Lollapalooza, the annual music festival in Chicago, kicked off yesterday and it's already making news. American rock band Cage the Elephant took the state on July 31 and performed an emotional tribute to the late Ozzy Osbourne, leaving some fans in tears, years after the Black Sabbath singer was banned from the festival.
Ozzy died on July 22 after his battle with Parkinson's disease. The iconic musician was laid to rest this week in the grounds of his own mansion in Buckinghamshire. Black Sabbath fans across the globe mourned the loss of the singer for weeks. And yesterday, Cage the Elephant made the most public tribute.
Just before ending their set with a rendition of Black Sabbath's ballad "Changes," Cage the Elephant's frontman told the crowd: "This past week, we lost, to say a legend would not do it justice, but a beautiful human being. When I think about this song, I think about all the little babies in the world. I just became a father myself, and Ozzy was a beautiful baby that grew to become a beautiful human being."
© WireImageFans loved the tribute. One fan wrote to X (formerly Twitter): "If anyone saw me fighting for my life to not start sobbing at the Cage the Elephant set today when they performed 'Changes' and dedicated it to Ozzy, no you didn't."
"Cage The Elephant hit us with an emotional tribute to Ozzy at Lollapalooza," another wrote, along with a video of the performance.
© GettyWhile the band sang a Black Sabbath song, Ozzy was actually turned down by Lollapalooza. "In 1996, I said to my agents for Ozzy, 'Ozzy should be on Lollapalooza.' They went and asked, and the response was, 'Ozzy's not relevant,'" Sharon Osbourne told Billboard.
"Sharon got *expletive* off about that," Ozzy explained. "[She said], 'You know what I’m gonna do? I'm gonna do the Ozzfest.' I thought she'd *expletive* gone nuts," Ozzy told Billboard.
© WireImageThe couple launched Ozzfest in 1996. It began as a small "festival" in Arizona and California, featuring Ozzy, Black Sabbath, Marilyn Manson, Pantera, Type O Negative, Fear Factory, and Machine Head. The festival grew in size soon after, running nearly every year until 2018.
Organizers of the festival credit Sharon for its success.
"You knew never to mess with Sharon," explained Tom Beaujour, co-author of Lollapalooza: The Uncensored Story of Alternative Rock's Wildest Festival. "And you didn't tell Sharon you were going to do something and not do it, because you would get blacklisted. You just knew not to mess with Sharon, ever. I always thought that that was a great thing, because it's really nice to actually know where you stand with people. And know that if you get out of line, the hammer is going to drop."
Lollapalooza is set to run until Sunday, August 3, with Olivia Rodrigo, Sabrina Carpenter, and A$AP Rocky headlining.
