Sharon Osbourne said she is open to the idea of a Black Sabbath hologram show.
While the Paranoid hard rock icons are set to reunite for their final “Back To The Beginning” farewell show at Birmingham’s Villa Park this summer, Ozzy Osbourne’s wife and manager has hinted at the possibility of a virtual project in the future, similar to ABBA’s hologram performances.
When asked if she would consider the idea, she told Metal Hammer magazine: “Sure I would, yeah.”
“Technology keeps moving on and on. You can do incredible things now, so what you could do in five years will be even better.
“You never know what the opportunities are.”
One iconic rock band already working on an avatar show is Kiss. The Kiss avatars were developed by Industrial Light & Magic (ILM) and were funded and produced by the Swedish company Pophouse Entertainment, the team behind ABBA Voyage.
Pophouse Entertainment Group, founded by ABBA’s Björn Ulvaeus, is using advanced technology to create digital versions of Kiss. A preview of the project was showcased during the band’s final concert in New York in December 2023.
Last December, Kiss bassist and vocalist Gene Simmons told The Zak Kuhn Show podcast that the technology originally used for ABBA’s Voyage “is now yesterday’s news.” When asked if the Kiss avatar show would “totally blow away” ABBA Voyage, Simmons said: “It already does, yeah. Uh-huh… Technology, I’m sure you keep up with it, is growing by leaps and bounds… The future is here. A.I. now fixes itself and teaches itself. And so the technology has advanced by leaps and bounds even where the ABBA show was. You could swear ABBA was live on stage, but you have to look straight forward. If you look to the left or right, you can see your neighbor sitting behind you or next to you. And so you have that kind of, ‘Oh, this is reality. And what’s on stage looks like reality.’ But as you know, with 3D glasses, virtual glasses, your sense of what’s real and what’s not is skewed. So there’s all that.”
Sharon also shared her thoughts on Bill Ward joining Black Sabbath on stage, 13 years after he stepped away from their reunion due to a contract dispute.
“Bill has always been fantastic with Ozzy,” Sharon said. “I always say they’ve got that invisible connection between the four of them, and he’s gonna be there, which is amazing.”
“I’m not going to bulls*** you and say we’re the best of friends. We’re not. We are such different people.”
“But I respect Bill so much, and I’m so happy that he has agreed to come, for the band and for the fans.”
Alongside his former bandmates, also joining the lineup for this historic event are Metallica, Guns N’ Roses, Tool, Slayer, Pantera, Gojira, Alice In Chains, Halestorm, Lamb Of God, Anthrax, and Mastodon.
Ozzy is feeling “overwhelmed” with emotion, knowing so many of his friends will be part of the show.
Sharon added: “Ozzy‘s very excited and feels very overwhelmed that all the guys in Sabbath and his mates are all turning up.
“It’s the perfect way to say goodbye to his fans, because that was his big regret – he felt he never had a chance to say ‘thank you’ to the fans, and this is the perfect way his career should end.”
She added: “It’s gonna be a great day for every musician up there, because they’re all mates.”
“Everybody’s there for the right reasons. They all love doing what they do, they all love the music.”
In a recent interview with Australian Musician, Tom Morello said there are gonna be some huge superstars who will be surprise guests on Ozzy‘s farewell show.
“Where it’s at now… First of all, when we first sat down, we have a very, very simple goal, and that’s to make this the greatest day in the history of heavy metal,” Tom added. “And to that end, you’ve probably seen the listed setlist. And let me tell you, there’s some huge superstars who are gonna be surprises on that day too. So, the idea is to really acknowledge the importance of that band in a way that the whole world will forever know it.”
Scheduled for July 5 at Villa Park, the highly anticipated event, known as “Back To The Beginning“, sold out in under 10 minutes last month. This concert will mark the first time in 20 years that the original lineup of Black Sabbath: Osbourne, guitarist Tony Iommi, bassist Geezer Butler, and drummer Bill Ward, will share the stage together. Ozzy, who has not performed a full show since late 2018, revealed his final performance on February 5.
The proceeds from “Back To The Beginning” will be donated to Cure Parkinson’s, the Birmingham Children’s Hospital, and Acorn Children’s Hospice, a facility supported by Aston Villa.
