He's already chomped the head off a bat and subjected his family to an MTV reality show, but has Ozzy Osbourne, the madman of rock 'n' roll, really gone off the deep end this time?

At a press conference in Los Angeles today, Ozzy and wife Sharon announced that they're pulling the plug on Ozzfest ... ticket prices. For the summer of 2007, Ozzfest will be a Freefest!

"This will change everybody's impression of the way touring in the summer in America should be," Sharon said.

The 12th annual festival of metal will launch July 7 in Los Angeles and will tour 25 cities, including Pittsburgh, though no dates have been announced yet. Ozzfest and Live Nation will support the tour through sponsorships.

"For the past 11 years, music fans have made Ozzfest the most successful and enduring rock music festival in the United States," said Jason Garner, Live Nation President of North American Concerts. "What better way to say 'Thank You' to the music fans who have made this possible than inviting them to attend OZZFEST for free."

Of course, this will only make it harder to get tickets. Fans will be asked to go to www.ozzfest.com or www.livenation.com to find links that will direct them to special sponsor sites where tickets can be secured.

Ozzy, having headlined the second stage last year, will return has the mainstage headliner, and the rest of the lineup will be announced soon.

"We have bands committed, but we're hoping that after today's announcement we'll have a whole influx of artists who want to be a part of something this ground breaking," Sharon said. "We know there aren't any major headlining acts that would tour all summer for nothing, but we're confident we can turn some of the genre's biggest bands on to what we're doing and have them come out to play a date or two. If they're in town and want the rush of performing in front of 20,000 frenzied kids, they're more than welcome to join us."