says proudly. “And each [band], in turn, has taken what they’ve learned from us and done their own things. They may never have existed if it wasn’t for the original Sabbath.” Sharon Osbourne agrees, as much on the grounds of Sabbath’s stubbornness and endurance as their role as musical pioneers. “You’ve got to remember, this is a band that started in the ’60s – and they’re still here,” marvels the manager. “A lot of the bands who started in the ’60s are no longer alive, or operating as they used to.”
She recalls the reviews of the band’s 1970 self-titled debut, particularly that of Rolling Stone, written by cult music journalist Lester Bangs, who dismissed the record as ‘a shuck’. “And that was just the first album!” she laughs. “[Sabbath] stood up to everything that was thrown at them for being different. They just kept their mouths shut and just toured and toured and toured, and never gave up.” Osbourne suggests little has changed with regards to the snootiness with which heavy music is viewed these days, despite the overwhelming evidence of its popularity, both then and now. Ozzy Osbourne has, after all, sold more than 100 million albums across his work in Black Sabbath and as a solo artist, won multiple Grammy Awards (the most recent in 2023), while he and the band scooped an Ivor Novello Award for Lifetime Achievement in 2015. Meanwhile, Back To The Beginning includes members of some of metal’s more recent success stories, including Sleep Token (who boast 9.2 million monthly Spotify listeners, and a simultaneous UK and US No.1 album in 2025) and Ghost (9.5 million monthly listeners and a US No.1 and UK No.2 album this year.) “As far as the media goes, heavy music isn’t popular,” suggests Osbourne. “It’s never been that popular with the media, though I think the 1980s was the closest it ever got. The media doesn’t write that there’s an absolute resurgence for this music right now, with bands headlining stadiums all over the world. They never get written about because it’s not in vogue right
now. They focus on all the girls [pop stars] out there. I’m not taking anything away from them, as they’re there for a totally different audience and great at what they do, but it’s just like a box of dolls, very cookie cutter. Meanwhile, these bands – heavy bands – have always been the bastards of the music industry.” ‘Bastards’ they may be, but that didn’t stop fans flooding online when, after several presales, the general sale arrived on Valentine’s Day. According to Live Nation, tickets sold out in less than 16 minutes, with more than 150,000 people reportedly in the virtual queue. Despite this, and with on sales under the microscope after the frenzied coverage around Oasis’ Live ’25 Tour, additional Back To The Beginning dates were never on the table. “It’s impossible,” reasons Osbourne. “Putting this show on in the summer, the busiest time with everybody everywhere in Europe doing festivals. The number of artists we were able to get for that one day was incredible, but you just don’t get that for two days.” For Osbourne, the success of the on sale is the culmination of the hard work to date from a variety of passionate people in their field – from Andy Copping at
48 | Music Week
Black to the future: Tony Iommi and Sharon Osbourne inside Villa Park (top) and with Geezer Butler and Ozzy Osbourne in 2014 (bottom)
“Some bands on the bill may never have existed if it wasn’t
for Sabbath” TONY IOMMI,
BLACK SABBATH
Live Nation, to Rage Against The Machine guitarist Tom Morello as musical director, and all of the staff at Villa Park.
“Not only are [Aston Villa] a great team, but everybody who works at Villa Park is great,” praises Osbourne. “From the people who let you into the ground to those working the bars, you really feel that. Whatever we’ve needed, they’ve accommodated, and it’s not because of who we are – it’s because they’re happy to be there. And that’s the atmosphere you want.”
S
he may be speaking to Music Week from her home in LA, but the 72-year-old Osbourne remains “a Brixton girl at heart”. Her early female role models included a school teacher, Miss Mayhew, “a tough arse old bitch” who’d survived the sinking of the Titanic and delivered slaps across the faces of any pupils not paying attention. The daughter of the late manager and agent Don Arden – a controversial figure in the music industry who worked with the likes of Jerry Lee Lewis, Little Richard, Gene Vincent, Small Faces and Black Sabbath – she learned from her father’s missteps that managers should only do that one job. “You never want to go with someone who says, ‘I can be your manager and your agent, a one-stop shop,’” she explains. “There are certain artists today where you’re not allowed to be a manager and an agent, but people still do it and get away with it by calling it a different company and all that bullshit. You cannot put your career in the hands of someone that does it all. It never, ever, ever works out.”
After Ozzy was sacked from Black Sabbath in 1979, Osbourne famously became his manager, enraging Arden, who’d intended to oversee both quarries, leading to father and daughter being estranged for 20 years (the two would later reconnect in the years before Arden’s death in 2007). These days, with the band’s four members each having different teams, she navigates the many tendrils of the management machine, keeping everyone connected.
“They had something worked out,” says Iommi of the arrangement. “I don’t know what they had worked out, but they did, and it worked. Most of the time, Sharon will call me, personally, if there’s a problem. You can’t have four managers all moaning about stuff – you have to give in and say, ‘OK, you look after that, then.’ And it seems to run well.” “I think we have a good relationship,” Iommi – who was diagnosed with non-Hodgkin lymphoma in 2012 – adds of his dynamic with Osbourne. “It’s like a family. You have arguments, but at the end of the day, if something happens, they’re always there. Certainly, when I was taken ill, everybody was there for me. And when Sharon was ill [she was diagnosed with colon cancer in 2002], everybody was there for her. It’s just been that way. You might have disagreements over the years, and slag each other, but it’s a unit and you always come back to that.” Despite this cordiality and mutual respect, or perhaps because of it, Iommi politely declines a request for his ‘favourite’ Sharon Osbourne story.
“I don’t want to go into all that,” he says. “Sharon is Sharon, and most people know what Sharon is like. She could be really sweet and then [she could be] the other way. But she deals with whatever she needs to deal with.” “You don’t want to fuck with me,” says Osbourne. “If I’d
musicweek.com
PHOTOS: Samir Hussein, Dave J Hogan, Getty
Page 1 |
Page 2 |
Page 3 |
Page 4 |
Page 5 |
Page 6 |
Page 7 |
Page 8 |
Page 9 |
Page 10 |
Page 11 |
Page 12 |
Page 13 |
Page 14 |
Page 15 |
Page 16 |
Page 17 |
Page 18 |
Page 19 |
Page 20 |
Page 21 |
Page 22 |
Page 23 |
Page 24 |
Page 25 |
Page 26 |
Page 27 |
Page 28 |
Page 29 |
Page 30 |
Page 31 |
Page 32 |
Page 33 |
Page 34 |
Page 35 |
Page 36 |
Page 37 |
Page 38 |
Page 39 |
Page 40 |
Page 41 |
Page 42 |
Page 43 |
Page 44 |
Page 45 |
Page 46 |
Page 47 |
Page 48 |
Page 49 |
Page 50 |
Page 51 |
Page 52 |
Page 53 |
Page 54 |
Page 55 |
Page 56 |
Page 57 |
Page 58 |
Page 59 |
Page 60 |
Page 61 |
Page 62 |
Page 63 |
Page 64 |
Page 65 |
Page 66 |
Page 67 |
Page 68 |
Page 69 |
Page 70 |
Page 71 |
Page 72 |
Page 73 |
Page 74 |
Page 75 |
Page 76 |
Page 77 |
Page 78 |
Page 79 |
Page 80 |
Page 81 |
Page 82 |
Page 83 |
Page 84 |
Page 85 |
Page 86 |
Page 87 |
Page 88
