Ozzfest Returns to America as a Bet on New Bands

Ozzfest will return to the United States in 2027, the first American edition since a New Year’s Eve show at The Forum in Inglewood in 2018. The festival’s official account posted the news on September 21, pairing Ozzy Osbourne with the UK and US flags and asking fans where the American date should land. Birmingham already has Villa Park. The U.S. still has no city, no date, and no bill.

Sharon Osbourne is not selling a farewell lap. She is betting the name still works as a farm system for new metal acts, which is the job her husband said he cared about, and America is where that bet has to clear.

Ozzfest Will Come to the UK and US

The teaser went up on Instagram and on the festival’s X account @TheOzzFest with a short caption: “More Info Coming Soon!!! Where are you hoping Ozzfest 2027 will pop up?” The graphic itself is blunter. “Ozzfest will come to the UK and US.”

More Info Coming Soon!!! Where are you hoping Ozzfest 2027 will pop up? pic.twitter.com/DpH0mmTLsZ

— OzzFest (@TheOzzFest) September 21, 2026

That U.S. line is the new fact. The UK date had already been parked at Villa Park, the 42,000-capacity home of Aston Villa, after an August 17 post tagging the club. Jack Osbourne, speaking on SiriusXM’s Page Six Radio on August 19, said the reboot would be one day, not a weekend, and that a main headliner and a location were weeks away. The September 21 post confirmed the country. It still named no city and no band.

WHAT WE KNOW

• The countries: A 2027 edition is set for the UK and a separate 2027 edition is set for the United States.
• The UK venue: Villa Park in Birmingham, the stadium that hosted Ozzy’s last show.
• The format: Jack said on August 19 it will be one day, after Sharon had floated two nights in Birmingham if fans asked for them.

WHAT IS UNCONFIRMED

• The U.S. city: Organisers asked the public where it should pop up and have not answered their own question.
• The bills: No headliner, support act, or unsigned name is on paper for either country.
• The producer: Sharon said in January she had been talking to Live Nation; nobody has announced a 2027 promoter of record.

The city chase is not fan service. A one-off American date has to land in a market that will still buy a packed metal day without the man whose name is on the poster standing at the mic.

Ozzy Asked If the Brand Would Work Without Him

At MIDEM in Cannes in February, Sharon walked through the last pause. The 2018 Forum show came about a month before Ozzy got sick. There were no plans to kill the festival. He simply could not do the next one. She said they talked about what that meant.

Do you think Ozzfest would work without me? Yeah, it’s a brand. It will work without you. And he said, We should do it.

Sharon Osbourne, manager and co-founder, at MIDEM 2026, Cannes

That exchange is the wager. Ozzfest started in 1996 after Lollapalooza’s camp told Sharon that Ozzy was not relevant. Ozzy recalled the snub in blunter terms: they called him a dinosaur. She built a metal-only touring day as the reply, with him on the main stage most years and a smaller second stage for bands that had not yet earned a club circuit, let alone an amphitheater.

Jack described the 2027 rebuild as finding the old car in the shop and getting the engine going. Sharon told him on the family podcast that they had to find a lot of young, new talent, “because that’s what your dad would want.” She had already told interviewers that giving young acts a stage in front of a lot of people was the part Ozzy would not let go. “It was like summer camp for kids,” she said of the original run.

A brand that can run without its singer is also a brand that can be booked like any other heritage name. The second stage is how they keep claiming it is still a camp and not a museum.

Slipknot Played the Second Stage With No Album Out

Sharon has been consistent on the ranking inside the camp. The second stage, she said, was in a way more important, because it passed the torch. Ozzy put it simpler: when Black Sabbath started, they could not get a gig, so the bill needed big bands and new bands.

