Sharon Osbourne has opened up about her feud with Iron Maiden‘s Bruce Dickinson sharing that he was “eaten up with jealousy” for Ozzy Osbourne.
As Blabbermouth previously noted, the Iron Maiden frontman was involved in a verbal confrontation with Sharon – Ozzy’s wife and manager – back in 2005, when his band were pelted with eggs and other objects during a performance at the Ozzfest tour.
The band continued with the show, before Sharon came on-stage and reportedly said that Dickinson had “disrespected Ozzfest” while the group were on the road. As a result of the incident, Dickinson and co. departed the tour early.
It’s reported that Sharon had ordered interference with Maiden’s PA system, delayed the entrance of their mascot, Eddie, and encouraged the audience to throw bottles at Dickinson.
Now, in a new interview with Billboard as part of an “oral history” of Ozzfest, both Sharon and Ozzy opened up about the feud with the ‘Fear Of The Dark’ singer. “It was just the singer. The other guys in the band are great, great people. No problem at all. But when you’ve got a singer that is so eaten up with jealousy for the headliner, it never goes well.”
“He would go on the stage and turn to the audience and say bad things. Be disrespectful. ‘I didn’t condone the fucking lights,’ and all this,” Ozzy told the publication. “If you don’t want the gig, just say, ‘I don’t want the gig.’ But it’s pretty fucking stupid if you accept the gig and all you do is complain about it.”
Sharon added: “I just kept saying, ‘Let him do it. Let him do it. He’ll get it.’ And on the last day, he did.”
During the show, Dickinson took the time to address the crowd while they began throwing eggs and other objects and the band. “You may have noticed a few wise asses that decided they would go down to the supermarket and buy a few fucking eggs and start throwing them at us down in the front,” he said. “I guess they thought it would be funny. Well, this is an English fucking flag and these colors do not fucking run from you asswipes.”
Speaking about the moment to Billboard, Sharon said: “I had been having cancer treatments, and all the nurses that I had met over my year in chemo came to the show and they said, ‘Can we do anything for you?’ And I’m, like, ‘Yes, you can.’ I loaded them up with cans of bean soup, vegetables, eggs, and I said, ‘Pelt the singer.’ And that’s what they did. It was, like, ‘You wanna talk? You think you’re clever? Well, watch this — you’re gonna get covered in tomato soup in L.A.”
She continued: “I just thought, ‘You’re taking the money to be on this tour, and you’re disrespecting the namesake of the tour. You’re disrespecting him by knocking him every night to the fans.’ I don’t like that. It’s not in the spirit of what we do.”
Ozzy went on to add that if someone felt that bad about a tour, then they should “Fucking leave”.
Sharon has previously hit out a Dickinson, calling him a “fucking asshole”. She also claimed that the Iron Maiden singer “never apologised” or even spoke to Ozzy. “The thing about him is that he is just so jealous,” she said “And always has been of Ozzy. And that’s his problem.”
Back in 2017, Dickinson dismissed his infamous feud with The Osbournes, exclusively telling NME that they are a “storm in a teacup”.
He continued: “I grew up listening to early Sabbath with Ozzy. Ozzy and Sabbath are icons so that’s that, end of story. The fact that I don’t like reality TV shows, well I’m not gonna offer an olive branch to the Kardashians either.”
In other news, earlier this year, Sharon opened up about the possibility of reviving Ozzfest.
Ozzy brought up the topic of bringing the festival back during an episode of The Osbournes Podcast, asking his wife: “Not just one [at] the fucking Forum, but a whole Ozzfest [tour]?” Sharon replied: “Yeah, sure. Of course.”
The last Ozzfest took place in 2018 and was headlined by none other than Ozzy himself, alongside Rob Zombie, Marilyn Manson, Jonathan Davis of Korn and Body Count.
Last year, Sharon had shed light on the factors that led to the cancellation of Ozzfest, revealing that it was ultimately due to managers becoming “greedy”.
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