The Sharon love...
A little flash-back first, for those who wouldn't know the story yet:
Iron Maiden played at Ozzfest this year, their last concert with them was on August 20th. On this day, Sharon Ozzbourne decided to have her little revenge over Bruce Dickinson (Iron Maiden's singer) as it seems they had some problems together backstage (Bruce doesn't like reality TV, he said it, Sharon didn't like it (<-small version) ). So she got a few other bands (though most of them refused to do it, fortunately) and some staff members to completely waste this last Iron Maiden concert: eggs and others were thrown from front rows to the members of the band on stage, sound was cut twice or three times, someone of the sound "staff" yeld "SABBATH! SABBATH!" over Maiden music sometimes, and so on.
Problem: Unfortunately for Sharon, Maiden isn't a beginner band, they have -a lot- of credibility, and not only as a "memorial band", like Sabbath is nowadays let's be honnests (I respect and like them for what they did in the past... but they don't create anything anymore: all they do now is living on their past). So instead of taking her side because "ooooh yeah, Bruce was so wrong!", everyone even bands (save a few, but very few, exceptions) side along Bruce and say she went too far... which ends into a "war via press" like in the good old days, yeah 80's are back!
My favourite sentence of Sharon about the reasons why she got upset:
"It also offended me every night how he took out the English flag in America. There are American boys going to war alongside the English boys every day. How dare he forget the American troops on their home turf?"
Yeah yeah little darling... If you knew about heavy-metal (and you can't know about heavy-metal but not know about Iron Maiden, or you missed a huuuuuuuge part of the words "heavy-metal"), you would know that Bruce Dickinson uses this flag -everytime- the band plays The Trooper, in whatever country, even in the 80's he did it. + English soldiers are in Irak with American soldiers, so where's the problem? + Your husband (or at least other Black Sabbath members) still have the English citizenship, so where's the problem bis? + Like I read on the net: we French should be the most upset by that, not Americans, because it's been hundreds of years we've been playing like cats and dogs with English people, and we were at war many many many times with them! But these are also the reasons why we like them, mwaha!
In the same message, the funny moment for me, as a European, although I can understand Americans could get upset by it:
"He has had no respect for the American audience he has been playing for, stating in an interview, 'When you do the 'hits' tour here [in the U.S.], the audience is smug, and there's a sense of self-satisfaction, like, 'We got what we wanted…I'm looking at an audience that is self-satisfied and happy and fat, and getting what it wants and isn't prepared to get off its ass..'"
Mmmh if Bruce did say that, he undoubtly slightly exagerated "a little" here... But he's famous for that, speaking what he thinks when he thinks it and God knows the consequences, so well... you learn to take some distance with his words with the time. + Anyway, I always heard that yes American audiences are kind of cold compared to European audiences, and Maiden mainly faces European audiences, so well... they got used to a certain standard! Although we're nothing compared to South-America audiences, and Maiden often plays there too: they're used to receiving a certain amount of "YEAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!!!!!!!!" / singing along guitar lines / such (...and not only giant and dangerous mosh-pits... because American mosh-pits -are- dangerous! I don't know in South America but here in Europe at least we take care of one another, while in the U.S. they seem to not care at all!)
Oh and to Sharon Osbourne saying that without Sabbath there wouldn't be any Maiden, I say that up to me without Led Zeppelin or such of the kind there wouldn't be any Maiden, more than no Sabbath + As I lay Dying's singer gives the greatest answer in an interview:
"The Daily Texan: ]IN FLAMES leads what could be deemed a Swedish metal invasion that includes THE HAUNTED, ARCH ENEMY and SOILWORK. Has that changed the environment for the bands at Ozzfest, like AS I LAY DYING, that are the leaders of this new sound and style in American metalcore?
Tim Lambesis: "In my opinion, that style of guitar with the heavy harmonies and layering has been around since IRON MAIDEN. What I think Swedish metal has done is taken that and made it into something much more aggressive. I think American metal has added a whole other step, though, that brings in those hardcore influences and breakdowns. If someone is a fan of metal as a genre, the energy and aggression, they're going to find something they enjoy in our music. We're really proud of the new record and the way it was able to blend some melody with the metal." "
-> Ooooh strange, he says that such music comes from -Maiden-! He didn't say Sabbath or Ozzy... but Iron Maiden! So... maybe this band has some importance in the end, and isn't the small band Ozzfest accepted to take under its wing Sharon likes to present?
