{"id":725463,"date":"2026-08-03T04:44:17","date_gmt":"2026-08-03T04:44:17","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/725463\/"},"modified":"2026-08-03T04:44:17","modified_gmt":"2026-08-03T04:44:17","slug":"sharon-osbourne-gives-an-update-on-ozzfest-and-confirms-there-will-be-a-back-to-the-beginning-film-ozzys-legacy-isnt-fading","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/725463\/","title":{"rendered":"Sharon Osbourne gives an update on Ozzfest \u2013 and confirms there will be a Back To The Beginning film: \u201cOzzy\u2019s legacy isn\u2019t fading\u201d"},"content":{"rendered":"

July 22, 2026 marked a year since Ozzy Osbourne<\/a>\u2019s death, but his presence remains as strong as ever. The next 12 months will see a raft of high-profile events keeping the singer\u2019s memory alive, including the return of Ozzfest<\/a>, a film of the Back To The Beginning<\/a> show, and the controversial Ozzy AI avatar<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\u201cOzzy\u2019s legacy isn\u2019t fading,\u201d says the singer\u2019s wife and manager, Sharon Osbourne, in an interview in the brand new issue of Metal Hammer<\/a>. \u201cI cannot tell you how blown away we\u2019ve all been with the love that has been shown for him.\u201d<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

Sharon confirms that 2027 will see the return of Ozzfest, the travelling festival that helped change the course of metal in the late 1990s and early 2000s \u2013 and she also added that it would be held at Villa Park in Birmingham, the venue for Ozzy\u2019s swansong, the star-packed Back To The Beginning gig, which took place on July 5, 2025.<\/p>\n

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\u201cIt\u2019s going to be at Villa Park again,\u201d says Sharon. \u201cWhether it\u2019ll be two nights [in Birmingham], that\u2019s up for the fans to tell me.\u201d<\/p>\n

At the time of going to press, no date or festival headliners had been announced. \u201cOf course we\u2019re speaking to people,\u201d she says. \u201cI can\u2019t let that out yet, but it\u2019ll be soon.\u201d<\/p>\n

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Speaking to her son Jack on The Osbournes Podcast in March, Sharon said that she hoped to bring Ozzfest to the US for two dates.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe want to hear from everyone where we should go in America,\u201d she told Jack. \u201cWe\u2019ve got to find a lot of young, new talent, because that\u2019s what your dad would want.\u201d<\/p>\n

Sign up below to get the latest from Metal Hammer, plus exclusive special offers, direct to your inbox!<\/p>\n

There are also plans to revisit Back To The Beginning itself. A much-rumoured film of the show will finally be released, featuring appearances from all the bands who played, from Metallica and Guns N\u2019 Roses to Black Sabbath and Ozzy himself.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s coming. It will be out this year,\u201d Sharon promises. \u201cThe most precious thing that people can give you is their time, and they all took time out of their summer to come and do this show. Everybody deserves to be seen and heard.\u201d<\/p>\n

More contentious is the upcoming AI avatar of Ozzy. The Osbournes have teamed up with tech companies Hyperreal and Proto Hologram to create a digital version of the singer that fans can talk to and interact with.<\/p>\n

What to read next<\/p>\n

\u201cYou can ask [the digital] Ozzy anything, and he will answer you in his own voice \u2013 and the answers will be what Ozzy would have said,\u201d Sharon said at the Licensing Expo 2026 in Las Vegas in May. \u201cPeople can talk to him and he will talk back.\u201d<\/p>\n

While specific details and locations are still under wraps, the avatar will reportedly appear via interactive touchscreens. The news has prompted pushback from some fans.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019ve seen such shit online about it being a \u2018money grab\u2019,\u201d Sharon tells Hammer. \u201cWhy would I need to do that? It\u2019s not as if I\u2019m using Ozzy to sell fucking weedkiller or beer. Ozzy loved the idea. We\u2019ve been talking about it for 10 years. Ozzy has this great body of work that took a lifetime to do \u2013 why shouldn\u2019t he still be seen? Why should we have to watch the same videos over and over again, when there\u2019s technology available that means we don\u2019t have to? If you don\u2019t like it, don\u2019t go see it. I\u2019m not at people\u2019s houses with a fucking gun, going, \u2018Give me your money!\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n

Less controversial is the long-gestating Ozzy biopic, which Sharon says is moving forwards after years in development hell.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019re now on our second writer because we had somebody else write three different drafts, and we felt that it wasn\u2019t Ozzy\u2019s voice,\u201d says Sharon. \u201cWe feel that this new guy has got Ozzy\u2019s voice, and we\u2019re ready to send [the script] out to directors. When I used to see people get up at the Oscars and say, \u2018I\u2019ve been working on this movie for 20 years, and we finally got it made!\u2019 I\u2019d think, \u2018Bullshit.\u2019 But it\u2019s true. It\u2019s not like making a record, believe you me. Working with the writers and the directors is a whole fucking lifetime commitment to get a movie done.\u201d<\/p>\n

Elsewhere, the Birmingham Museum & Art Gallery has recently extended Working Class Hero, its exhibition dedicated to Ozzy, until September 27. The gothic black throne used by Ozzy at Back To The Beginning was added to the exhibition at the start of July to mark the anniversary of the show. Sadly, a campaign to rename Birmingham Airport after Ozzy has so far been unsuccessful, despite almost 78,000 people signing a petition.<\/p>\n

\u201cBirmingham has always been embarrassed about its heavy metal<\/a> heritage – and that\u2019s unacceptable,\u201d the campaign\u2019s organiser, Dan Hudson, told Hammer in January.<\/p>\n

Still, Sharon says her plans to honour her husband\u2019s legacy will be a fitting tribute to the Prince Of Darkness.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe\u2019s the guy that came from nothing, had nothing, and made it \u2013 and he never, ever forgot who he was or where he came from,\u201d she says. \u201cHe never tried to be anything other than what he was \u2013 a genuine guy, fucking out of his mind, beautifully insane. He was just one in a million.\u201d<\/p>\n

The new issue of Metal Hammer is onsale now. Order it here <\/a>and have it delivered straight to your door.<\/p>\n

\n

\"Electric\n<\/p>\n

(Image credit: Future)<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"July 22, 2026 marked a year since Ozzy Osbourne\u2019s death, but his presence remains as strong as ever.…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":725464,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[32],"tags":[6491,96,56,54,55],"class_list":["post-725463","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-celebrities","tag-celebrities","tag-entertainment","tag-uk","tag-united-kingdom","tag-unitedkingdom"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/725463","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=725463"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/725463\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/725464"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=725463"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=725463"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=725463"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}