Diary of a Madman Tour
| Promotional tour by Ozzy Osbourne | |
| Associated album | Diary of a Madman |
|---|---|
| Start date | November 5, 1981 |
| End date | August 8, 1982 |
| Legs | 1 in Europe 2 in North America 1 in Asia 4 total |
| No. of shows | 10 in Europe 108 in North America 5 in Sdis/ 123 total |
| Ozzy Osbourne concert chronology | |
The Diary of a Madman Tour was the second concert tour by English heavy metal vocalist Ozzy Osbourne. The tour, which was in support of Ozzy and Randy Rhoads's second album Diary of a Madman, covered Europe, North America and Asia. This was Rhoads's last tour since he was killed in a plane crash at a small airport in Leesburg, Florida, on March 19, 1982 during the first leg of the tour. The band took a two-week break after his death. Ozzy and Sharon restarted the tour with ex-Gillan guitarist Bernie Tormé, who only lasted a couple of shows and was then replaced by future Night Ranger guitarist Brad Gillis, who lasted the rest of the tour.
Overview
Background
After the Blizzard of Ozz Tour ended on September 13, 1981, with the success of Blizzard of Ozz, "Crazy Train" and Mr Cowley, the band took a one-month break before going to Europe to start the tour supporting the upcoming album, Diary of a Madman, which was scheduled to be released worldwide on November 7, 1981. On October 21, Ozzy, Randy, Rudy, Tommy, and Lindsay reconvened at Shepperton Studios in England, where they would spend the next two weeks rehearsing.
Europe leg
On November 4, 1981, the band arrived in Hamburg, Germany to start the tour, opening up for Saxon in Europe. The band's first show at Ernst-Merck-Halle in front of a sold-out crowd. On November 7, Diary of a Madman was released worldwide and "Flying High Again", "Over the Mountain," "You Can't Kill Rock and Roll" and "Diary of a Madman" were released as singles. On November 13, after the band's performance at Upper Swabia Hall in Ravensburg, Sharon called off the rest of the Europe leg because of Ozzy's mental health issues because of his marriage with Thelma Osbourne having fallen apart. Sharon took Ozzy back to England and had him checked into a mental health clinic while Randy, Rudy and Tommy went on excursions throughout Germany and France before going back to England.
On November 22, Randy, Rudy, Tommy and Lindsay reconvened at Shepperton Studios to begin the pre-production rehearsals for United Kingdom dates, while Ozzy was still in the hospital. The band rehearsed songs off of Blizzard and three Black Sabbath songs that they had already been playing. Ozzy joined the band on their last day of rehearsals after he was released from the clinic on November 28 and only practiced "Over the Mountain", "Flying High Again" and "Believer". On November 29, performed at Colston Hall in Bristol, as a headliner with Girl. On December 2, the band performed its last show of the leg at the Royal Court Theatre in Liverpool. The rest of the European leg was cancelled because of Ozzy's depression, so the band returned to London, celebrated Ozzy and Randy's birthdays, and then flew to Los Angeles to begin the pre-production rehearsals for the North American leg.
North American leg (December 1981–March 19, 1982)
After returning to Los Angeles on December 5, the band took a couple of weeks break, and then began the pre-production rehearsals. It was during these rehearsal sessions that Don Airey, who had previously played keyboards with Rainbow and finished a tour with them as well as performed keyboards and synthesizers for "Mr. Crowley", "Goodbye to Romance" and "Revelation Mother Earth" on the Blizzard of Ozz album, had joined the band in November 1981 after Lindsay Bridgewater was released by Ozzy and Sharon. In December, Entertainment Tonight taped their rehearsals for a segment. On December 30, the band performed at the Cow Palace in Daly City, California. After the sound check rehearsals, Randy received the Best New Talent Award from Guitar Player magazine. The band headed back to Los Angeles to their last show in 1981 at the Los Angeles Memorial Sports Arena. English hard rock/heavy metal band UFO and Starfighters were added to the bill as the opening bands. On January 7, the band played at Tingley Coliseum in Albuquerque; the local news filmed the first part of the show.
