This past Saturday (July 5th), Black Sabbath and Ozzy Osbourne took the stage for the final time, playing their last ever show at Villa Park in Birmingham, UK. The event, dubbed “Back to the Beginning,” also featured dozens of other rock and metal icons, each paying tribute to and celebrating the legendary career of Sabbath and Ozzy.
However, there was one band that seemed to be missing: Soundgarden.
Despite Sharon Osbourne announcing back in May that Soundgarden had been added to the bill, the grunge pioneers failed to make an appearance at the event.
This comes after Sharon recently revealed that she had disinvited a well-known band from the show. While she did not say exactly who, she told Metal Hammer in June that the decision to remove the band from the lineup came after a dispute with their manager. Fans have speculated it might be Motley Crue, as Soundgarden’s removal appears to be for different reasons.
“I had a huge, huge to-do with a manager over this celebration for Ozzy and Sabbath,” Sharon said at the time. “And it was probably the worst way I’ve felt in years… And he’s now going around making up b*llsh*t lies because I threw his band off the bill.”
Sharon added in a subsequent interview with Billboard that the mystery band in question was disinvited because they “wanted to make a profit, and it’s not the time to make a profit. After the show I’ll let everybody know who it was. I think people will be shocked.”
Fans began to speculate that it may be Soundgarden hours before the event, when they noticed the band’s name was missing from the lineup on the event’s livestream.
When the show concluded without an appearance from Soundgarden, some fans took it as confirmation that it was them who Sharon kicked off of the bill – even going as far as to speculate that Vicky Cornell (the widow of late frontman Chris Cornell) may have had something to do with it.
“I think they were one of the bands that got dropped and I think we all know who we can blame for that,” one fan wrote on Reddit, while another added: “Probably Vicky wanted money from them for playing Soundgarden songs and saying [the] name Soundgarden.”
One fan in particular admitted they had bought a ticket to the event specifically to see Soundgarden, and was extremely disappointed when they didn’t show up.
“I literally bought a ticket, honestly just cuz I thought I’d be seeing one of the very few Soundgarden reunions,” the fan explained. “I am so vastly disappointed and heartbroken rn. And even more angry at the fact that that information was withheld from us. they were probably who Sharon was bragging about kicking off, and it was probably because you know who wanted money. fml.”
While it has not yet been confirmed who exactly the band is, the only act Sharon has ruled out is Iron Maiden – who, according to Sharon, would have been there if they didn’t already have another gig booked in Spain on the same day. “Ozzy only has respect for the guys in Maiden,” she told Metal Hammer.