The proof is in who walked off that stage with a career. Slipknot percussionist Shawn “Clown” Crahan has said the Iowa band owed the Osbournes a lot, because they were nothing when they got the slot. Guitarist Mick Thomson said Ozzfest in 1999 was their first tour, and the debut record was not even out until halfway through the run. They played six songs in 25 minutes and went hard all summer. System of a Down opened the second stage in 1998 and were on the main stage a year later. Disturbed opened the side stage on the first day of Ozzfest 2000 so early that David Draiman remembered 20 or 30 people in front of them.

BANDS THE SECOND STAGE TURNED INTO HEADLINERS

Dez Fafara, then a street kid sharing a tiny studio with his band, played a makeshift stage in a field around 11 in the morning at that first Southern California date. Sharon was standing to his left. When he came off, she said she wanted to manage him and put him on the rest of the Ozzfests. Rob Halford later called what she built opportunity, not only for new bands but for every strain of metal on one site.

Slipknot, we owe the Osbournes a lot. They launched us. Because we were nothing.

Shawn “Clown” Crahan, Slipknot percussionist

Jack is still using that ledger as a booking brief. He said the huge artists in the genre, Disturbed, Slipknot, System of a Down, came up on Ozzfest, and he wants acts with an authentic connection to that line. He also said new artists will be a big part of the 2027 bill, and organisers will probably keep a spot for at least one unsigned artist.

Probably is doing work in that sentence. An unsigned name is a promise with no contract attached, and a one-day stadium show has far fewer daylight minutes than the old amphitheater crawl.

Why the U.S. Touring Model Collapsed in 2018

The last American Ozzfest was not a tour. It was a Monday, December 31, 2018, at The Forum, produced by Live Nation, with outdoor music from 2:30 p.m. and an indoor shift at 6:00 p.m., ten hours on site before Ozzy counted down the year. Tickets ran from $49.50 for general admission to $179.50 for a reserved seat.

The Live Nation-produced night carried a New Year’s Eve bill of eight bands, a mix of alumni and one debut.

THE FORUM BILL, NEW YEAR’S EVE 2018

• Headliner: Ozzy Osbourne, closing the year onstage.
• Main room: Rob Zombie, Marilyn Manson, Jonathan Davis of Korn, and Body Count featuring Ice-T in their Ozzfest debut.
• Outdoor stage: Zakk Sabbath, DevilDriver, and Wednesday 13.

He opened with Bark at the Moon and worked through War Pigs, Crazy Train, and Mama, I’m Coming Home before Paranoid and Changes, per Ozzy’s Forum set list from that night. It was his last full concert. A couple of short one-offs followed, then the body would not carry a tour.

The touring version had already been dying for years. Ozzfest ran as a moving U.S. and European circus from 1997 through 2008, then shrank to one-day stands, including later pairings with Slipknot’s Knotfest in San Bernardino. In 2023 Sharon said the machine stopped because it was no longer cost-effective. The bands were mates. The managers, she said, thought the Osbournes were making billions, and they were not. “We made a profit. But it was not like we could retire on it.” Managers and agents wanted more and more, and she stopped writing the checks.

That is the market 2027 walks back into, except the guarantees are higher and the living headliner is gone. Heritage metal still sells rooms. Baby-stage slots do not pay for those rooms. Sharon has said you can keep a baby stage, but you still need the headliners. Jack’s one-day plan is an attempt to buy one expensive night instead of a summer of them.

Birmingham Gets Villa Park Before Any U.S. City

The UK date is not a blank map. It is a sequel to a funeral the city already staged while Ozzy was alive. Back to the Beginning sold out in minutes at Villa Park on July 5, 2025, with Ozzy’s solo set and the original Black Sabbath lineup of Tony Iommi, Geezer Butler, and Bill Ward together for the first time in more than 20 years. Jason Momoa hosted. Tom Morello ran the music. Metallica, Guns N’ Roses, Tool, Slayer, Pantera, and a long list of others played. Ozzy died on July 22, 17 days later, at 76. The family said he was at home, surrounded by love. The death certificate lists cardiac arrest, an acute myocardial infarction, coronary artery disease, and Parkinson’s disease.

