Sharon Osbourne has confirmed that her well-documented beef with Iron Maiden vocalist Bruce Dickinson still stands, over 15 years after tensions boiled over into the public eye. Back in 2005 Iron Maiden were out on the Osbourne-backed ‘Ozzfest‘ tour. After several incidents of Dickinson complaining onstage about the tour’s sound production and taking shots at the Osbourne clan’s forays into reality TV, Sharon took action.
During Maiden‘s August 20th, 2005 set at the Glen Helen Pavilion in San Bernardino, CA, Sharon is said to have instructed the crew to cut the band’s sound, delay aspects of their stage production and also arranged a group of attendees pelt the band with eggs during their set.
Per a recent interview with Consequence, that beef still stands to this day. Sharon newly offered the following of Dickinson:
“Bruce Dickinson is a fucking prick. Well, no, he’s not a prick because a prick’s nice. He’s a fucking asshole. Because the situation is he was on a tour called Ozzfest. And Ozzy Osbourne was paying him every night to perform. He accepted the gig. He knew what he was doing. He accepted the gig.
And every night he would go onstage and say bad things about Ozzy. And the crew and everybody in all the other bands would be like, ‘Are you letting him get away with it?’ And I’m like, ‘I sure am.’ But the last gig was [just outside of] L.A. And I thought, ‘You motherfucker, now you’re gonna get it.’
And so I had about 20 people in the audience and a lot of them were nurses from Cedars Sinai, because I had cancer at that time. And they were all my chemo nurses. And they all came down, and they fucking pelted the shit out of him. And my thing is, you play, you pay!
And the thing is, if you’re being paid to do a gig, but you don’t like the person, then fuck off. But don’t stay, take the money, take all the good that’s coming to your band through being on a festival, doing 24 shows and still slagging the person that’s paying you. It’s like, ‘No, that makes you a fucking asshole.’ And he is. And he’s never apologized, he never even went up and said hello to Ozzy. The thing about him is that he is just so jealous. And always has been of Ozzy. And that’s his problem.
Because the thing is about Bruce Dickinson, he’s hugely successful. He’s got a great fan base, a great fan base that have been loyal. The band are great guys. All the band are great. And they do great. You know, they’re a great band, you can’t take it away, and neither would I take that away from them. But the thing about Bruce is, he is unknown to the public. Bruce Dickinson could walk into anywhere and nobody would know who the fuck he is. Do you know what I’m saying?
He’s a faceless singer to the general public. People aren’t scrambling to get him for an interview. And the thing is, he’s not interesting. But the thing is, Ozzy is original and Bruce isn’t and that’s what eats Bruce away.”
Back in the fall of 2005, Trivium frontman/guitarist Matt Heafy, recounted the incident to Metal Hammer, stating:
“There were gangs of people from the bands on the second stage trying to recruit people to throw eggs at Maiden. Man, I wouldn’t dare throw anything at Maiden, not even money. I watched them from right at the front at one show and I did everything, every gesture, that Bruce asked of the crowd. I was too afraid not to. That’s how commanding that band are, that’s the kind of presence they have. And people want me to throw eggs at them? Fuck off!”
In the same piece, Trivium guitarist Corey Beaulieu added:
“You should have seen those people down the front throwing shit. It was disgusting. I mean, Kelly Osbourne was there, and she was throwing eggs. Then I read that she said she was in London. She’s a fucking liar. She wasn’t in London, she was right there throwing shit. She couldn’t even take any responsibility for what she’d done.”
Trivium would go on to show their support for the British new wave of heavy metal legends on that tour by wearing Iron Maiden merch onstage during their sets. Their respect for Maiden didn’t appear to go unnoticed, as it led to them sharing the stage with outfit, most recently being out on the road together in North America this past September.
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