News that the band was nearing completion of what he then promised was the second LP in the Music of the Spheres series. He remarked “that won’t come out for a bit,” though he teased that the band “might” start rolling out some of the new songs live that year.
Coldplay’s current global tour is in support of Spheres, launching on March 18, 2022, in Costa Rica. The years-long trek is currently slated to wrap up with the second of two shows at Eden Park in Auckland, New Zealand, on Nov. 16.
Watch Coldplay debut “Good Feelings” in Rome here.
Kid Rock is enraged over the assassination attempt on Donald Trump.
On Saturday (July 13), the 53-year-old rocker — a staunch supporter of the former president — took to social media to share his anger over the shooting at Trump’s rally in Butler, Pa., where the presumptive GOP presidential nominee was struck in the ear and an audience member was killed.
“You f— with Trump, you f— with me,” Rock furiously yelled in a video posted on Instagram.
The short clip, which appears to have been recorded on a boat, finds the “We the People” singer-rapper shirtless and sporting black sunglasses with a “White Boy of the Year” baseball cap.
At Saturday’s Pennsylvania rally, held on the grounds of the Butler Farm Show, the shooter was immediately killed by the Secret Service after firing numerous shots from a nearby rooftop. The FBI has identified him as 20-year-old Thomas Matthew Crooks. A motive has not yet been determined.
Following the incident, Trump wrote on Truth Social that a bullet struck the upper part of his ear. Videos and photos from the event show the Secret Service quickly escorting the bloodied former president from the stage while Trump pumped his fist to the crowd. One rally attendee was killed and two additional audience members are in critical condition.
In addition to his passionate video, Rock also shared a link on his X (formerly Twitter) account to a “President Trump Authorized” GoFundMe page dedicated to the victims of the Pennsylvania rally. The effort had raised nearly $900,000 as of Sunday morning.
Rock, whose real name is Bob Ritchie, has been a major supporter of Trump over the years. The rapper-turned-southern-rocker visited the former president at the White House in 2017 and he has golfed with Trump on numerous occasions. In 2022, Rock spoke to Fox News commentator Tucker Carlson about his past interactions with Trump. He also called Trump “one of my besties” in a 2024 profile in Rolling Stone.
Kid Rock wasn’t the only musical artist who reacted to the Trump assassination attempt. Other acts — including 50 Cent, John Rich, Scotty McCreery, Soulja Boy, Randy Houser, Kid Cudi and Lil Pump — also shared their thoughts about the shooting.
“Trump was shot!!!” Rich, of Big & Rich, alerted his X followers, later adding, “They couldn’t beat him in a fair contest, so they tried to kill him. BUT THEY MISSED.”
“Praying for our country rn,” said country singer and American Idol alum McCreery.
“I know the vibes,” noted 50 cent, posting a clip of his track “Many Men (Wish Death)” from Get Rich or Die Tryin’. “We are all in trouble now!”
See Kid Rock’s response to the Trump rally shooting on Instagram and X below.