On January 20, at the Des Moines Veterans Memorial Auditorium, a fan threw a live bat onto the stage and Ozzy, thinking it was a toy bat, bit the bat's head off and spat it out on stage after realizing it was real. He checked in at a local hospital to get rabies shots, which he had to take for the next couple of days. On January 24 at Rosemont Horizon in Rosemont, Illinois, Ozzy lifted Randy up by his right leg as he was shredding on the fretboard of his Polka Dot Flying V, and a professional photographer captured that moment and was used as the album cover for Tribute. On January 26, as the band played "Over the Mountain" at the Assembly Hall, Ozzy collapsed during the middle of the song, was pulled off stage by Sharon and the rest of stage crew while the band finished the song instrumentally, was rushed to the hospital, and the rest of the show was cancelled. Ozzy was given two days to rest and heal from sickness from the rabies shots, while the band went to Chicago
On February 2, before the band's performance at Civic Arena, Randy did a guitar seminar at the "Music City" Record Store in Greensburg, Pennsylvania. On February 11, after playing at the Market Square Arena in Indianapolis, tensions between Ozzy and Randy grew as Randy did not want to play on the live record that would consist of Black Sabbath songs as he felt it would be a major step backward in his career, but the record company forced Ozzy and Sharon to do this live album.[citation needed] The tension between them would last throughout the rest of the tour. On February 16, the band performed at Beaumont Fair Park Coliseum, where the soundcheck rehearsal that took place earlier that day was captured on video. On February 19, Sharon hid all of Ozzy's clothes so that he could not drink anymore, but Ozzy put on Sharon's nightgown, got drunk, urinated on The Alamo, was arrested and taken to jail. He was released hours before the show since Sharon warned the police that the concert promoters were worried that not releasing Ozzy from jail would cause the cancellation of that evening's performance and possibly incite a riot. After Ozzy was released, they performed at the San Antonio Convention Center Arena. Ozzy became "Public Enemy #1" in Texas and received death threats from parents, religious groups, and political activists. On February 20, before that evening's performance at Reunion Arena, Randy agreed to play on the live album consisting of Black Sabbath songs, one more studio album and tour with Ozzy, and then he would leave to go to the University of California, Los Angeles to get a master's degree for classical guitar. On March 18, the band performed in front of a sold-out crowd at Knoxville Civic Coliseum, which would be Randy's last show.
The band had gotten onto the tour bus, heading to Orlando for the Rock Super Bowl at the Tangerine Bowl on March 20, but something was wrong with the bus, so the bus headed to a bus depot, Flying Baron Estates, outside of Leesburg for repair. Ozzy, Sharon, Rudy and Tommy were all asleep while Randy, Don, Jake Duncan (the tour manager), Rachel Youngblood (Randy's hairdresser), Andrew Aycock (the bus driver), and his wife Wanda and the rest of the crew were all awake. On the property, there was an airstrip and a hangar of small airplanes. Aycock, who said he was an experienced pilot, took a Beechcraft Bonanza F35 plane out of the hangar and offered to take people up in the air. First, Aycock took Don and Jake up in the air and made some passes around the property. After that, Rachel wanted Aycock to take her up in the air even though she had a bad heart condition at the time, which meant that he could not do tricks or stunts, so Randy offered to go with her; he also wanted to take scenic pictures for his photo collection despite his fear of heights. So Aycock took Randy and Rachel up into the air, but on the fourth pass, the left wing of the plane hit the bus (waking everyone sleeping inside), went out of control, hit a nearby pine tree and as it turned, nose-dived into the garage of a nearby mansion on the property. Aycock, Rachel, and Randy were killed instantly. As the investigation went on, the band had to spent the next two days in Leesburg mourning the loss of their friends and all upcoming shows were cancelled. Once the investigation was over on March 21, the band returned to Los Angeles, where they would spend the next two weeks trying to recuperate while looking for another guitarist.
