Sharon Osbourne On Free OzzFest And Headliners

Ozzy and Sharon Osbourne discuss the details behind their groundbreaking announcement of a free Ozzfest in 2007.

Ozzfest has gone and done the unthinkable. A truley unprecedented move in the music industry and definitely the first time a rock and roll tour has been free to the public. And not just one day, it was announced ALL 25 dates for 2007 Ozzfest are free to the public. After touring for over thirty years, Ozzy and Sharon felt it was time to give back to their loyal fans, who have given so much to the tour and Ozzy’s incredible career.

We were on hand for the press conference announcing Freefest and we wondered what was the reasoning behind such a bold move.

“The reason for doing it? We want to give something back. Ozzy’s been touring for over thirty-odd years, he’s done very well by his audience, and now it’s time to give something back. We’re doing 25 shows across America, and it’s the first time that actually a summer festival tour has gone out free. This is the first time that a full tour this is going to be a 25 city tour that will start July 7 at San Bernadino. We’re having our second stage as usual, and everything goes as normal except it’s free for everybody.” [Ozzy] “Fine with me.” [Sharon] “We never get paid anyway. I spend it all.”

Sharon admitted bands for the second stage at Ozzfest have already been been formalized, but with no bands getting paid, it might be harder for some more established headlining acts to tour all 25 dates for free.

“You know that would be a perfect world, but we’re not in a perfect world. So, I don’t know. So, after this announcement I’d like…. We’re waiting to see who’s going to call in, but we’ve got a lot of young new bands already booked. That’s going to be announced in two weeks. We have all our second stage bands, which is the Jagermeiste stage. They’re all booked, which you know they’re great, fantastic, current bands.”

So far the only band to be confirmed for 2007 Ozzfest is Ozzy Osbourne. More headlining acts will be announced shortly but in the mean time fans can expect the second stage acts to be announced in the next two weeks. Ozzfest kicks off July 7th in San Bernardino California and will extend through August. The album, which as of press time is still untitled has a tentative release date of early June.