Iron Maiden manager Ron Smallwood has spoken out about the strange turn of events that took place during the band’s final Ozzfest set Saturday in San Bernardino, Calif. As reported yesterday, Maiden was pelted by debris while playing and also endured periodic outages of the sound system.
Afterward, Ozzfest organizer Sharon Osbourne came on stage and called Maiden frontman Bruce Dickinson a “pr*ck.” She reiterated her comments in a post on the Ozzfest Web site in which she accused him of “berating Ozzy [Osbourne] and belittling the Ozzfest audience.”
“In 30 years in this business and after hundreds of gigs I have never seen anything anywhere near as disgusting and unprofessional as what went on that night,” Smallwood says on Maiden’s Web site. “The scale, viciousness and concentration of the throwing made it obvious that this was a premeditated and coordinated attack. Assaulting musicians while performing by throwing bottle tops, lighters and eggs at them from just a few yards away is vile, dangerous, criminal and cowardly.”
Without naming names, Smallwood says he knows who was responsible for attempting to sabotage Iron Maiden’s set, from which audio and video clips have quickly begun circulating online.
“Those who participated or stood idly by and watched as all this went down should also be ashamed of themselves and I would certainly hope they never come near a tour with which we are involved,” Smallwood added.
“If l had any sort of problem or misunderstanding with a band working on a tour we were involved in I would go and talk to them or their manager — not wait until the end of a tour and assault and ambush them,” he continued.
Ozzfest continues tonight in Albuquerque, N.M., with Velvet Revolver filling Iron Maiden’s slot on the bill.
