After Ozzy’s Death, Sharon Osbourne Is Still Changing The Music Industry: ‘i’m Up 24 Hours A day’

When Ozzy Osbourne died in July, the world remembered how the Black Sabbath legend had shaped both modern rock and many aspects of today’s music business — showing artists how they could build massive merchandising empires and turn reality TV stardom into a new revenue stream, while also pioneering the concept of a genre-focused touring festival.

But while Ozzy was the face of those innovations, the creative force behind the blueprints was his wife of 43 years, Sharon Osbourne — a supremely talented music executive in her own right who’s not yet done changing the industry.

“All of the creative direction for visuals at Ozzfest was mine. I can’t sing a note — I’m tone-deaf — but I can be creative, and I like to create things,” Osbourne, 73, reminisced in December from a hotel room on New York’s Upper East Side, perfectly coiffed and sipping tea after a late night out at a star-studded private rock show at the Capitol Theatre in Port Chester, N.Y., that featured Slash, Eddie Vedder, Anthony Kiedis, Yungblud and Bruno Mars, among others.

“I’ve been talking to Live Nation about bringing [Ozzfest] back recently,” she continues. “It was something Ozzy was very passionate about: giving young talent a stage in front of a lot of people. We really started metal festivals in this country. It was [replicated but] never done with the spirit of what ours was, because ours was a place for new talent. It was like summer camp for kids.”

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First, Osbourne says, she’s working with Live Nation to launch a classical tour of Black Sabbath’s catalog, performed by local orchestras and set to state-of-the-art visuals, as well as a scripted feature film about a portion of Ozzy’s life. (Just weeks before Ozzy’s death last summer, Osbourne organized Back to the Beginning, a farewell concert for Black Sabbath stacked with metal legends in the band’s native Birmingham, England, that raised around $10 million for charity.)

Osbourne, the daughter of music impresario Don Arden, was born in London and cut her teeth working at her father’s record label, Jet Records, before taking what she calls the biggest risk of her career: leaving that label to manage Ozzy, whom she’d married after he was fired from Black Sabbath in 1979.

“Everybody thought Ozzy’s career was never going to happen as a solo artist — in those days, there weren’t that many people that had left bands and actually gone on and done really well,” she recalls. “They thought Ozzy and I would just end up in the toilet. It was really about getting up every day and showing everyone: F–k you, this is what we’re going to do. I never took no for an answer.”

She went on to manage acts including The Smashing Pumpkins and Motörhead. And while she wouldn’t go back into management now (“management is all or nothing — you can’t just be a little bit in”), she’s still obsessed with discovering new talent, seeing as much live music as she can and scouring the internet for gems. “I’ll troll all night,” she says, “and I’ll reach out to people I think are talented.

“I’m not interested in little girls in leotards throwing themselves around and humping the floor — some of them are really talented, but it’s not original,” Osbourne continues. “You have to have that sense of individuality, because otherwise you’re just a clone. Are you going to be an icon? Are you going to last the test of time? If you want to be a serious artist, who are you? It’s so easy to market yourself these days. Come out with a great little video — do it yourself at home, but be different. Don’t follow. You’ve got to be a leader. You’ve got to have your own look, your own sound. Your voice has to be instantly recognizable.”

Osbourne finds the business “very nerdy” now, remarking that “everybody is so polite,” and she hates streaming and AI-generated music: “I don’t like anything by machines — it’s got no soul.”

She still looks up to great executives, though, particularly Irving Azoff (“Love him, hate him, whatever — he’s a f–king icon,” she says). And while she says “grief is a new part of my life that I have to get used to” and admits she gets little sleep (“I’m up 24 hours a day. I only catnap now”), she’s heartened by the prospect of showcasing a new crop of rising stars at the next iteration of Ozzfest, which she says could launch as soon as 2027.

The festival would tour everywhere, just like it used to, she says, but of course, she has a new vision for it: “I’d like to mix up the genres.”

This story appears in the Jan. 24, 2026, issue of Billboard.