Ozzy Osbourne — who has helmed the main stage at his namesake festival almost every summer for more than a decade — told reporters during a teleconference last October that he will headline this year's Ozzfest bill — "as far as I know." 
 
Regarding the decision to make last year's traveling festival a "free" event, Sharon Osbourne, the fest's driving force, told Scripps Howard News Service, "I'm not trying to be the Mother Teresa of the music industry, because I like money more than anybody else. [But] these kids cannot afford to keep shelling out all this money, every year charging more and more. The brakes have to come on somewhere." 
 
To that end, Osbourne approached Michael Rapino, president of giant national concert promoters Live Nation, and suggested giving the tickets away. "He said, 'We might as well — nobody's making any money here,'" Osbourne recalled. "So that's what we did: We found sponsors to come in and underwrite the running part, and we found bands who just want the stage — they just want to perform." 
Source: BLABBERMOUTH.NET posted by Paul Roxx on 1/31/2008 10:16:36 AM