Geeper's World: Sharon Osbourne is a Bitch! "Maidengate"

OK, so by saying that I will never have a serious career in music, but who cares... she totally proved this the other night.

Ozzfest (the big metal tour/fair/carnival) has been having some troubles lately and in order to bring in a wider audience, more people and more money, Sharon got Iron Maiden to co-headline this summer. Very cool.

So the tour has been going pretty good and Maiden have helped revitalize Ozzfest even while Sabbath and Ozzy are cancelling dates here and there.

Now Bruce is quite a vocal front man and speaks his mind. When Bono does it it's OK but when it's Bruce people get pissed. During the summer tour he has made remarks about Maiden not using teleprompters, or being just a reunion band or having a reality show to maintain their carer. (All comments directly towards the Ozzy/Sabbath camp)

Then there's all the unspoken stuff we might hear come out over the next few months... It's a fact that big bands are treated pretty bad on Ozzfest. Treated so bad that many bands refuse to go on tour with it and some that have been a part of it in the past have gone on to try to organize a festivals themselves that would treat the artists better. (Megadeath's festival started this year for example). I'm sure there where many gripes between Sharon and the Maiden camp backstage that we will hear about in the coming months. Of course up and comers LOVE Ozzfest and Sharon because for many it's the first time playing in front of 45,000 people and they don't debate Sharon on any orders she gives.

Let me rant here from a minute... Sharon is such a power freak that her and Zack got into it over his beard, it's length and how long it should be for a photo shoot for Oz's last album. It ended up she won and Zack had to "trim" his now trademark beard. As of 2 days ago Ozzy has put out feelers for a new guitar player. She controls everything Ozzy's does and always has. The guys in Motley Crue way back in the day when they were touring with Ozzy had to beg her to have groupies let backstage. They actually had shirts printed up that said "Ozzy and Motley Crue- No Fun Tour"

So the stage is set.... and Saturday night (Aug 20th) the fireworks start.

Before Maiden hit the stage a pre-recorded "Ozzy" chat blares through the PA system over their pre-recorded intro
Maiden hits the stage and are showered with eggs, bottles etc from "people wearing Ozzfest laminates (backstage passes, from reports of people in the crowd Kelly Osbourne and possibly Jack were 2 of the egg throwers surrounded by security to keep the audenice away from them when they started throwing the eggs. Backstage reports have Sharon meeting with Kelly through the day and accumulating quite a good supply of eggs.)
From road crew and friend's accounts the sound on stage was totally fucked up by Ozzy's people. Bruce's vocals couldn't be heard at all on stage and the volumes on other instruments were going up and down. Sounded fine out front just really hard for the band to deal with.
They barrel into the "Trooper" and Bruce comes running out on stage with the Union Jack as he has at every show for the past 20 years. Off the side of the stage one of the Black Label Society guys (the side project Sharon lets Zack have) comes running on stage with an American flag and a shirt that says "Don't fuck with Ozzy". He goes after Bruce and Maidens security tackle him and throws him off stage.
Nicko (Maiden's drummer) asks Bruce to wait a minute as he has to clean egg off his drums to continue playing. Bruce starts slamming the attacks saying no real Ozzy fan would pull this crap, and that you'll never see Bruce on a reality show. The audience is totally on Maidens side at this point and a huge roar goes up from the crowd.
Towards the end of the next song (a crowd favorite "Hollowed Be Thy Name") the power is suddenly cut off.
As things power back up Bruce says we we're supposed to do a 55 minute set, but we're going to play our whole fucking set tonight.
At this point Maiden got serious... VERY SERIOUS
The PA was turned off 6 MORE TIMES!!! All in the middle of songs.
From all the reviews of the show every time the power came back on Maiden just rolled straight into another classic with more vigor and passion than before. Guys who have seen Maiden 10-15 times have said this was BY FAR the best performance they had ever seen! And that's even with Sharon sabotaging their power and having them dodging eggs, water bottles etc.
Before the song "Iron Maiden" and Eddie their mascot's appearance there is a commotion on the side of the stage. It's not till almost the end of the song that Maiden's security is able to free Eddie from Ozzy's people and get him on stage.
By the end, there was no doubt, the crowd was 100% on Maiden's side.
As they finish the last song the crowd goes nuts, and suddenly the pre-recorded "Ozzy" chat starts over the PA again, within seconds the crowd furiously drowns it out chanting "Maiden, Maiden"
Then Sharon walks on stage.
She picks up a mic and starts, she thanks Maiden and says what a wonderful bunch of guys they are, but "Bruce Dickinson is a prick". The audience goes mental and starts throwing anything they can find at her. She's very upset, "He's disrespected Ozzfest..." here's where the "boo's" drown her out and she starts to get hit with full beer cups. She drops the mic and walks off stage VERY UPSET.

Does Steve look a little pissed???

I'll have to try to find another pic.....

So since then both camps have issued press releases- Iron Maiden's was this...

IRON MAIDEN wish to thank all the 45,000 Metal fans at Ozzfest in San Bernardino
on Saturday night for sticking with us and giving us such a great response at
the end of a difficult set. It was obvious to all there that we had a 'series of
unfortunate events' throughout! These made it difficult for us to keep our
momentum but your incredible support certainly helped us get through it. We
guess it all adds up to a pretty memorable gig though!!!

This is,
however, a Metal Festival. It is supposed to be fun for all. You fans pay very
good money to be there and deserve to get a full and unhindered performance from
all the bands. This was not the case last night.

So with this rather
bizarre end to a good tour we are returning to the UK today for the Leeds and
Reading Festivals and once again thanks to all of you who came out to see us
these last few weeks.

FROM IRON MAIDEN

Pretty classy, they don't point any fingers or sling any mud... And since that Maiden's management has issued a release that says basically the same thing and that they know who is responsible etc but they totsally take the high road and name no names or point any fingers

Sharon's statement was 3 or 4 pages long (so I won't post it all) and attacked Bruce over and over...even claiming that he was insulting American troops in Iraq by waving the British flag during the "Trooper". (He's done this bit during the song for 20 years!) She rants on and on about loving the Maiden boys, but Bruce. She goes on about how playing for 45,000 was a big step up for Maiden and she was helping them and they disrespected the festival. (Please, since Bruce has come back these guys have been doing better business that the whole Ozzfest on their own)

Look at the egg EVERYWHERE! and they were only targeting Bruce???? Yah right.

Again, I'll have to find another pic

So Sharon has turned Ozzy from a metal icon into a joke, from the "Prince of Darkness" to a harmless old man your parents feel bad for, has written people she didn't like right out of Ozzy's history to the point of rerecording their parts on some albums 20 years later so she wouldn't have to pay them anymore, has bullied her way around the music business stealing writing credits for Ozzy, creating and destroying bands that kiss her ass or don't kiss her ass and now her head is so big she thinks she can destroy Iron Maiden.

Imagine how pissed you be to pay $150 to see tons of 1/2 assed metal bands and then when the real show started with Maiden hitting the stage to have all this crap going on. If Maiden hadn't been such great professionals most people would be demanding their money back, but instead they put on the best show they could! Most bands would have walked off stage after the 2nd, 3rd, or 4th time the power was turned off on them, (and I'm sure that's what Sharon was hoping for) but hey justy keep going and gave THE FANS, (not Sharon) what they wanted!

The fallout on the net has been crazy. I wouldn't want to be Ozzy or Sharon right now... I'm sure even more of the story will come out in the next week or so... but this story should get you up to speed!