In 2005, Iron Maiden Ozzfest lineup , performing before the original Black Sabbath every night. Unhappy with some backstage disagreements, Sharon Osbourne orchestrated an act of sabotage against Bruce Dickinson and company, throwing eggs at them on stage.
Iron Maiden 's last show at Ozzy Osbourne . The rivalry reportedly began after Dickinson made harsh comments backstage and at the shows, criticizing the Osbourne family's reality show and the singer himself, according to Sharon.
During the tour, this fact was unknown even to the Prince of Darkness . “I wasn’t listening and I didn’t want to know, I was preparing for my show. I had no idea,” Ozzy said in an interview with Howard Stern . “I even said, ‘Don’t put them on tour, Sharon, because they’re trouble.’ Nobody listened to me.”
Despite the egg shower on stage, a man invading the audience with an American flag during "The Trooper," and suspicious technical problems, such as a voice interrupting the Maiden show shouting "Ozzy! Ozzy! Ozzy!", the band continued the show normally and delivered a memorable performance, according to eyewitness accounts.
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“From the moment they stepped onto the stage, they suffered power outages on at least three occasions and were continuously bombarded with ice, bottle caps, and eggs, among other things. One person in the audience spat on vocalist Bruce Dickinson,” David Priest , editor of On Track , Blabbermouth .
Aware of the orchestration of those incidents seemingly originating from the audience, Dickinson provoked during the show. "You'll never hear Iron Maiden on US radio or MTV, and you certainly won't see us on a reality show," he declared.
In Sharon's view, Dickinson's behavior was motivated by "envy," since the band received $185,000 per night and excellent treatment from the event organizers. The solution found by the businesswoman was to sabotage the British band's performance with the eggs, something she publicly confessed to.
READ ALSO: Ozzy Osbourne took a defibrillator on tour: "Sharon wouldn't let him miss a show," says Dee Snider.
“I hired 200 young Latinos, I gave them a load of eggs. They threw them with everything they had,” she recounted. “Then I went on stage and said, ‘Look, don’t mess with us, don’t be disrespectful, that’s what you get. Get off my stage.’” Fans present remember that she went on stage after the Maiden show to praise the band, but complained about the “jerk and disrespectful vocalist.”
The reason for the confusion was confirmed by Zakk Wylde , who was on tour with Black Label Society . “The whole thing was ridiculous. What should have happened was Sharon just talking to Iron Maiden's manager and saying, 'Hey, tell your guys to shut up. If he says anything else, they're out.' And that would have been it,” he commented to Knac.com (via Blabbermouth) in 2010. “I mean, how old are we? How old is Bruce Dickinson ? Would you expect that from an 18-year-old, like a high school battle of the bands?”
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