Few steel festivals maintain fairly the identical legendary standing as Ozzfest. First launched in 1996 by Ozzy Osbourne and his spouse Sharon, the touring pageant performed host to scores of the style’s greatest names in its time, together with Black Sabbath, Slipknot, Pantera, System Of A Down, Linkin Park, Avenged Sevenfold and plenty of extra.

However whereas it bloomed right into a pressure which fairly actually formed the future of the style, Ozzfest was as soon as simply an concept, and one which sprung from a rejection of Ozzy Osbourne by one other established pageant.

In a brand new interview with Metallic Hammer, Sharon Osbourne remembers the time she tried to get Ozzy Osbourne on the invoice for Lollapalooza, however her request was denied.

“I needed Ozzy on Lollapalooza,” she explains. “And the response again was, ‘He’s not related.’ As a result of Lollapalooza, when it began, was all very grand and all very Seattle – they had been musical snobs. So I mentioned, ‘Fuck off, we’ll do our personal and it is going to be a steel pageant.’”

And that call turned out to be one of many biggest enterprise selections she and her husband ever made. “It was good,” she says. “For 23 years, it was like summer season camp. There was one band specifically who I simply all the time adored, and I acquired the honour of working with them for some time, which was Motörhead [who played Ozzfest in 1998]. I simply beloved Lemmy to demise.”

Sharon Osbourne has had an illustrious profession, to say the least, however she counts Ozzfest as her proudest achievement. “It handed the torch,” she says. “So many nice bands got here out of Ozzfest which are nonetheless going at this time and nonetheless so related.”

Ozzfest wasn’t with out drama in its time, although. Elsewhere within the interview, Sharon remembers the time she orchestrated followers to throw open cans of baked beans at Iron Maiden frontman Bruce Dickinson for disrespecting her husband Ozzy.

“I really like Iron Maiden, it’s simply the singer as a result of he was so horribly disrespectful,” she says. “However if you happen to’re going to take Ozzy’s cash, and play earlier than him each evening of a pageant, and also you’re bad-mouthing him to the gang, you’ve acquired to pay. So I had him pelted with cans of baked beans that had been open, and reduce his sound.”

Ozzy Osbourne is because of carry out at Black Sabbath’s huge Again to the Starting farewell present this July, supported by a who’s who of steel greatness, together with Metallica, Slayer, Pantera, Alice in Chains and extra.

Tickets are offered out, however yow will discover out extra data at ozzy.com.