The Ozzy Osbourne and Black Sabbath farewell was a huge hit. Millions of streamers tuned in from everywhere in the world, and the chosen bands to perform were almost all great. At the end of the show, Ozzy and Sabbath did not disappoint.
But one thing from the show might turn out to be disappointing. After the July 5 event, Tom Morello, the former Rage Against the Machine guitarist and musical director of the Back to the Beginning farewell gig, posted on his Instagram page that the show had raised nearly $200 million for charity.
Sharon Osbourne, Ozzy's wife and manager, has quickly pointed out that the amount Morello gave was "ridiculous" and nowhere near that number. Why? Because, according to Sharon, there simply hasn't been enough time to go by the calculate the actual dollar amount.
Sharon Osbourne not sure how much Ozzy Osbourne and Black Sabbath farewell raised
Plus, announcing only a few days after the event about how much was raised for Acorns Children's Hospice, Birmingham Children's Hospital, and Cure Parkinson's is unfair to the charities. They might have seen that number and been excited about how much help they might receive.
Sharon Osbourne told Pollstar, "One of the things that’s frightening me is all this false press about (how) we’ve made $140 million and all of this...It’s just ridiculous, the different stories. Where does this stuff come from? It takes a really long time (to find out how much was made), 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."
That's true. It does take a long time to see exactly what the dollar amount was. The event was probably larger than anyone would have expected. Perhaps, once the real number is known, $140-190 million is logical.
Osbourne does make a point of something important. While the bands involved, such as Metallica, did not take a fee for their appearance, it does appear that the farewell event did pay for their expenses, and that will be expensive.
Moving people and instruments from the US to the UK and Europe to the UK is not cheap. A recent BBC News report said that the farewell concert raised about $45 million. Hopefully, a lot of money was raised for some important charities, but we might not know how much for a while yet.