Sharon Osbourne Reveals ‘Back to the Beginning’ Actually Raised $11 Million for Charity
Back in June, after the dust had settled from the once-in-a-lifetime concert event ‘Back to the Beginning’ but before Ozzy passed away, there was all this talk about how much money the concert had raised for charity. Talk was that it was millions and millions of dollars — Tom Morello, the event’s musical director, estimated that it landed somewhere in the $190 million (or £140 million) range. That figure was dismissed by Sharon Osbourne, who said the actual number would take some time to tabulate.
Well, we’re now roughly five months out from the event and we’ve got an official number from the Osbourne matriarch — $11 million to equally benefit Birmingham Children’s Hospital, Acorn Children’s Hospice, and Cure Parkinson’s.
During a recent episode of The Osbournes podcast, Sharon laid out exactly how that figure was determined, given the fact that so many people attended the event in person and streamed it all over the globe.
“It raised 11 [million]. But with the cost, ’cause we paid the cost of bringing everybody in, everybody out, accommodation, everything. [And] no one got paid. Nobody asked for a penny. They gave their time, their efforts, everything for free. People were just — oh God — so generous.”
Think about that for a second. Ozzy and Black Sabbath were so influential that bands like Metallica, Guns N’ Roses, Slayer, Tool, Pantera… they all opted not to get paid for their time and effort. Everyone decided to pay their respects to a band that gave so much to all of us. They gave us metal, after all.
Of course, there were costs involved with the whole event, of course, so those had to be paid out before the charitable donations could be made. That was why Sharon said she immediately came out and countered Morello’s initial claim — not out of wanting to show him up, but rather to temper expectations.
“If one show could have raised… I mean, [the articles were saying] it was up to, like 190 million. It’s, like, any artist, just do one big show, film it and you can retire just on one show. No, it was nowhere near, and I wish that it was, but we are living in reality, in the real world.”
Aside from all the talk about money and the charity effort and the show, the most recent episode of The Osbournes is incredibly touching, as Jack, Sharon, and Kelly talk about the grief, loss, and love they feel after Ozzy’s passing. Truly heartbreaking, yet humanizing stuff there.
