It's Time To Bring Back Ozzfest

Ever since Ozzy Osbourne's passing on July 22, 2025, the tributes haven't stopped – and frankly, they shouldn't. Few artists are as inseparable from a genre as Ozzy is from heavy metal. Say the words heavy metal, and his name echoes right back. Mostly because he was one of the four dudes that invented the genre, but also because he embodied everything the genre was and is.

Yes, we'll see the tribute albums, the televised salutes, the inevitable release of Back to the Beginning, and probably way more. But if we really want to honor the Prince of Darkness, we shouldn't just look back. We should bring something back. It's time for Ozzfest to rise again.

Ozzfest wasn't just a festival – it was a rite of passage. Founded in 1996 by Sharon and Ozzy Osbourne (with son Jack later joining the family operation), Ozzfest stormed across the U.S., Europe, and Japan nearly every year until 2018. There was also a digital version in 2022, but I'm gonna pretend like that never happened.

It showcased the full spectrum of heavy music from alternative metal, thrash, and industrial to metalcore, death metal, black metal, and everything in between. From rising underground acts to genre legends, Ozzfest was the proving ground. And of course, Ozzy himself (sometimes with Black Sabbath) was its beating, bat-biting heart.

Rebooting Ozzfest now wouldn't just be about nostalgia. It could serve three huge purposes:

• Keeping Ozzy's name and legacy alive. His name is literally on the banner. Even as a new generation discovers him posthumously, having his name front and center every year ensures he remains a living part of the cultural conversation – not just a memory.
• Championing the next generation of metal. Ozzfest helped launch countless careers. Slipknot opened a second stage in '99 – now they headline festivals worldwide. The tradition of putting unknown talent in front of rabid metal crowds? That has to continue.
• Celebrating the now of heavy metal. What better way to honor the man who opened "Black Sabbath" with that iconic doom riff than by showcasing where metal has evolved – and how it's still screaming strong?

And hey, dream big: imagine an all-star jam each night. A rotating cast of musicians from the lineup coming together to rip through Black Sabbath and solo Ozzy classics. It'd be pure magic. Loud, chaotic, reverent magic. Obviously that's some big, wishful thinking on my end, but hey – it'd be pretty damn cool.

So yeah, I'm down for the tribute albums and the one-off covers, etc. But if we really want to pay respect to Ozzy Osbourne, we should do it the way he would've wanted: loud, live, and metal as hell.

And it's not like this hasn't come up prior to Ozzy's death. In a 2024 episode of The Osbournes podcast, Sharon Osbourne seemed open to the idea if the financial aspect could be sorted out. Though who knows how she'll feel about things in a post-Ozzy world.

In that podcast, Ozzy first asked Sharon if she'd ever considering reviving the festival, to which Sharon replied: "Yeah, sure. Of course." Then of course came the talk of money after their daughter Kelly mentioned managers being "realistic" about what everyone should be paid.

"It's great. That's what we wanted — everybody to do spin-offs and do their own festivals, and it's great," said Sharon. "It's great for fans; it's brilliant. But why is it when it comes to us that everybody thinks that we are trillionaires, and so that every manager who wants their band on our festival wants one of the fucking trillions they think we've got to put on the festival?"

Which isn't a surprising comment considering Sharon had previously voiced her gripes about everyone wanting to get paid more (more? Fairly? Who knows), saying in a previous episode: "…managers and agents wanted more and more and more, and it just wasn't cost effective anymore. We stopped, because it just wasn't cost effective."

The good news is that Ozzfest – as a future, hypothetical entity – is still interested in breaking new bands. "It's always great to have the baby stage," said Sharon. "I mean, that's what it's all about — breaking new bands. That's why we did it."

She continued: "It's very hard for acts who are not known to suddenly go and be in front of 50,000 people on a main stage at a festival and understand what they're meant to do. It's very intimidating. You could have maybe five thousand people at that baby stage, and then to go from five to fifty to sixty thousand people, and it's really, really hard for baby bands. They've pay their dues anyway. That's what it's all about."