Now they even want to publish an "open-letter" in Billboard magazine, cf.: Bruce Dickinson's website:
"As fans of Iron Maiden (and music in general) most of us were appalled at the actions of Sharon Osbourne at the August 20th Ozzfest. Therefore, we started a website with a goal of having an Open Letter to Sharon Osbourne printed in Billboard Magazine - a magazine read by nearly every artist, label, radio station and record store around the world.
In addition to the ad, we are trying to increase the awareness of the Clive Burr MS Trust.
The website's address is: www.boycottsharon.com
So far we've gotten donations from Japan, Sweden, Finland, Denmark, Great Britain, Portugal, The U.S., Scotland and Australia. We're more than 1/3 of the way to buying the ad but we need more help. Even a donation of only a dollar can make the difference (although the favorite amount seems to be $6.66!)” "
(Clive Burr is a former member of Iron Maiden, who got (died from?) cancer (or such really bad disease): this fund was created to get money first to help cure this person then to help research against this disease)
And finally a little idea of the different mentalities between a metalhead and someone who mainly thinks of fame, money and glory:
Sharon Osbourne talking about Bruce Dickinson: "But he'd better watch out that he doesn't run into my son at Reading. Jack would give him one kick in the head and that'd be that. But you know what the irony is? Jack wouldn't know Monkey Boy if he fell over him in the street...""
-> Wants to show that his family is so important that they get backstage passes wherever, and Bruce Dickinson is so much nothing compared to them anyway that his so famous son probably wouldn't know Dickinson if he saw him in the street...
(although I have to say I personally doubt of it: as much as I think that Sharon Osbourne is a good manager and money-maker, but definitely not a metal-head, I do think that Jack Osbourne is a metalhead, and as already said I doubt an old-time metalhead wouldn't know of Iron Maiden and Bruce Dickinson's face/usual attitude.)
Bruce Dickinson about Iron Maiden and his family: "Well, we get to run around like a lunatic and play music and my kids can come and watch. My 15- and 13-year-olds were in the front row at our New York gig, in the mosh pit. I suddenly saw these four security guards jump in and hold someone down. I thought they had my kids but then I looked and saw their little faces, sweating and screaming and I was ready to dive in."
-> likes describing his children having fun at a metal concert... and not backstage! (and -real- fun!)
Conclusion:
(real) HEAVY-METAL(HEADS) RULES!
MANAGERS SUCK!
(...although they're necessary, yeah...)
Iron Maiden played at Ozzfest this year, their last concert with them was on August 20th. On this day, Sharon Ozzbourne decided to have her little revenge over Bruce Dickinson (Iron Maiden's singer) as it seems they had some problems together backstage (Bruce doesn't like reality TV, he said it, Sharon didn't like it (<-small version) ). So she got a few other bands (though most of them refused to do it, fortunately) and some staff members to completely waste this last Iron Maiden concert: eggs and others were thrown from front rows to the members of the band on stage, sound was cut twice or three times, someone of the sound "staff" yeld "SABBATH! SABBATH!" over Maiden music sometimes, and so on.
Problem: Unfortunately for Sharon, Maiden isn't a beginner band, they have -a lot- of credibility, and not only as a "memorial band", like Sabbath is nowadays let's be honnests (I respect and like them for what they did in the past... but they don't create anything anymore: all they do now is living on their past). So instead of taking her side because "ooooh yeah, Bruce was so wrong!", everyone even bands (save a few, but very few, exceptions) side along Bruce and say she went too far... which ends into a "war via press" like in the good old days, yeah 80's are back!
My favourite sentence of Sharon about the reasons why she got upset:
"It also offended me every night how he took out the English flag in America. There are American boys going to war alongside the English boys every day. How dare he forget the American troops on their home turf?"
Yeah yeah little darling... If you knew about heavy-metal (and you can't know about heavy-metal but not know about Iron Maiden, or you missed a huuuuuuuge part of the words "heavy-metal"), you would know that Bruce Dickinson uses this flag -everytime- the band plays The Trooper, in whatever country, even in the 80's he did it. + English soldiers are in Irak with American soldiers, so where's the problem? + Your husband (or at least other Black Sabbath members) still have the English citizenship, so where's the problem bis? + Like I read on the net: we French should be the most upset by that, not Americans, because it's been hundreds of years we've been playing like cats and dogs with English people, and we were at war many many many times with them! But these are also the reasons why we like them, mwaha!
In the same message, the funny moment for me, as a European, although I can understand Americans could get upset by it:
"He has had no respect for the American audience he has been playing for, stating in an interview, 'When you do the 'hits' tour here [in the U.S.], the audience is smug, and there's a sense of self-satisfaction, like, 'We got what we wanted…I'm looking at an audience that is self-satisfied and happy and fat, and getting what it wants and isn't prepared to get off its ass..'"
