Last month, Ozzy Osbourne and Black Sabbath took the stage at their final show “Back to the Beginning” at Villa Park in Birmingham, England. While the show was put on to give them a proper send-off, it also had a dual purpose: to raise money for charity.
Funds raised by the concert are set to be equally split between Cure Parkinson’s, Birmingham Children’s Hospital, and Acorn Children’s Hospice.
In the days following the show, multiple outlets reported that “Back to the Beginning” had raised a massive $190 million. Now, Ozzy Osbourne’s wife and manager Sharon Osbourne is refuting those claims.
In a just published interview with Pollstar conducted a few days before Ozzy’s death, Sharon insists that they are still not sure how much money they actually raised.
“I’m really happy that we are talking, because one of the things that’s frightening me is all this false press about [how] we’ve made $140 million and all of this, and I’m like, ‘God, I wish we could have, for one gig,’” she said, implying that the actual monetary figure could be much less than previously reported.
“It’s just ridiculous, the different stories. I went on the internet the next morning and it was like, $140 million, $160 million. And I’m like, ‘Where does this stuff come from?’ And people like Billboard have printed it.”
When the interviewer noted that the actual reported number was $190 million, Sharon replied:
“Oh, $190 million? Thank you, Billboard, for getting it wrong. Just ridiculous. It takes a really long time [to calculate], because we’ve had all of the bands that we had come in and their expenses, and it’ll take a good six weeks to get the final number. Because we’re selling merch for another two weeks from the gig. So, we’ve got another two weeks of sales yet to add to it. It’ll be another four weeks and it’ll be done.”
