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Billy Corgan proposes idea of annual concert in celebration of Ozzy Osbourne
Billy Corgan has proposed the idea of an annual charity concert to be held in memory of the late Black Sabbath icon Ozzy Osbourne.
Earlier this month, Osbourne performed for the final time at his Back to the Beginning farewell show at Villa Park in Birmingham. The show raised almost $200 million for Cure Parkinson’s, Birmingham Children’s Hospital, and Acorn Children’s Hospice.
The bill of artists, including Corgan, Metallica, Tool, Guns N’ Roses, Slayer, Pantera, Gojira, and many more, all waived their fees for charity. It also marked the first time the original line-up of Black Sabbath performed together in more than 20 years.
Now, during an appearance on the Klein Ally Show on KROQ, Corgan suggested, “I almost think there should be an annual Ozzy concert where we just come together and do a charitable event.”
Elaborating on the reasoning for his idea to celebrate Osbourne, Corgan continued: “When you have the biggest artists in the world coming to play a tribute to somebody, and they are playing truncated sets, Tool played for 20 minutes, Guns N’ Roses played for 35 minutes, I mean, headlining bands are not used to playing small sets. Everybody worked together to make a one-of-a-kind, monumental event, and what an amazing way to continue to pay tribute if we could just get together every year in Birmingham or Sharon can pick a site, and the legacy of that togetherness would continue.”
The Smashing Pumpkins leader also believes that every rock band in the world would be desperate to be involved in the historic concert, saying, “I can’t imagine the list of artists that wouldn’t want to be involved.”
Corgan then explained how Back to the Beginning was a showcase of the power of rock music, bringing together artists from different generations together thanks to their shared musical love, noting, “Pop could never, ever compete with what we saw that day. Pop is massive, and we get it, we know it, everybody runs around and talks about it because its the gossip, but rock can not be beat.”
Later, he reiterated his point about an annual tribute show “in Ozzy’s memory,” which Corgan says “would show the whole world what rock can do” and raise seismic sums for charity in the process.
Black Sabbath’s Tony Iommi also discussed the farewell concert with ITV News, which he said “meant everything” to Osbourne, adding, “This is what we built up for, for that big ending where he could see all the people and we could all see all the people, and close it in that way.”
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