Will Smith A Metalhead? Actor Talks Going To Ozzfest To Support Wife’s Band

Ozzfest
Lamb of God at Ozzfest 2007: Bryan (Wikimedia Commons)/ Will Smith: Walmart Stores, Wesley Hitt (Wikimedia Commons)
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So raise of hands – how many of you know that the wife of actor Will Smith, Jada Pinkett Smith, is in a nu metal band?

Nu metal act Wicked Wisdom was formed in 2002 by Jada Pinkett Smith and, at the time of this writing, has released two studio albums; those releases are 2004’s My Story and their 2006 self-titled album.

Back in the day, Wicked Wisdom caught the attention of one Sharon Osbourne, who was so impressed with Jada’s band, that she invited Jada and Wicked Wisdom to play on the 2005 run of Ozzfest.

As shared by Metal Hammer, in his new memoir titled Will (which released last year), actor Will Smith actually spoke to some feelings he had about Jada’s band playing alongside other heavy metal bands at Ozzfest.

Writing about Ozzfest, Will Smith wrote in his book:

“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.”

It is surreal to see Will Smith write about metal subgenres. Smith continues, writing about the Ozzfest scene:

“Ozzfest is the least African American event outside of that broom-and-big-ass-hockey puck thing they do at the Olympics.”

Smith then wrote about talking to his wife about performing at the festival:

“‘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.”

Smith went on to write how, although Wicked Wisdom didn’t do too well with the Ozzfest crowd, they did impress a little known act called Guns N’ Roses, and got invited to tour with them.

Honestly, learning about this is so friggin’ cool! To hear Will Smith talking about Ozzfest is surreal and we’d love to hear more of his thoughts on heavy metal.

If you want to check out some music from Wicked Wisdom, you can find some songs below. They actually released a new song roughly six months ago called “Stuck,” which you’ll find below as well.

In other news related to Ozzfest:

How Much Do You Know About The Feud Between Iron Maiden Singer Bruce Dickinson And Sharon Osbourne?

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Words by: Michael Pementel