THE OZZY/MAIDEN FEUD HEATS UP AGAIN
In case you somehow don’t remember, Iron Maiden were one of the mainstage headliners at Ozzfest in 2005 (which I think was pretty much the last really good year for Ozzfest), and while I’ve never quite understood how it all started, there was some kind of beef between the Maiden/Ozzy camps — more specifically, between Maiden and Sharon Osbourne. And on Maiden’s last night of the tour, someone fucked with their power and some people pelted them with eggs and engaged in all other manner of pranks, and Sharon actually called Bruce Dickinson “a prick” on-stage in front of thousands of metal fans. (You can read all about that little incident here, or enjoy video of Sharon’s speech above.)
And that was really the last we heard about it… until now. I don’t recall Ozzy himself ever commenting on the incident before, he recently did during an interview with The Quietus:
“You know what? Unbeknown to me, every night [Dickinson] was going on stage slagging me off. And that wasn’t fair. If he didn’t like the fuckin’ tour, he should have said ‘I’m jumping [off] the fuckin’ tour,’ but to go on stage and fuckin’ slag me off for no reason… I’d never said a fuckin’ bad thing to him. The bass player [Steve Harris] came round at the last gig and said ‘I’m sorry about Bruce’ and I’m like, ‘What the fuck are you talking about?’ Nobody had told me, you know. I said, ‘You know what? I don’t understand what the fuck you’re talking about here.’
“And so, I mean, Sharon got pissed off… it was nothing to do with me. I suppose Sharon got pissed off. I’ll back my wife up to the hilt, but I didn’t know what was going down. But you know what? [Maiden were getting] a few fuckin’ quid out of that Ozzfest. If you’ve got something to talk to me about, be a man. Come to my face and say, ‘I think you’re a fuckin’ asshole.’ Don’t be a fuckin’ idiot. It’s so pathetically childish.
“Unfortunately the rest of the band had to suffer: I suppose they were pissed off with him. But it’s wrong: I’ve never, ever, ever spoken to the guy… no, I tell a lie, one night they were about to go on stage and I didn’t know anything was going down, and I said to them, ‘Have a good show, guys.’ But I don’t like all that shit going down. If you don’t like me, just say ‘I don’t like you, I’m doing this festival but I think you’re a cunt.’ That’s all right. But to go on my stage and start slagging me off – that ain’t fair. They weren’t fucking slagging me off when they got paid every fucking night.”
And the Ozzman concludes with this declaration:
“To this day I don’t understand what the fuckin’ beef was. I just don’t get it. To go on the Ozzfest and slag [people] off, that’s crazy. I really think he needs a fuckin’ psychiatrist if he does that, he’s fucking nuts. It’s an irresponsible fuckin’ thing to do. Sharon must have got pissed off with this cunt, you know.”
And it’s pretty funny to hear Ozzy say someone needs a shrink. This from a guy who has bitten the head off of a live dove, licked up Nikki Sixx’s piss, and told his wife that the voices in head instructed him to kill her. (Although, in all fairness, the voices in my head often instruct me to kill Sharon, so I’m totally with Ozzy on that one.)
Vince and I saw Maiden at this Ozzfest, and while I don’t remember Dickinson ever calling Ozzy out by name, he did say something along the lines of, “You’ll never see us on MTV!”, or maybe he even used the phrase “reality show” — the point is, it was clear he was talking about Ozzy. And Ozzy’s right — it’s probably best that you not rip on your tour mate from the stage.
On the other hand, cutting the band’s power and throw eggs at them, well… that’s a really immature and unprofessional way to handle the situation. I mean, I’d probably do something just as childish, but I’d feel really, really guilty about it later. Or I’d pretend to feel guilty about it. Yeah. That one.
ANYWAY, it’s also worth noting that Maiden blew Black Sabbath right the fuck off the stage one that tour. Not that Sabbath weren’t good, but… they couldn’t compete with Maiden, just like a year prior, they couldn’t compete with the reunited Judas Priest. So, I guess I’m of two minds on this subject: Bruce shouldn’t have done what he did even though he’s way cooler than Ozzy at this point, and Sharon shouldn’t have done what she did ’cause there’s better ways to handle things.
But, really, I think they should just settle this like men and let Bruce and Sharon have a boxing match on Pay Per View. If Bruce wins, he gets a cut of all of Ozzy’s future profits; if Sharon wins, Bruce has to watch Ozzy perform every night for the rest of Ozzy’s life. Brutal!
Read the rest of the interview at The Quietus.
-AR
[via Blabbermouth]
