JUDAS PRIEST DOES OZZY

In the Ozzfest August 2004 show at Camden,  Ozzy Osbourne was forced to sit out BLACK SABBATH’s performance due to an attack of bronchitis. Two hours before show time, Sharon contacted Judas Priest frontman Rob Halford and convinced him to sub in to avoid a riot.

Commented Rob at the show: “Yesterday [Aug. 25] was my [53rd] birthday and I feel as if today is too! I’m getting to sing for one of my favorite bands in the world.”

The songs performed at the show were “War Pigs”, “Fairies Wear Boots”, “N.I.B.”, “Black Sabbath”, “Iron Man”, “Into the Void”, “Children of the Grave”, the intro to “Sabbath, Bloody Sabbath” followed by “Paranoid”.

The following are some of the previously published statements from Halford and the members of SABBATH about the Camden performance:

Rob Halford: “That was a remarkable moment in itself. I mean, that just came out of the blue one day. It was the day after my birthday, actually. I was in Philadelphia and we had a show that evening in [New] Jersey. And I got a call from Sharon [Osbourne]. And I thought she was calling me to say, ‘Did you get the gift that Ozzy and myself sent you?’ which was like this really beautiful hand-made luggage with, like, skulls and crossbones all over it — typical Osbourne material. But then she said Ozzy wasn’t feeling too good and he got a really bad case of bronchitis and he couldn’t sing, so ‘Can you help us out?’ And I said, ‘Sure, what do you want me to do?’ ‘Well, can you sing tonight?’ ‘You’re kidding me!’ I’m about two hours away from a PRIEST show.

[And she said], ‘We really need your help, because if we can’t have you kind of helping out, stepping in for Ozzy, then SABBATH will have to cancel,’ which would have been nothing short of a riot had that happened. So I said to Sharon, ‘It’s a bit short notice, but send me a tape of everything that they do’ — I’d seen most of the shows standing on the side of the stage, being the BLACK SABBATH fan that I am — but she sent me a video of the performance and I was singing along with Ozzy in the back of the tour bus going to the show. Got off the bus, did the PRIEST show, took a shower, [and] 10 minutes later I was back out fronting SABBATH. And it was such a whirlwind. I mean, I got back to the hotel room that night and my whole body was, like, humming. Like it was this [makes buzzing noise] going on for two days. As I said, being a huge BLACK SABBATH fan, it was just an ultimate moment for me. But yeah, you do what you can. I mean, Ozzy and I, we’re mates. We’ve known each other forever, we’re from the same neighborhood in Birmingham. The originators of metal are SABBATH and PRIEST, so it was a spectacular evening.”

Bill Ward: “When [Ozzy] fell sick, we had a very difficult situation to deal with, and before going any further, I want to salute every single audience member at the now infamous Camden, NJ gig. I love playing Camden, and my heart went out to that audience. Rob Halford deserves a medal for coming in like he did. Rob was great. There is no doubt. I think that night, everybody — Tony, Geezer, Rob and myself — worked our nuts off. We were very sorry that the Camden audience was disappointed, and at such a late hour in that day. We poured it out, and now I think there’s a live bootleg somewhere, of that show.”

Tony Iommi: “One thing that sticks in my mind [about last year’s Ozzfest] was the day in New Jersey when Ozzy couldn’t perform so we had Rob Halford sing, which was the second time he saved the day for us.” [Halford had previously joined SABBATH for two gigs to support Ozzy on his last shows for the “No More Tours” tour in November 1992 in Costa Mesa, CA after SABBATH’s singer at the time, Ronnie James Dio, refused to take the stage.] 

“At first we were worried, because people expect Ozzy, but if Rob hadn’t helped us out, there wouldn’t have been a show at all. When our manager told me Ozzy had bronchitis and couldn’t sing, he asked me what I thought about Rob doing it. I said, ‘I think it’s a good idea as long as you tell everybody beforehand so they know.’ Of course, they told the audience right before we went onstage, so I thought, ‘Oh, no.’ But the crowd received him really well.”

IMAGES: Ozzfest backstage pass 2004

LINKS: audio link for Black Sabbath Finale “Paranoid”:

http://judaspriest.free.fr/sounds/BlackSabbath/09-paranoid.mp3