Ozzfest is an annual festival tour of the United States (and in some years, Europe) featuring performances by many heavy metal and hard rock musical groups. It was founded by Ozzy Osbourne and his wife Sharon Osbourne, both of whom also organize each yearly tour with their son Jack Osbourne. The Ozzfest tour has featured bands of a variety of genres within heavy metal and hard rock, including alternative metal, thrash metal, industrial metal, metalcore, hardcore punk, nu metal, death metal, gothic metal and black metal. Ozzy Osbourne himself, as well as his band Black Sabbath, has played the tour several times over the years.
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Ozzfest is an annual festival tour of the United States (and in some years, Europe) featuring performances by many heavy metal and hard rock musical groups. It was founded by Ozzy Osbourne and his wife Sharon Osbourne, both of whom also organize each yearly tour with their son Jack Osbourne. The Ozzfest tour has featured bands of a variety of genres within heavy metal and hard rock, including alternative metal, thrash metal, industrial metal, metalcore, hardcore punk, nu metal, death metal, gothic metal and black metal. Ozzy Osbourne himself, as well as his band Black Sabbath, has played the tour several times over the years.
History
Early years: 1996-2008
The festival was created in 1996, when organizers of musical festival Lollapalooza refused to let Ozzy Osbourne join the tour. The tour was well-received, which prompted the festival to become a yearly occurrence.
The first Ozzfest was not a national tour, but rather a two-day festival held in Phoenix, Arizona and Devore, California on October 25 and 26th, 1996 respectively.
In 1998, Ozzfest ventured outside the United States for the first time into the United Kingdom, which featured a different lineup of bands. The festival would eventually return to the UK in 2001[http://www.smnnews.com/ozzfest-date-lineup-history-from-1996/ SMNnews.com | Ozzfest - Date Lineup History from 1996 ] and 2002.
2000s
In the early 2000s, bands including Marilyn Manson, Mudvayne, Slipknot, Incubus, Linkin Park, System of a Down, and Disturbed played the yearly music festival. Two compilation albums of the Ozzfest tour were released, one covering select 2001 performances and another for 2002.
On-stage footage of the Ozzfest 2004 tour was shown on MTV, as Ozzy and Sharon hosted a show on the network titled Battle for Ozzfest where they chose eight out of hundreds of bands to compete for a spot on the following year's Ozzfest. Ozzy selected one member from each chosen band to "tag along" on the tour. Each contestant had to complete numerous challenges in order to improve his/her band's chances of winning the contest. Occasionally, meetings would be held and certain contestants would be eliminated for various reasons. The person who prevailed as the winner and guaranteed his band's spot on the Ozzfest tour was Marc Serrano from metalcore act A Dozen Furies.
At Iron Maiden's last Ozzfest performance, on August 20, 2005 at the Hyundai Pavilion at Glen Helen in San Bernardino, California, several negative events took place. During the first song, several members of the crowd, brought on by Sharon Osbourne, bombarded the British metal band Iron Maiden with eggs, bottle caps and ice. During three of Iron Maiden's songs, the P.A. system was switched off, cutting power to vocalist Bruce Dickinson's microphone and the band's instruments . During the concert, Bruce Dickinson can be heard accusing the festival's organizers of deliberately cutting off the band's power. On Iron Maiden's departure, Sharon Osbourne came on stage to make a few statements, telling the audience that she "absolutely loved Iron Maiden" but thought that the lead singer Bruce Dickinson is a prick." Rod Smallwood, manager for Iron Maiden, issued a statement shortly after the debacle condemning the attack on the band.
