THE BEAST

Sharon Osbourne has reignited a nearly two-decade-old feud with Iron Maiden's Bruce Dickinson, accusing the singer of being "eaten up with jealousy" for her husband, Ozzy Osbourne. The tensions date back to the 2005 Ozzfest tour, where Dickinson and Sharon engaged in a highly publicized conflict.

During Iron Maiden's final performance on the tour, the band faced unexpected disruptions. Audience members, reportedly encouraged by Sharon, pelted the band with eggs, lighters, and ice. Additionally, Maiden's PA system was tampered with, and the stage entrance of their mascot Eddie was delayed. These actions were allegedly in response to remarks Dickinson made about the tour's sound system and critical comments about Ozzy.

In a recent interview with Billboard for an "oral history" of Ozzfest, Sharon discussed her issues with Maiden, stating, "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."

Ozzy added, "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. 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."

During Maiden's final show, Dickinson addressed the crowd amid the disruptions, saying, "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. 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."

Sharon revealed that the instigators were her chemo nurses, saying, "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.'"

Reflecting on the incident, Sharon added, "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 agreed, saying, "If you feel that bad about the tour, fucking leave."

In a November 2022 interview with Consequence, Ozzy expressed his views on Dickinson, saying, "Bruce Dickinson is a great singer, but as a person, I've worked with him, and he's not very nice." He contrasted this with his respect for the late Ronnie James Dio, despite Dio having taken his place in Black Sabbath.

Sharon, however, was more blunt, calling Dickinson "a fucking asshole" and accusing him of jealousy. She stated, "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."

She continued, "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."

In a 2017 interview with NME, Dickinson downplayed the feud, calling it a "complete storm in a teacup" and expressing respect for early Black Sabbath with Ozzy. He added, "The fact that I don't like reality TV shows, well, I'm not gonna offer an olive branch to the Kardashians either."

Ozzy defended his wife in a 2010 interview with The Quietus, saying, "Unbeknown to me, every night [on the Ozzfest tour, Bruce] was going on stage slagging me off. And that wasn't fair. If he didn't like the fuckin' tour, he should have said, 'I'm jumping [off] the fuckin' tour,' but to go on stage and fuckin' slag me off for no reason… I'd never said a fuckin' bad thing to him."

He added, "To this day I don't understand what the fuckin' beef was. I just don't get it. To go on the Ozzfest and slag [people] off, that's crazy. I really think he needs a fuckin' psychiatrist if he does that, he's fucking nuts. It's an irresponsible fuckin' thing to do. Sharon must have got pissed off with this cunt, you know."

The long-standing feud between the Osbournes and Dickinson continues to be a notable chapter in the history of Ozzfest, highlighting the tensions and clashes that can arise in the competitive world of rock and metal.