BACK TO THE BEGINNING, IN BRIEF

• The date: July 5, 2025, at Villa Park in Birmingham.
• The gap: Ozzy died 17 days later, on July 22, 2025, at 76.
• The next screen: A concert film of the night hits cinemas worldwide on October 28, 2026.

Sharon has said she asked him what would make him happy, and he told her the only thing was to perform again and say goodbye. Mercury Studios is turning that night into a concert film due in cinemas October 28, with tickets for the cinema run going on sale September 24. Ozzfest 2027 at the same stadium is the next product in that line, and Sharon, 73, has left the door open to a second Birmingham night if demand shows up.

America has none of that geography. The official post is still a question, and the replies are doing what a blank routing map invites. Chicago came up in the thread under the teaser. Other fans will push Texas, California, the old amphitheater belt. The sharper objection, already visible in that same thread, is format: a day jammed with too many bands on too many stages, each act given a handful of minutes. That complaint is aimed at the exact machine Ozzfest once ran, the one that made Slipknot in 25 minutes and also burned daylight on names nobody remembers.

If the U.S. date is a stadium one-off in Ozzy’s honor, new bands will fight a memorial crowd for a short slot. If it is a true second-stage day, the headliner has to be big enough to pay for the unused seats at 11 a.m. Jack said the main name was coming in a couple of weeks. That was August 19. September 21 came and went with flags, not a marquee.

Hyperreal Is Building a Talking Ozzy for Screens

A separate wager is already in production, and it is the one fans have actually been arguing about. On May 20 at Licensing Expo in Las Vegas, Sharon and Jack announced a partnership with Hyperreal and Proto Hologram to build an AI-powered Ozzy from what the companies call his digital DNA, voice, image, and movement. Hyperreal chief executive Remington Scott said every element was built from authenticated, approved source material, curated and controlled by the family, and that it is a living performance, not a looped rendering. Proto founder David Nussbaum said the figure can read a room.

Sharon told BBC Radio WM she had seen tests so detailed you could see every pore and the beard coming through. She wanted the first UK appearance in Birmingham. “He can tell the audience he loves them. He can just be Ozzy. After you get over the tears, it’s brilliant.” She also said it could turn up in concerts, films, or ads. Jack said it would feel very real, and that they had talked with his father about doing something like this before he died.

That is not on the Ozzfest poster. Digital Music chatter has already folded the avatar into the 2027 bill; the family has not. The backlash they did get was about money. Sharon’s answer was that Ozzy loved the idea, they had talked about it for ten years, and she is not using him to sell weedkiller or beer. “If you don’t like it, don’t go see it.”

A talking kiosk in a lobby is a licensing play. A talking Ozzy over a second stage is a different product, and it would change what “the brand works without me” means. Until a rider says otherwise, 2027 is still a show of living bands under a dead man’s name.

The 2028 Tour Only Happens If 2027 Sells

Sharon’s longer map has been public since winter. Two days at Villa Park, then America, then, if people want it, the road again in 2028. She has said she wants Rob Halford on a future bill. She has also said the 2027 lineup can mix genres, which would be a break from the metal-only rule that defined the original tour against Lollapalooza’s grab bag.

WHAT THEY HAVE PUT ON THE RECORD

• One day, for now: Jack said 2027 will not be a multi-day event, after a couple of two-day Ozzfests in the old years.
• An unsigned slot: He said they will probably hold at least one space for an act with no deal.
• A 2028 tour: Sharon has said they will look at going back on the road the following year if 2027 holds.
• Live Nation talks: She said in January that conversations with the promoter were already under way, with no deal announced.

The U.S. date is the proof of concept those later years need. Birmingham will fill Villa Park because it is Ozzy’s city and the stadium already held his goodbye. An American promoter has to sell a one-day metal bill whose namesake cannot walk on, in a business Sharon already quit once because the asks got too high. The September 21 post still reads like a question because that is what it is. They have the flags. They do not yet have a field.