Ozzfest is an annual festival tour of the United States (and in some years, Europe) featuring performances by many heavy metal and hard rock musical groups. It was founded by Ozzy Osbourne and his wife Sharon Osbourne, both of whom also organize each yearly tour with their son Jack Osbourne. The Ozzfest tour has featured bands of a variety of genres within heavy metal and hard rock, including alternative metal, thrash metal, industrial metal, metalcore, hardcore punk, nu metal, death metal, gothic metal and black metal. Ozzy Osbourne himself, as well as his band Black Sabbath, has played the tour several times over the years.

History

Early years: 1996-1999

The festival was created in 1996, when organizers of musical festival Lollapalooza refused to let Ozzy Osbourne join the tour. The tour was well-received, which prompted the festival becoming a yearly occurrence.

The first Ozzfest was not a national tour, but rather a two-day festival held in Phoenix, Arizona and Devore, California on October 25th and 26th, 1996 respectively.[http://www.smnnews.com/ozzfest-date-lineup-history-from-1996/ SMNnews.com | Ozzfest - Date Lineup History from 1996 ] Officer Reuben F. Rios of the California Highway Patrol was killed while directing traffic as it left the second Ozzfest show in 1996 when an intoxicated concert attendee accelerated for a lane change and struck the officer. Officer Rios died several hours later despite life-saving efforts of his fellow officers. The driver of the car was charged with felony DUI and second-degree murder.

In 1998, Ozzfest ventured outside the United States for the first time into the United Kingdom, which featured a different lineup of bands. The festival would eventually return to the UK in 2001[http://www.smnnews.com/ozzfest-date-lineup-history-from-1996/ SMNnews.com | Ozzfest - Date Lineup History from 1996 ] and 2002.

2000s

In the early 2000s, bands including Mudvayne, Slipknot, Incubus, Tool, Megadeth, Linkin Park, System of a Down, and Disturbed played the yearly music festival. Two compilation albums of the Ozzfest tour were released, one covering select 2001 performances and another for 2002.

On-stage footage of the Ozzfest 2004 tour was shown on MTV, as Ozzy and Sharon hosted a show on the network titled Battle for Ozzfest where they chose eight out of hundreds of bands to compete for a spot on the following year's Ozzfest. Ozzy selected one member from each chosen band to "tag along" on the tour. Each contestant had to complete numerous challenges in order to improve his/her band's chances of winning the contest. Occasionally, meetings would be held and certain contestants would be eliminated for various reasons. The person who prevailed as the winner and guaranteed his band's spot on the Ozzfest tour was Marc Serrano from metalcore act A Dozen Furies.