IT’S OFFICIAL: BLACK SABBATH PLAYING LOLLAPALOOZA

Following yesterday’s rumors that they were on the bill, Black Sabbath are now confirmed to play this summer’s edition of Lollapalooza. The festival will take place August 3 -5 at Chicago’s Grant Park. There are some other really good bands in the line-up, but Sabbath are the only true (not tr00) metal act, so, um, yeah. If you go, make sure you wear a Prostitute Disfigurement shirt or something.

Presumably this means that a) Tony Iommi’s fight against cancer really is going well (which is great!), and b) the band is on the cusp of choosing a replacement for drummer Bill Ward — but since they’re already booked to play Download in the UK two months prior to Lollapalooza, those things were true anyway.

So what I mostly find interesting/funny/whatever about the announcement is this: Sharon Osbourne started Ozzfest in 1996 after the organizers of Lollapalooza, which was a traveling fest at the time, refused to add Ozzy to the bill. (And not just because he was metal — that same year, Metallica and Soundgarden, neither of whom would even exist if not for Sabbath, both played Lollapalooza.) The times, they are a-changin’, I guess.

-AR