Rocker Ozzy Osbourne and his former band Black Sabbath raised millions for three British charities with their final concert, “Back to the Beginning,” held over the weekend.
Mr. Osbourne, Black Sabbath and other rock acts played the concert in Birmingham, the English Midlands city where Mr. Osbourne was born in 1948 and Black Sabbath was founded in 1968.
“Birmingham is the true home of metal. Birmingham Forever,” said Mr. Osbourne, who left the group in 1979 to pursue a solo career.
The concert’s music director, Rage Against the Machine rocker Tom Morello, said on Instagram that “we raised a ton of money for a great cause and so many great musicians & bands & fans all over the world paid tribute to the ALL TIME greats,” and included a graphic saying that over $190 million had been raised.
A spokesperson for Live Nation, which produced the event, told NME magazine that “reported charity figures around Back To The Beginning are not a true reflection and are indeed false. Ozzy and Sharon in due course will announce correct figures,” referring to Mr. Osbourne and his wife, Sharon Osbourne.
The proceeds went to the Birmingham Children’s Hospital, the Acorn Children’s Hospice and U.K. charity Cure Parkinson’s.
“We found out when everyone else found out, when the gig was announced … it was absolutely a lovely delight,” Birmingham Children’s Hospital’s Fundraising Manager Sheeba Ali told the BBC.
Mr. Osbourne was diagnosed with Parkinson’s himself in 2019 before publicly revealing his struggle with the condition on ABC’s “Good Morning America” in 2020.
Mr. Osbourne performed during the concert while seated on a black throne decorated with a bat; he infamously bit the head off of a live bat at a solo concert in Des Moines, Iowa, in 1982, though, according to Rolling Stone, he thought the bat was fake before he bit into it.
Around 40,000 people attended in person and millions more live-streamed the event, according to Rolling Stone.
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