top of page

Sharon Osbourne's Last Untenable Cash Grab

  • Writer: Fred
    Fred
  • 2 days ago
  • 3 min read

From Beacon of Speech last month:


"I wanted to watch the Livestream of Ozzy's Final Concert. Looked on streaming services, not there. Looked on YouTube, not there. Looked on cable, not there. The concert was on a website that streamed the concert on a 2-hour delay for $30. Sharon claimed all proceeds went to 3 charities in Birmingham, England. I believe her. Well, once the platform got paid. And Sharon got paid."


Listen, the math isn't hard. If the concert streamed to 5.8 million users, times $30, that equals $174,000,000.


And don't forget, the concert was in a stadium of 45,000 that made fans pay up to $1,000 for VIP tickets. But let's use the average ticket price for our purposes, $340 times 45,000 equals another $15,000,000.


That means the concert brought in $189,000,000 for various Birmingham Charities. Musical director, Tom Morello, former guitarist for Rage Against the Machine and Harvard graduate, took to Social Media and exclaimed "we made $190 million for charity!!!"


Tom Morello is a smart guy, he can easily do 3rd grade math.


"In an interview with music industry trade publication Pollstar, conducted on July 17 — just five days before Ozzy's death — his wife and manager said that claims of "Back To The Beginning" raising nearly $200 million are highly inaccurate. 'One of the things that's frightening me is all this false press about [how], we've made $140 million and all of this, and I'm like, God, I wish we could have, for one gig," Sharon said. "It's just ridiculous, the different stories. I went on the internet the next morning and it was like, $140 million, $160 million. And I'm like, Where does this stuff come from'?"


Uh, is she serious?


Now giving her the benefit of the doubt, putting on a concert at Villa Park, home of the Premier League's Aston Villa team, was not free. But if Villa gouged Sharon for the hosting price, it would have been all over the local papers. Let's throw some numbers around and say it cost $10 million to rent the stadium and set up stages and logistics for a one day concert.


And the streaming costs, let's say, were $5 million. The streaming website has to get paid, I get that.


And, even though the bands that performed didn't make money, I find it hard to believe Sharon made them take a loss. Let's say she spent another $10 million on travel costs for the bands involved.


And, finally, Sharon knew it was Ozzy's last concert, so she had a production crew recording every minute of the festivities. She had already announced that sales of 'Back to the Beginning' physical media were coming, so let's say she paid the production company another $5 million for one day's work.


And we are being VERY generous here, let's say she spent another $10 million on the movie's post-production and cleanup from the concert.


Now I'm not an accountant, but after costs, she should have cleared $140-$160 million.


If she didn't clear that, that means she either lied about the live stream numbers, she got ripped off by the production team, or Ozzy's Management Team skimmed a shit-ton of money off the top.


She is the Management Team.


To me, from the outside looking in, it appears that Sharon is taking one last big monetary chunk from that golden goose.


Again, I know concerts are expensive to put on, but we're not talking a tour, we're talking about a one-day event. If she donates less than $120 million to charity, she should be investigated by the HMRC.


ree

If she is taking money from the charity bucket and putting it into the 'Back to the Beginning' Movie production bucket, that she's going to make more money on later, that's not really in the spirit of all money going to charity is it?



bottom of page