sharon osbourne
Black Sabbath may rock together once more if Ozzy Osbourne has his way.
Officially, the pioneering heavy metal outfit have been inactive since 2017, when they completed their aptly-titled The End Tour. However, the band’s lineup at the time – which featured vocalist Osbourne, guitarist Tony Iommi, bassist Geezer Butler, and session drummer Tommy Clufetos – did not include co-founding drummer Bill Ward.
Ward had initially declined to participate in Black Sabbath’s 2012 reunion tour, ultimately threatening to quit the band unless he was presented with a “signable contract that reflects some dignity and respect toward me as an original member of the band.” The band’s decision to continue without him was a source of regret for Osbourne, who said earlier this year that the “arc of the legend of Black Sabbath” was “unfinished” as a result.
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“If I wanted to do one more gig with Bill, I’d jump at the chance,” Osbourne said on The Madhouse Chronicles podcast in May. “You know what would be cool? If we just went to a club somewhere unannounced and just got up and did it out,” he added. “We started up in a club.”
Now, Butler has joined in the conversation, noting how Osbourne’s desire for a final Black Sabbath show is still as a prominent as ever.
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“Ozzy was talking to me about, when he does his farewell concert – which he still wants to do,” Butler told Lifeminute. “He’s dying to still get out there and play, and he suggested, at his very final concert, for the four of us to get up onstage and maybe do three or four songs together. And that would be it, finished.”
Butler insisted, however, the show would be a one-off, and that the there would be “definitely no more tours” from Black Sabbath.
Though it would be unclear if Ward would take place in such a potential reunion, it likewise remains to be seen when Osbourne’s final performances would take place.
Currently, Osbourne hasn’t performed live since 2022, having cancelled performances due to his ailing health, though wife Sharon confirmed to The Mirror this year he was “planning on doing two more shows to say goodbye”. No further details have been announced as yet.
Former Black Sabbath frontman Ozzy Osbourne called out Kanye West on social media on Friday (Feb. 9), saying that West had asked to sample a song but was “refused permission because he is an antisemite,” and used the sample anyway at a listening event for his new album at the United Center in Chicago on Thursday. “I want no association with this man!” Osbourne wrote.
Although Osbourne said online that West asked to sample “War Pigs,” the song he seems to have used is “Iron Man” – specifically a version performed by Ozzy Osbourne’s solo band at the 1983 Us Festival.
“We get so many requests for these songs,” his wife and manager Sharon Osbourne tells Billboard, “and when we saw that request, we just said no way.” Without permission, West would be unable to release a new song that used the sample. “We’ve been in touch with his team” about the legal issue,” says Sharon Osbourne. “And it’s also an issue of having respect for another artist.”
Starting in 2022, West, now known simply as Ye, made a series of antisemitic comments, for which he was widely condemned, and lost numerous sponsorship and fashion deals. Although he offered an online apology for his statements in December, the first song from his forthcoming album, Vultures, includes the lyric “How am I antisemitic? / I just fucked a Jewish bitch.” Although West does not seem to have finalized release details for the album – and Ozzy Osbourne’s comments suggest he may face issues clearing samples – he has held a number of listening events to promote it.
Ozzy Osbourne often allows other artists to sample his work. “But the simple thing is, we don’t want to be associated with a hater,” says Sharon Osbourne, who was raised Jewish. (Her father, the U.K. music manager Don Arden, was Jewish.) “To spread hate the way he does, it shouldn’t be allowed. All the excuses – he’s bipolar or whatever – doesn’t change that. It’s like, fuck you, basically.”
Like many early Black Sabbath songs, “Iron Man” was written by the band – Osbourne, Tony Iommi, Geezer Butler and Bill Ward. Who has the rights to license interpolations of a composition by more than one songwriter can depend on the agreement between them. In this case, Sharon Osbourne tells Billboard that the agreement says all four songwriters need to agree. There could also be permissions issues with the 1983 performance recording, to which Ozzy Ozbourne presumably has the rights.
Coincidentally, Ozzy and Sharon Osbourne dressed up as Kanye West and Bianca Censori for Halloween, but that was “a joke,” Sharon Osbourne said.
Sharon Osbourne is getting vulnerable about a difficult time in her life. While speaking onstage during her Sharon Osbourne: Cut the Crap show in London over the weekend (Jan. 21), the star opened up about her suicide attempt after discovering that her husband, Ozzy Osbourne, had been unfaithful. “He always, always had groupies and I […]
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Kelly Osbourne is speaking out a day after her mother, Sharon Osbourne, announced that the 38-year-old has welcomed her first child, a baby boy, with Slipknot‘s Sid Wilson.
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“I am not ready to share him with the world,” Kelly wrote via her Instagram Stories on Wednesday (Jan. 4). “It is no one’s place but mine to share any information about my baby.”
Sharon confirmed in a Tuesday (Jan. 3) episode of Britain’s The Talk that she and Ozzy Osbourne are now grandparents to five children. She went on to reveal that the baby is named Sidney — seemingly after his father — and said that Kelly is doing “so great, so great” as a new mom.
“I’m so proud of her,” Sharon said. The 70-year-old Extreme author has yet to respond to Kelly’s Instagram Stories post.
Kelly first announced that she and Wilson were expecting a bundle of joy back in May via an Instagram post, in which she shared ultrasound photos. “I know that I have been very quiet these past few months so I thought I would share with you all as to why… I am over the moon to announce that I am going to be a Mumma,” she captioned the sweet post.
Kelly and Wilson first met in 1999, when Slipknot toured with Ozzfest. The duo went Instagram official in February, with the “One Word” singer sharing that she is “so deeply in love.”
“After 23 years of friendship I can’t believe where we have ended up!” she wrote.
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