Nikki Sixx reveals why Motley Crue didn’t play Ozzy Osbourne and Black Sabbath’s farewell gig: “We have been having health issues within the band”

Mötley Crüe bassist Nikki Sixx has revealed why his band didn’t appear at Black Sabbath and Ozzy Osbourne’s Back To The Beginning farewell show.

Earlier this week, Sixx congratulated Ozzy and wife/manager Sharon Osbourne for the success of the show, acknowledging the debt Mötley Crüe owed to the pair. The US band got a leg up from Ozzy early in their career, when they were invited to support the former Black Sabbath singer in 1984.

“Ozzy and Sharon gave us our first real big tour in 1984 on the Shout at the Devil tour,” wrote Sixx on Instagram. “They gave us the opportunity to play in front of Ozzy and actually in my opinion, broke the band Congratulations on an amazing career and what a bad-ass send off.”

But some were surprised at their absence from the bill given Crüe’s history with Ozzy. When one X user asked Sixx if the band had been invited to play at the Back To The Beginning show alongside the likes of Metallica, Guns N’ Roses and Slayer, Sixx replied: “We have been having health issues within the band.”

The bassist didn’t specify which member he was referring to, though Mötley Crüe postponed a Las Vegas residency in the Spring in order to allow singer Vince Neil time to recover from an unspecified medical procedure. The residency has been rescheduled for September.

Mötley Crüe’s tour with Ozzy Osbourne has passed into legend for its debauchery, as recounted in the band’s autobiography The Dirt and the subsequent movie version. In one memorable episode, Ozzy snorted a line of ants in front of the band while wearing a dress.

“I handed him the straw, and he walked over to a crack in the sidewalk and bent over it,” recalled Sixx in the book. “I saw a long column of ants, marching to a little sand dugout built where the pavement met the dirt. And as I thought, ‘No, he wouldn’t’, he did. He put the straw to his nose and, with his bare white ass peeking out from under the dress like a sliced honeydew, sent the entire line of ants tickling up his nose with a single, monstrous snort.”

The Back To The Beginning gig was a huge success. As well as marking Ozzy and Black Sabbath’s retirement, it is expected to raise more than $190 million for charity.