Osbourne was massively successful at the time of this concert. He was the lead singer of the heavy metal band Black Sabbath from 1968 until 1979, when he was fired due to drug and alcohol problems. But he regrouped and put out two solo albums, "Blizzard of Oz" in 1980 and "Diary of a Madman" in 1981, that sold millions and included classics like "Crazy Train" and "Mr. Crowley." Unfortunately, between that second album and this concert, Osbourne parted ways with most of his backing band. In particular, lead guitarist Randy Rhoads was killed in a car accident in 1982. By the time of this festival, he was replaced by Jake E. Lee.
If you want to know more about Osborne, here's his Wikipedia page:
Osborne later recalled about the festival, "I do remember it being fucking ridiculously hot. I mean, the bands are getting paid all this fucking money for playing a few songs, then there's this fucking immense crowd, and there’s no fucking water for them to drink. It was like being in the middle of a forest fire."
Indeed, it was very hot. The high temperature that day was 95 degrees. That actually was significantly cooler than the 1982 US Festival, when temperatures went well over 100.
The festival was particularly important for Jake E. Lee, since it was his first major concert appearance as lead guitarist in Osbourne's band. He later said, "We came out on stage, just before we started playing because I wanted to make sure my gear was working. I did a couple of chunk-chunks on the guitar, and it was so loud. You could feel the air coming out of the PA and the monitors. The stage kind of rumbled and it felt God-like. It was exhilarating. I was like, 'Holy shit, this is going to be awesome.' And then I looked out, and it was just a sea of people. That's when the enormity of it struck me. I remember thinking, 'This is going to be a moment you’ll remember for the rest of your life.'"
I sourced this from an excellent sounding bootleg. I believe the set remained unreleased. As with all the rest of the Heavy Metal Day music, the lead vocals were low in the mix so I fixed that using the UVR5 audio editing program.
The songs mostly come from the two Osbourne albums mentioned above, but several songs from Black Sabbath were played as well.
This album is an hour and nine minutes long.
030 talk (Ozzy Osbourne)
031 Diary of a Madman (Ozzy Osbourne)
032 Over the Mountain (Ozzy Osbourne)
033 Mr. Crowley (Ozzy Osbourne)
034 talk (Ozzy Osbourne)
035 Crazy Train (Ozzy Osbourne)
036 talk (Ozzy Osbourne)
037 Suicide Solution (Ozzy Osbourne)
038 talk (Ozzy Osbourne)
039 Revelation [Mother Earth] (Ozzy Osbourne)
040 Steal Away [The Night] (Ozzy Osbourne)
041 Drum Solo [Instrumental] (Ozzy Osbourne)
042 talk (Ozzy Osbourne)
043 I Don’t Know (Ozzy Osbourne)
044 talk (Ozzy Osbourne)
045 Flying High Again (Ozzy Osbourne)
046 talk (Ozzy Osbourne)
047 Fairies Wear Boots (Ozzy Osbourne)
048 talk (Ozzy Osbourne)
049 Iron Man (Ozzy Osbourne)
050 Children of the Grave (Ozzy Osbourne)
051 talk (Ozzy Osbourne)
052 Paranoid (Ozzy Osbourne)
053 talk (Ozzy Osbourne)
https://www.upload.ee/files/17028704/VA-1983USFstvlDay0203OzyOsbrne_atse.zip.html
alternate link:
https://pixeldrain.com/u/eqhbcpAJ
The cover photo is from this exact concert.
Thanks again for all of your hard work. I agree with you that this day is not my favorite, but it's good to have for historical sake.
ReplyDeleteThanks for all of this!
ReplyDeleteNot to be that guy, but, Rhoads died in a plane crash.
ReplyDelete