In case anyone here went, or planned to go to Ozzfest in Columbus, I'm sure you feel my pain. It isn't the first time that it happened, nor will it be the last, but still I rant. The pain that I describe is the pain of driving, crammed in a jeep with 4 other people and 2 days worth of luggage. The pain of paying $98/night for a hotel room, $90 each for tickets, and ungodly amounts of money for food, water, and beer to go to Ozzfest... and then you get up to the gate to hand the man your ticket, and he tells you that Ozzy isn't going to be there tonight.
Apparantly he had a throat infection or something, but that doesn't comfort me, nor do I feel sorry for him. From what I hear, its not uncommon for Ozzy to skip a show with little or no advance notice. What I do feel is disappointed that I wasted over $500 to see one of my all-time favorite bands, Black Sabbath, live, on what may well be their last tour ever, and they laughed in my face. Not only did they not play their set, they didn't even SHOW UP. No waves, no bows, no sorry for wasting your hard-earned time and money (but I'm sure they'll enjoy spending it).
I bet its rough to sing with a throat infection, but I think if I were Ozzy and I were headlining a tour that is NAMED after me, and playing with a LEGENDARY band, I would take some medicine and belt out those notes if it killed me. Or, find someone else to carry the bulk of the vocals. At the VERY least, I would have made an appearance and appologized to the fans that came anyway and didn't refund their tickets (for about $20 less than they paid for them). Nope. Not even the mastermind Sharon stepped up to say anything about ruining the show for the fans of Sabbath.
The other acts were good, especially Maiden and Rob Zombie. Zombie even did part of Sweet Home Alabama, which surprised the hell out of me. But the whole day I could only think how bad it sucked that I went through all the planning and preparation for this show and it was ruined.
So, I'm debating going to the Antioch show later this month. Maiden isn't going to be there, but I already saw them with an extended set since Sabbath wussed out. I'd like to see Velvet Revolver, but someone told me earlier that they were cancelling the tour. And then there's always the chance that Ozzy will decide he'd rather do something else than appear at his own show... so I don't know what to do... I really want to see Sabbath once in my life before they retire, but is it worth all the money for another gamble? Is there any way of knowing for sure if he's going to show up?
