Ozzy Osbourne Pulls Out of SXSW

By Variety Staff

LOS ANGELES (Variety.com) – Ozzy Osbourne is the latest to cancel appearances at the SXSW conference and festival, following companies like Twitter, TikTok, Facebook, Neflix and Apple, due to concerns over the coronavirus. He was scheduled to attend the Austin conference, which runs March 13 to 22, to support the world premiere screening of A&E’s forthcoming “Biography: The Nine Lives of ,” a two-hour special set to air this summer.

In a statement released on March 5, a representative for the 71-year-old rocker said: “Following recent cancellations by major corporations, artists, record companies and studios because of the ongoing threat of the , Ozzy Osbourne has likewise decided to cancel his upcoming appearance at .”

In February, it was announced that Osbourne was canceling his 2020 North American “No More Tours 2” tour “to allow him to continue to recover from various health issues he has faced over the past year.”

Among the more vulnerable to the COVID-19 virus are the elderly and those with preexisting health issues — conditions which both apply to Osbourne, who has been diagnosed with Parkinson’s.

Epic Records released Osbourne’s first album in 10 years, “Ordinary Man,” last month. Variety‘s review described it as “a really good — even at times great — album” that gives the listener “the sense that the Blizzard of Oz is not crawling into hell quietly.”

“Biography: The Nine Lives of Ozzy Osbourne” features interviews with wife Sharon Osbourne and children Kelly and Jack Osbourne, as well as friends and fellow musicians including Rick Rubin, Ice-T, Marilyn Manson, Rob Zombie, Jonathan Davis, Post Malone and more.