Mmmh if Bruce did say that, he undoubtly slightly exagerated "a little" here... But he's famous for that, speaking what he thinks when he thinks it and God knows the consequences, so well... you learn to take some distance with his words with the time. + Anyway, I always heard that yes American audiences are kind of cold compared to European audiences, and Maiden mainly faces European audiences, so well... they got used to a certain standard! Although we're nothing compared to South-America audiences, and Maiden often plays there too: they're used to receiving a certain amount of "YEAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!!!!!!!!" / singing along guitar lines / such (...and not only giant and dangerous mosh-pits... because American mosh-pits -are- dangerous! I don't know in South America but here in Europe at least we take care of one another, while in the U.S. they seem to not care at all!)
Oh and to Sharon Osbourne saying that without Sabbath there wouldn't be any Maiden, I say that up to me without Led Zeppelin or such of the kind there wouldn't be any Maiden, more than no Sabbath + As I lay Dying's singer gives the greatest answer in an interview:
"The Daily Texan: ]IN FLAMES leads what could be deemed a Swedish metal invasion that includes THE HAUNTED, ARCH ENEMY and SOILWORK. Has that changed the environment for the bands at Ozzfest, like AS I LAY DYING, that are the leaders of this new sound and style in American metalcore?
Tim Lambesis: "In my opinion, that style of guitar with the heavy harmonies and layering has been around since IRON MAIDEN. What I think Swedish metal has done is taken that and made it into something much more aggressive. I think American metal has added a whole other step, though, that brings in those hardcore influences and breakdowns. If someone is a fan of metal as a genre, the energy and aggression, they're going to find something they enjoy in our music. We're really proud of the new record and the way it was able to blend some melody with the metal." "
-> Ooooh strange, he says that such music comes from -Maiden-! He didn't say Sabbath or Ozzy... but Iron Maiden! So... maybe this band has some importance in the end, and isn't the small band Ozzfest accepted to take under its wing Sharon likes to present?
Now they even want to publish an "open-letter" in Billboard magazine, cf.: Bruce Dickinson's website:
"As fans of Iron Maiden (and music in general) most of us were appalled at the actions of Sharon Osbourne at the August 20th Ozzfest. Therefore, we started a website with a goal of having an Open Letter to Sharon Osbourne printed in Billboard Magazine - a magazine read by nearly every artist, label, radio station and record store around the world.
In addition to the ad, we are trying to increase the awareness of the Clive Burr MS Trust.
The website's address is: www.boycottsharon.com
So far we've gotten donations from Japan, Sweden, Finland, Denmark, Great Britain, Portugal, The U.S., Scotland and Australia. We're more than 1/3 of the way to buying the ad but we need more help. Even a donation of only a dollar can make the difference (although the favorite amount seems to be $6.66!)” "
(Clive Burr is a former member of Iron Maiden, who got (died from?) cancer (or such really bad disease): this fund was created to get money first to help cure this person then to help research against this disease)
And finally a little idea of the different mentalities between a metalhead and someone who mainly thinks of fame, money and glory:
Sharon Osbourne talking about Bruce Dickinson: "But he'd better watch out that he doesn't run into my son at Reading. Jack would give him one kick in the head and that'd be that. But you know what the irony is? Jack wouldn't know Monkey Boy if he fell over him in the street...""
-> Wants to show that his family is so important that they get backstage passes wherever, and Bruce Dickinson is so much nothing compared to them anyway that his so famous son probably wouldn't know Dickinson if he saw him in the street...
(although I have to say I personally doubt of it: as much as I think that Sharon Osbourne is a good manager and money-maker, but definitely not a metal-head, I do think that Jack Osbourne is a metalhead, and as already said I doubt an old-time metalhead wouldn't know of Iron Maiden and Bruce Dickinson's face/usual attitude.)
Bruce Dickinson about Iron Maiden and his family: "Well, we get to run around like a lunatic and play music and my kids can come and watch. My 15- and 13-year-olds were in the front row at our New York gig, in the mosh pit. I suddenly saw these four security guards jump in and hold someone down. I thought they had my kids but then I looked and saw their little faces, sweating and screaming and I was ready to dive in."
-> likes describing his children having fun at a metal concert... and not backstage! (and -real- fun!)
Conclusion:
(real) HEAVY-METAL(HEADS) RULES!
MANAGERS SUCK!
(...although they're necessary, yeah...)