Ozzy Osbourne replaced by Judas Priest at Power Trip
Ozzy Osbourne has pulled out of October’s Power Trip festival.
(Balazs Mohai / AP)
Published July 10, 2023 Updated July 11, 2023 1:03 PM PT
Ozzy Osbourne will be replaced by Judas Priest at October’s Power Trip festival.
The 74-year-old heavy-metal pioneer, who revealed in 2020 that he has Parkinson’s disease, announced Monday that he’d pulled out of the upcoming event because he wasn’t physically fit for the gig.
“As painful as this is, I’ve had to make the decision to bow out of performing on Power Trip in October,” Osbourne said of the festival that will bring a roster of veteran hard-rock acts to Indio’s Empire Polo Club. “My original plan was to return to the stage in the summer of 2024, and when the offer to do this show came in, I optimistically moved forward.
“Unfortunately, my body is telling me that I’m just not ready yet and I am much too proud to have the first show that I do in nearly five years be half-assed.”
Osbourne, who last toured in 2018, pulled out of a string of European tour dates earlier this year, saying he knew he “couldn’t deal with the travel required.” The Black Sabbath frontman performed a brief set in September during halftime at a Rams-Bills NFL game at Inglewood’s SoFi Stadium; his most recent studio album, “Patient Number 9,” came out the same month.
Goldenvoice, the powerful L.A. concert promoter that also puts on Coachella and Stagecoach, announced Tuesday that Judas Priest would be Osbourne’s replacement for Power Trip, which is also set to feature Guns N’ Roses, Metallica, Iron Maiden, AC/DC and Tool over three nights from Oct. 6 to 8. The festival comes seven years after Goldenvoice’s Desert Trip, which gathered classic-rock legends including Paul McCartney and the Rolling Stones, and rang up more than $150 million in ticket sales.
Widely regarded as one of heavy metal’s foundational bands, Judas Priest was inducted into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame in 2022 during a ceremony at L.A.’s Microsoft Theater in which the group’s frontman, Rob Halford, joined Dolly Parton for a memorable rendition of her song “Jolene.”
In a statement, Judas Priest’s members said they were “ready to raise double horns way up high together” at Power Trip.
Mikael Wood is pop music critic for the Los Angeles Times.
