Will Smith was apparently very concerned about his wife, Jada Pinkett Smith, playing Ozzfest in 2005 with her band, Wicked Wisdom.
This news surfaced via Metal Hammer which cites Smith’s 2021 memoir Will. He would write, “Ozzfest…featured all the metals: Thrash, industrial, hardcore punk, deathcore, metalcore, post-hardcore, alternative, death, gothic and nu. Sharon [Osbourne] had seen Jada’s band and some part of her understood. She and Jada became friends, and Sharon put Wicked Wisdom on Ozzfest in summer 2005.”
Will wrote of the iconic metal festival, “Ozzfest is the least African American event outside of that broom-and-big-ass-hockey puck thing they do at the Olympics. ‘Babe, are you sure you don’t wanna do some R and B?’ I asked softly, but I meant it hard. ‘[Metal] is the music I feel,’ Jada responded softly, but she meant it hard. So we packed up our children and headed down the black brick road to the land of Ozz.”
However, Will was pleasantly surprised by the Ozzfest crowd writing, “Ozzfest is a purist audience, and what began as skepticism and dismissal, with every show was transformed first into silence, and ultimately into respect…Jada’s appearance at Ozzfest was so successful that Guns N’ Roses asked her to open for them on their upcoming tour.”
While Wicked Wisdom had to decline GN’R’s offer and the group would disband in 2006, it’s nice to see that metalheads ended up proving Will wrong. Let’s face it: If the Ozzfest crowd mistreated Jada and Wicked Wisdom, we all know Will would’ve jumped into a pit and slapped everyone. (Kidding, of course. Or are we?)
