Son Jack noted that someone was going to create an avatar of his father, so it should be the family.

Sharon Osbourne says Ozzy AI project isn’t a ‘cash grab,’ it’s so he’ll be ‘remembered’

Son Jack noted that someone was going to create an avatar of his father, so it should be the family.

By Raechal Shewfelt

Raechal Shewfelt

Raechal Shewfelt is a writer at **. She has been working at EW since 2024. Her work has previously appeared on Yahoo and in American *Journalism Review* and *The Shreveport Times*.

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June 5, 2026 9:12 p.m. ET

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Ozzy Osbourne with wife Sharon and son Jack in 2014. Credit:

Kevin Mazur/WireImage

- Sharon Osbourne and her son Jack pushed back against critics of them creating an AI avatar of late rocker Ozzy Osbourne.

- They said the project is a technological advance, not a cash grab.

- Jack noted that the family would control the avatar, rather than someone else.

Ozzy Osbourne's family is done with the criticism of their decision to create an AI version of the rocker.

"Oh, for f---'s sake," his widow and TV personality Sharon Osbourne said on Friday's episode of *The Osbournes* podcast, when their son Jack brought up the topic. "I was reading some of them, and it's like, 'Oh, f--- off. Give me a break."

Sharon and Jack announced in May that Ozzy, who died July 22, 2025 at 76, would be the subject of an AI avatar which would be released this summer in the U.S. and his native U.K.

"I have so much I want to unpack with this because what we're doing ... isn't ChatGPT with dad's face on it.," he said. "This is a closed AI. So it's not connected to the internet. We build a database. And the thing that I cannot emphasize enough is that this is only information that either my dad said or was accurate or was written accurately."

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For Sharon, the issue was about staying current.

"But the thing is, it's like saying when there were propellers and then there were jet planes. 'Oh, well, cash grab! Why go on a jet when there's a propeller? What are you doing?' Well, you know what, technology moves on. And I'm sorry for those people. I'm not asking you to come. I don't want your f---ing money. I don't need your f---ing money. I'm doing very well."

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But she had more to say to the naysayers.

"And the thing is, for somebody to turn around to me and say I'm doing a cash grab? No, you don't know my husband, OK? I know my husband," Sharon said. "And my husband would say to me over and over, 'After I go, how long do you think I'll be remembered? How long do you think?' And I go, 'I just don't know, cause I'll probably be going with you. So, don't ask me.'"

Sharon and Ozzy, the Black Sabbath frontman, married in 1982. They shared three children, including Jack, Kelly, and Aimee.

Jack said they'd been looking at the option for his father for a decade.

Mother and son agreed that the creation would be tasteful and innovative.

"It's either we do it or someone else is going to do it," Jack said.

Ozzy Osbourne performs with Black Sabbath in 2022.

Alex Pantling/Getty

His mom made another comparison: "It's like saying, 'why do you need a CD when you have a vinyl record?'"

"The most important thing for me is that when we create this digital imprint of dad, we create it," Jack said. "We own it. We control it."

Sharon added that it was something they planned to pass on to future generations of their family.

The Rock and Roll Hall of Famer is a heavy metal pioneer, the voice of songs such as "Crazy Train" and "War Pigs," who created Ozzfest with Sharon, who was his longtime manager.

See their full conversation above.

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