“It was just the singer. The other guys in the band are great people” – Sharon Osbourne speaks her mind about Bruce Dickinson

In a recent Billboard interview including Sharon and Ozzy Osbourne in an “oral history” of the family’s travelling metal festival, both of them expounded on why Sharon and Dickinson have such a strained relationship. Sharon began by stating that it was all on Dickinson‘s shoulders and that the rest of the band was lovely to work with.

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. [Dickinson] 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. 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. 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. 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.

Iron Maiden performed as the headliner at the 2005 Ozzfest. It was a big deal to have Black Sabbath and Iron Maiden on the same bill, but things were not going well for Dickinson’s group. Throughout the tour, Dickinson criticized the sound system, lighting, and the Osbournes’ entry into reality television. During the band’s final night on tour, August 20, 2005, in San Bernardino, CA, the band was attacked with bottles, eggs, batteries, and other items. Backstage, Sharon was interfering with their performance by ordering things like interference in the PA system and delaying Eddie’s arrival on stage. Ozzy thought it unusual for Dickinson to be so furious if they were the ones who accepted the headliner spot. How long until Bruce replies to this statement? We’ll just have to wait.