SHARON OSBOURNE: 'We Really, Really Wanted MEGADETH' To Play At 'Back To The Beginning' Concert

Sharon Osbourne has confirmed that the organizers of last year's "Back To The Beginning" charity concert in Birmingham, United Kingdom "really, really wanted MEGADETH" to take part in the event, which marked Ozzy Osbourne and BLACK SABBATH's final performance.

Ozzy's wife and manager brought up the Dave Mustaine-fronted outfit while discussing the "Ozzy & Black Sabbath: Back To The Beginning" concert film, which will hit theaters beginning on October 28. Produced by Mercury Studios, the movie chronicles the farewell show by Osbourne and his SABBATH bandmates, guitarist Tony Iommi, bassist Geezer Butler and drummer Bill Ward, in Osbourne's original hometown at Aston Villa football club's home stadium at Villa Park on July 5, 2025. The concert featured both solo sets from Osbourne and a reunion of the original SABBATH lineup for the first time in more than two decades, along with a long list of performers influenced by Ozzy and the rest of SABBATH. Hosted by actor Jason Momoa and overseen by musical director, RAGE AGAINST THE MACHINE guitarist Tom Morello, the concert featured sets from ALICE IN CHAINS, ANTHRAX, GUNS N' ROSES, LAMB OF GOD, MASTODON, METALLICA, PANTERA, SLAYER and TOOL, as well as special guests SMASHING PUMPKINS leader Billy Corgan, RED HOT CHILI PEPPERS drummer Chad Smith, Sammy Hagar, AEROSMITH singer Steven Tyler, Yungblud, BLINK-182 drummer Travis Barker and many more.

Asked in a new interview with Rolling Stone magazine which tribute performances impressed her, Sharon said: "Oh my God, there so many great, great performances. It was just overwhelming. Even down to when the drummers were up there, Travis and Chad and [TOOL's] Danny [Carey]. Everything was just great that day. Without Tom Morello, without [Live Nation promoter] Andy Copping, it would never have happened.

"Tom Morello was an absolute saint and he is incredible," she continued. "His sense of music and of what's right and what's not right, he's just an incredible person. He needs a sainthood. He is the saint of metal. He's so wise and knows what he's talking about on so many different levels.

"Andy Copping, who has been in our lives forever too, from Live Nation, he is just an incredible music man," Sharon added. "There's not one band on that show that wasn't a friend of Andy's. Even though he works for Live Nation, a huge corporation, everybody adores Andy Copping. He's one of the most famous promoters in the world. He's just the best."

After Rolling Stone writer Kory Grow noted that "they put together a great lineup", Sharon revealed: "We really, really wanted MEGADETH. There was no time, we couldn't fit everybody in on one day. There were so many bands that were due to play that we just couldn't because there was not enough time."

A couple of weeks after "Back To The Beginning" took place, MEGADETH bassist James LoMenzo said that the Dave Mustaine-fronted outfit was not invited to take part in the event. In a post in the Back To The Beginning - Black Sabbath's Final Concert Facebook group, Charrie Foglio, who spent a decade under the tutelage of Doc McGhee (BON JOVI, KISS) as part of the McGhee Entertainment artist management company, shared a portion of the interview she conducted with LoMenzo on July 9, 2025 for Japan's BURRN! magazine. After Foglio noted that three out of the so-called "Big Four" of 1980s thrash metal played at the event — a reference to METALLICA, SLAYER and ANTHRAX — but not MEGADETH, LoMenzo said: "Charrie, I'm going to let the cat out of the bag. The truth of the matter is, I don't believe that anybody asked us, which was fine. Not everybody gets invited to every party. But at the same time, when we were in Europe last week, David said that he was reaching out to everybody and telling them that we were in the neighborhood and that we were close enough to come. And if they wanted us to, we could stay over for a few days and work it out... If they wanted us to. I don't know what our manager had accomplished with that, but it didn't get accomplished, so we just came home."

He continued: "So I know what you're saying [about one 'Big Four' band missing from the event]. Even before all of this started, everyone was saying, 'Well, what about MEGADETH?' It was really funny to read because there was no invite and there was no talking to people, there was actually nothing to do with any of it. It was this exciting situation where we're celebrating Ozzy [Osbourne] in his retirement... Anyway, the show was amazing! I would have loved to have been there. I knew about the show months and months ago.

"I've been recording with [original BLACK SABBATH drummer] Bill Ward," LoMenzo revealed. "He's been doing his [new solo] record, and every now and then I'll get this wonderful phone call from his assistant Walter saying that 'Bill would love to have you come down and do a song with him.' And you don't know what that sounds like to my brain. It frazzles me, but I've been working with him for a while. And he intimated about the show. I would ask him if he had spoken to any of the guys in BLACK SABBATH, and he said that he spoke to Ozzy every day because Ozzy wasn't feeling very well at that time, so I was curious. He said, 'By the way, it looks we may do this final show.' So he knew about it, obviously, before they announced it. So I was excited when it came to fruition because I knew that it meant a lot to all the guys in BLACK SABBATH to have Bill up there."

Circling back to MEGADETH's absence from the event, James added: "I don't see it as controversy or anything. I do know that conspicuously we were missing, but nobody was invited."

Former MEGADETH bassist David Ellefson, who was fired from the band in May 2021, appeared at "Back To The Beginning", taking part in the first of two hastily assembled supergroups which performed at the event. Ellefson played "The Ultimate Sin" (with Lzzy Hale, Nuno Bettencourt, Jake E. Lee, Mike Bordin and Adam Wakeman),"Shot In The Dark" (with David Draiman, Jake E. Lee, Mike Bordin and Adam Wakeman) and "Sweet Leaf" (with David Draiman, Nuno Bettencourt, Scott Ian, Mike Bordin and Adam Wakeman) at the sold-out show, which was attended by 42,000 fans, with more than five million more streaming the event via VOD.

Last year, Sharon told Billboard that she was forced to remove one big name from the lineup of "Back To The Beginning" because the artist in question "wanted to make a profit" from the event. "And it's not the time to make a profit," she added. "After the show, I'll let everybody know who it was. I think people will be shocked."

In June 2025, Sharon revealed to Metal Hammer magazine that she got into a dispute with the manager of one of the bands who were originally slated to take part in "Back To The Beginning".

"I had a huge, huge to-do with a manager over this celebration for Ozzy and SABBATH," she told Metal Hammer. "And it was probably the worst way I've felt in years. And I don't care what this person says about me, thinks about it, because he doesn't know me. And he's now going around making up bullshit lies because I threw his band off the bill."

Sharon did not specify which band she had booted, though she did say that it wasn't IRON MAIDEN. Two decades ago, IRON MAIDEN singer Bruce Dickinson was involved in a verbal battle with Ozzy's wife and manager when his band was pelted with eggs, lighters and ice during the final performance of its headlining performance on the 2005 Ozzfest tour.

Since "Back To The Beginning" was announced in February 2025, no bands or artists had been removed from the bill, except for Wolfgang Van Halen, who was unable to attend due to scheduling conflicts. It is therefore believed that the mystery band was ousted before the lineup announcement.

Ozzy and Sharon's daughter Kelly Osbourne denied that MEGADETH was the band which was removed from the "Back To The Beginning" lineup, writing "Nope! Not him!" below an Instagram post speculating that the Mustaine-fronted outfit was the one Sharon was referring to in her Metal Hammer interview.

Tickets for the concert sold out in less than 16 minutes in February 2025, with more than 150,000 people reportedly in the virtual queue.