SHARON OSBOURNE Explains Why Rock Will 'Never Go Away': 'It's Not A Gimmick Music. It Is From The Soul.'

During a February 6 appearance at MIDEM 2026 at the Palais des Festivals in Cannes, France, Sharon Osbourne, the British TV personality, music manager and the widow of rock icon Ozzy Osbourne, weighed in on an ongoing debate about whether rock music still matters and if people care about the genre the way young people growing up in the 1960s, the 1970s, the 1980s and the 1990s did. She said (as transcribed by BLABBERMOUTH.NET): " It's amazing to me that people still are saying, 'Rock music, will it continue? Will it last?' It's not disco. It's not a gimmick music. It is from the soul. And that's why you just have to, have to keep it going and give these bands a platform, the new talent a platform, because, for me, it'll, it'll never go away. And there's nothing like seeing bands playing their own instruments.

"I always hated boy bands because they just would sing and dance, and it's, like, 'What are you doing?' It's silly," she continued. "And you see these guys making the sounds that they make from a piece of wood and strings and you go, 'How on earth did they do that solo?' And the same with the drummer, the bass player. And it is a great art form that, unfortunately, people look at it as the bastard of the industry: 'You're bastards. Nobody wants you.' And that's people that are not on the street. They're removed from the street. They're in their offices, they're in their chauffeur-driven cars. They don't get what is actually happening. And two, the press. is very against it — mainstream press. 'Cause they just want the next big thing. That's all they ever wanna write about. So it's been hard. But also now seeing all those bands that started in late '90s still going. They're filling stadiums now."

Sharon added: "I think it's all about live shows. It really is. 'Cause the record industry is so tiny right now. A friend of mine had a No. 3 album in the charts just before Christmas, and I said, 'How many did you sell?' 8,000 to get a No. 3 album at that time of year. I mean, it's minute. And all of the streaming services are great, but first of all, the money that the artist gets is nothing; it's a joke. And it's ruined that whole thing of discovering a body of work in an album… You get what that band's about by listening to the whole album, not just a track that you think is good or whatever. The music industry now is touring. That's what it's about."

Sharon famously spearheaded Ozzfest, the annual multi-band touring juggernaut which began in 1996 and ran until 2018. It featured the crème de la crème of metal, both chart-toppers and newcomers divided between two stages. Many underground bands were represented on Ozzfest, including EARTH CRISIS, DRAIN STH, PUYA, ULTRASPANK, KILGORE and MONSTER VOODOO MACHINE.

Launched in 1996 after Lollapalooza declined to book Ozzy, Ozzfest began as a short run of dates in Phoenix, Arizona and San Bernardino, California. Ozzy headlined the inaugural shows, backed by a bill stacked with heavy hitters including SLAYER, DANZIG, BIOHAZARD and SEPULTURA.

"It was something Ozzy was very passionate about: giving young talent a stage in front of a lot of people," Sharon told Billboard magazine earlier this year. "We really started metal festivals in this country. It was [replicated but] never done with the spirit of what ours was, because ours was a place for new talent. It was like summer camp for kids."