Sharon Osbourne Sort of Regrets Badmouthing U2
It is no secret that when U2 gifted their new album Songs of Innocence to 500+ million iTunes 
customers, some people were mighty pissed off about it. One of the most vocal critics of this move was Sharon Osbourne, Ozzy Osbourne’s wife and manager.
In September, Sharon took to Twitter and said: “U2, you are business moguls, not musicians anymore. No wonder you have to give your mediocre music away for free ’cause no one wants to buy it.”
She continued: “Whose political ass are we going to pull you out of today? Or are you front row at another tragic fashion show?”
However, many months down the road, Sharon has expressed some remorse for her comments, stating that she never meant to attack U2 on a personal level.
“I badmouthed U2 for giving their album away at Apple free. And it wasn’t personal; it was business, and it was how I felt about it business-wise, but I was very scathing with my remarks,” she explained on an ‘after dark’ edition of her CBS program, The Talk. “Two weeks later, we were in England at the MTV Awards and Ozzy was getting an award, and we were walking down to the stage, and there was this tunnel under the stage – very narrow – and coming towards Ozzy and I were U2, all four of them. And I’m, like, ‘Oh, no. Here it goes. They are gonna lay into me.’ And they were so lovely. They hugged and kissed me. They hugged Ozzy. And then when Ozzy finished doing his part of the show, he went back to the dressing room, and they’d written him a letter and they’d all signed it. What a classy act!”
Added Sharon: “[I felt] terrible. But I did try to explain to them, ‘It isn’t personal. This is just business. I don’t wish you any harm. You’re all good people. But this is just the business end.’ But it’s hard.”
While Riffyou.com understands why many questioned U2’s album release strategy, we thought it was pretty bold. So much so, that we named U2 our 2014 ‘Risk Taker of the Year.’
-Adam Grant
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