It may seem hard to believe now, but one of the biggest festivals in the history of heavy metal — Ozzfest — started with a simple insult.The traveling roadshow put the spotlight on some of metal’s most legendary acts and hottest up-and-comers for more than two decades.Ozzfest also helped revitalize Ozzy Osbourne’s career and endear him to a new generation of metalheads, facilitated a Black Sabbath reunion and reaffirmed the commercial viability of the genre after years of cultural decline.So, what was the insult that launched Ozzfest?How Ozzfest Stemmed From Another Major Festival’s RejectionThe seeds for Ozzfest were planted in the mid-’90s, after Osbourne had ostensibly retired following the conclusion of his 1992 No More Tours Tour. Doctors suspected the Prince of Darkness might have multiple sclerosis or Parkinson’s and, even after his tests came back clear, they advised him to retire and enjoy the fruits of his labor.So at the end of 1992, at the ripe old age of 44, Osbourne retired. Unsurprisingly, it didn’t last long.By 1995, Osbourne had grown bored with domestic life and anxious about every personal and professional expense coming out of his own pocket. He asked his wife and manager, Sharon Osbourne, if she could get him back onstage. She then pitched him to Lollapalooza, the alternative music festival launched in 1991 by Jane’s Addiction frontman Perry Farrell.It didn’t go well.lollapalooza 1995 posterLollapaloozaloading…The InsultOsbourne reflected on the festival’s reaction in his 2010 memoir, I Am Ozzy. “She called the organizers of Lollapalooza. And they told her to fuck off,” he wrote. “‘Ozzy Osbourne? He’s a fucking dinosaur,’ they said, in not so many words.”After the initial sting of rejection wore off, Sharon decided she and Ozzy would simply beat the Lollapalooza organizers at their own game. “I just thought, ‘Fuck them,'” she said at the time (via Metal Hammer). “If Lollapalooza wasn’t able to see what Ozzy could give them, then we’d come up with our own metal version, only better.”READ MORE: The Osbournes Name the ‘Naughtiest’ Bands at OzzfestOzzfest’s Humble (but Successful) BeginningsThe inaugural Ozzfest took place in 1996, with just two dates — Oct. 25 in Phoenix and Oct. 26 in Los Angeles — tacked onto Osbourne’s Retirement Sucks Tour. The lineup was spread across two stages and featured Osbourne, Slayer, Danzig, Biohazard, Sepultura, Fear Factory, Neurosis, Narcotic Gypsy, Earth Crisis, Powerman 5000, Coal Chamber, Cellophane and King Norris.OzzfestOzzfestloading…Ozzfest was a success right off the bat, drawing thousands of fans to both dates. And even in its primitive state, the event served as an act of rebellion against the music industry and provided a haven for metal bands that would have otherwise been ignored.”Our strategy was to take all the undesirables, all the bands that couldn’t find an outlet anywhere else, and put them together, give them an audience,” Osbourne wrote in I Am Ozzy.”It worked better than we ever could have expected, ‘cos nothing existed for those bands at the time,” he continued. “It had got to the point in the music business where if you wanted to play a gig, the venues made you buy all the tickets in advance, so you had to give them away for free or sell them on your own, which is bullshit. Black Sabbath never had to deal with that kind of bollocks in the early days. We’d never have left Aston, if that had been the case. Where would we have found the dough?”READ MORE: Whatever Happened to the Acts From Ozzfest’s Inaugural Lineup?As Ozzfest Expands, Ozzy’s Impact GrowsAfter its successful first year, Ozzfest expanded into a full-fledged nationwide festival in 1997, headlined by a reunited Black Sabbath (minus drummer Bill Ward), shock-metal iconoclast Marilyn Manson and extreme groove-metallers Pantera.Ozzfest’s early success didn’t just prove that Osbourne was still commercially and culturally relevant more than 25 years after his career began. (After all, he was still riding high off the success of 1995’s double-platinum Ozzmosis.) It also turned him into an elder statesman who could shepherd young metal bands and give them a massive platform to grow their audience.”That was such a huge breakthrough for us,” Coal Chamber vocalist Dez Fafara said of the inaugural Ozzfest (via Metal Hammer). “You don’t get many chances to be make history. So we were privileged to be part of the very first Ozzfest.”Perhaps most importantly, from its humble beginnings to its thunderous close in 2018, Ozzfest stuck to its guns as a metal-exclusive festival. “We liked the idea of staying true to metal,” promoter liaison Jane Holman told Billboard. “At that time Lollapalooza was kind of all over the board as far as genres go. But we said, ‘We are metal.’ We stuck to that theme and the lifestyle around it.”In other words: Thanks to Perry Farrell for Ozzfest!Every Ozzfest Lineup, RankedOzzfest had some amazing lineups, but only one can be the best.Gallery Credit: Bryan Rolli
