Sharon Osbourne Sets the Record Straight on Black Sabbath Show

2025-08-08

Classic metal band Black Sabbath.

Sharon Osbourne is opening up about some reports that she says aren’t true about the final Black Sabbath concert. – Author: Charles Ken, Photo from Vertigo/Republic Records/Universal

The late, great Ozzy Osbourne and the founding members of Black Sabbath played their final show together at the beginning of July, and it sadly turned out to be Ozzy’s final public appearance before passing away on July 22. Following the show, dubbed the “Back to the Beginning” concert, it was widely reported that the concert raised a massive $190 million for charity.

Well, $190 millions seems like a crazy amount of money to be raised from one concert, and it is. In an interview with Pollstar published on July 17, before Ozzy passed away, his wife Sharon Osbourne said that number is “ridiculous” and was not what was raised by the concert.

Tom Morello of Rage Against the Machine served as the musical curator of the event, and the big figure came from him. He took to social media after the event in a since-edited post with that figure. The concert, of course, featured by the last performances by Ozzy Osbourne and Black Sabbath, as well as performances by Metallica, Guns N’ Roses, Slayer, Pantera, Mastodon and more.

‘Back to the Beginning’ By the Numbers

Roughly 40,000 people attended the event, and more than 5 million people watched the paid livestream, which cost $30 each, so the $190 million figure seemed high but not out of the question. According to Sharon, though, the numbers were reported to be way higher than they actually were.

Speaking with Pollstar in the inerview, which was published this week, Sharon set the record straight.

“I’m really happy that we are talking, because one of the things that’s frightening me is all this false press about [how] we’ve made $140 million and all of this, and I’m like, ‘God, I wish we could have, for one gig,'” Sharon said. “It’s just ridiculous, the different stories. I went on the internet the next morning and it was like, $140 million, $160 million. And I’m like, ‘Where does this stuff come from?’ And people like Billboard have printed it.”

The interviewer added that the number reported was actually $190 million, to which Sharon said, “Oh, $190 million? Thank you, Billboard, for getting it wrong. Just ridiculous.”

She added, “It takes a really long time [to figure out the final proceeds], because we’ve had all of the bands that we had come in and their expenses, and it’ll take a good six weeks to get the final number. Because we’re selling merch for another two weeks from the gig. So, we’ve got another two weeks of sales yet to add to it. It’ll be another four weeks and it’ll be done.”

The proceeds raised from the event will go to Cure Parkinson’s, Birmingham Children’s Hospital and Acorn Children’s Hospice. Sharon implied that they thought they might be getting more money based on these reports. “It’s the Children’s Hospital, a children’s hospice and Parkinson’s research,” she said. “Everybody thinks that they’re going to cure everything with this much money, but it’s not the real world.”

Sharon also said that the 5.8 million streaming figure wasn’t accurate. “I mean, the streaming was 275,000 bought it,” she said. “But Mercury [Studios], which produced and was saying that a lot of rock clubs all over the world bought it and played it in-house. So there were 200, 300 people watching it in one facility.”

However, “Back to the Beginning” was successful, Sharon said, stating, “It was a huge success, because it was a phenomenal event. It was the first time, I think, that anybody’s gone into retirement and done it, where the show is streamed and it goes to charity. So it’s the first time anybody has said goodnight like that, it’s the perfect way, when you’ve had such a long career, to end it.”

Charles Ken
Latest posts by Charles Ken (see all)
Posted by Charles Ken | Metal, Music, Rock News

Related Posts