3 weeks ago
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In the days following the “Back to the Beginning” concert, it was widely reported that the event raised $190 million for various charities. In a new interview, Sharon Osbourne says that number is “ridiculous” and misleading to the three charitable organizations that are earmarked to receive the proceeds from the all-star concert.
The $190 million figure was shared on Instagram in a since-edited post by Tom Morello, who served as the curator of the festival, which not only featured the final performances by Ozzy Osbourne and Black Sabbath, but also sets from Metallica, Guns N’ Roses, Slayer, Pantera, and many more rock and metal acts. That led multiple outlets, including Consequence, to report on that amount.
With 40,000 in attendance and a report that over 5 million people watched the paid livestream at $30 a pop, the $190 million figure, while sensational, seemed realistic. However, Sharon says the numbers were grossly inflated, and the final number will be nowhere near that amount.
In an interview with Pollstar, conducted on July 17th — 12 days after “Back to the Beginning” and five days before her husband Ozzy passed away — but just published this week, Sharon lamented the reports when asked to reflect on the concert.
“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,'” said Sharon. “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.”
When the interviewer pointed out that the number being reported was actually $190 million, Sharon responded, “Oh, $190 million? Thank you, Billboard, for getting it wrong. Just ridiculous.”
She went on to say, “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, when finally counted, will be split between Cure Parkinson’s, Birmingham Children’s Hospital, and Acorn Children’s Hospice, all of which may have thought they were receiving a lot more than they will ultimately get.
“Oh my God! It’s the Children’s Hospital, a children’s hospice, and Parkinson’s research,” exclaimed Sharon. “Everybody thinks that they’re going to cure everything with this much money, but it’s not the real world.”
As for the 5.8 million streaming figure, Sharon said it wasn’t even close to that number. “I mean, the streaming was 275,000 bought it,” she explained. “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.”
Despite the inflated numbers, Sharon said overall that “Back to the Beginning” was a very successful event. “It was a huge success, because it was a phenomenal event,” she noted. “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.”
She added, “I never wanted Ozzy to just disappear without some big event. And it’s the best way then to go home to where it all started, to go to his favorite stadium in the world [Villa Park], which is [home to] his beloved Aston Villa [soccer] team, and it was just perfect. It was the perfect storm, put it that way.”
English (US) · 