Jack Osbourne has finally weighed in on one of the most persistent rumors surrounding the 2025 Back To The Beginning – the all-star tribute to Ozzy Osbourne and Black Sabbath that also served as a charitable sendoff in Birmingham.
Speaking on Jamie Kennedy‘s Hate To Break It To Ya Podcast, Jack addressed speculation about a mysterious band that was allegedly removed from the bill after a financial dispute. The event itself famously featured top-tier metal and hard rock acts performing without standard fees, with proceeds directed to charities including Cure Parkinson’s, Birmingham Children’s Hospital, and Acorn Children’s Hospice, ultimately raising around $11 million.
Jack confirmed the core controversy but refused to name the act, emphasizing the fallout risk and ongoing sensitivity around the situation. According to him, the issue stemmed from a disagreement over “hard costs” versus the event’s all-charity structure: “Here’s what I will say, ’cause a lot of stuff online was about ‘Oh, it’s um…’ I cannot say the band.
“I cannot. I cannot. But what I will say is this. Everyone’s online speculating who it is, and I have not seen a single accurate [guess,] Not even close. Like I saw something that it was Wolfgang Van Halen and it was absofuckingutely not.
“Like Wolf wanted to be there so badly and it was just a clash in schedule [Wolfgang Van Halen withdrew due to a scheduling conflict with his tour with Creed] and hey, he was getting a paid gig versus an unpaid gig. Go do the paid gig. You know?”
“Here’s the caveat [about Back To The Beginning,] it was like listen, we’ll pay for your crew, we’ll pay your hard costs, but no one is, no one’s getting paid, like individually, like the band. But what ended up happening was a lot of crew donated their time. So, they were like, ‘No, we’re not charging for this.’ Because you know, a lot of the crews we’d all worked with for years anyway.”
“And the one band, I will say at this point, it’s like it was in the high hundreds of thousands of dollars what they said their hard costs would be… For them just to show up without any talent fee. It was… It was very frustrating.”
He stressed that while no artist was being paid a performance fee, the event did agree to cover essential touring expenses. However, negotiations reportedly escalated when crew expectations and travel standards became contentious.
He noted that the only confirmed detail is that the band had previously worked with Ozzy Osbourne in some capacity and even apologized afterward once tensions cooled.
Importantly, Jack suggested the disagreement may have been driven more by management than the band members themselves: “…But here’s the thing, it was like, ‘Are you fucking serious?’ And then you know and then you start… Here’s what, I will give the band the benefit of the doubt, and I will say it was probably the manager, but I don’t know, you know? I don’t know.”
So who was it? Who knows, man.
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