North American leg (1982)
The band was in a severe state of depression, especially Ozzy, whose drug and alcohol addiction and mental state had grown even worse. Originally, on the day of Randy's death, Ozzy said that it was over and that he never wanted to play again, but Sharon managed to get Ozzy back on his feet as well as herself and the rest of the band by finishing the tour for the fans since "You Can't Kill Rock 'N' Roll", which is what Ozzy said when he was interviewed as a special guest on Late Night with David Letterman one week after Randy's death. Rudy called up his younger brother, future Hurricane lead guitarist Robert Sarzo, and asked him to audition, he played the material the same way that Randy had played it on the records, which is what Ozzy and Sharon wanted, so he got the job. Another guitarist had shown up to audition, former Gillan guitarist Bernie Tormé, who had been hired and given an advance by Sharon's father, Don Arden, and even though his audition did not go as smoothly, because he was not familiar with the material and his style, feel and way of playing were different from Randy's, Bernie ended up getting the job instead of Robert.
On March 28, the band flew to Bethlehem, Pennsylvania for three days of rehearsals to restart the tour. On April 1, the band restarted the tour at Stabler Arena in Bethlehem. UFO was back as a support act and this time Magnum was the opening act. After a couple of shows with Bernie, who was eager to start his solo career, Sharon found future-Night Ranger guitarist, Brad Gillis, though he did not feel ready to play onstage yet as he needed some time to learn the setlist, Bernie did several more shows with the band until Brad was ready. On April 13, Brad played with the band for the first time at Broome County Veterans Memorial Arena in Binghamton, New York. The band was able to finish the rest of the tour with Brad and Bernie left to go get his solo career started.
On May 10, after the band's performance at Glens Falls Civic Arena in New York, Sharon put the tour on hold again as Ozzy's depression, mental illness, and drug and alcohol addiction had grown worse, so the rest of the tour's shows were postponed. The band restarted the tour again on May 19 at Cape Cod Coliseum in South Yarmouth, Massachusetts with Magnum as the opening band for the East Coast and Midwest shows; the Canadian band Santers would be the opening band for the Canada shows, and Axe would be the opening band for the West Coast shows. On June 19, the band performed its first laser show at Oakland Arena in California. On June 25, the band performed at Irvine Meadows, where the live pro-video footage from that show was used for Speak of the Devil Live, which was broadcast on MTV ]on Halloween. On June 28, the band did its 1st show in Hawaii at the Honolulu International Center Arena.
On July 4, Ozzy and Sharon got married. From July 9 to 15, the band did several shows in Japan for the Asian leg of the tour. On August 6, the day before the band's show at the Rock N Roll Super Bowl at the Cotton Bowl in Dallas where they would have Le Roux opening up as well as supporting Loverboy and Foreigner, Ozzy's depression had grown even worse than before and since he did not want to do more shows, he had shaved his head. This did npt stop Sharon from forcing Ozzy to get on stage to do the show; she had him put on a wig, but Ozzy ripped the wig off his head and threw it on the audience. On August 8, Ozzy did the same thing when at the band's last show of the tour at Superstar Sunday at Tad Gormley Stadium in New Orleans.
Personnel
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Setlist
"O Fortuna" (Carl Orff song) [Audio introduction]
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"Diary of a Madman" (Introduction/ending) [Audio introduction]
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Tour dates
References
- ^ http://randy-rhoads-online.com/site/quiet-riot-years/gallery/1-quiet-riot/detail/47-qr-live-band-0006?tmpl=component
- ^ http://randy-rhoads-online.com/ozzy-era/tour-dates
- ^ http://randy-rhoads-online.com/ozzy-era/bootleg-encylopedia
- ^ http://www.ultimaterhoads.com/viewtopic.php?t=2106
- ^ https://www.facebook.com/notes/randy-rhoads-society/tour-dates-with-ozzy-osbourne-with-known-audio-video/403609346677
- ^ https://www.facebook.com/note.php?note_id=10150128672151678
- ^ http://www.nobitching.com/phpbb3/viewtopic.php?f=5&t=12633
- ^ http://norest4thecollectors.x10hosting.com/?page_id=401
- ^ http://norest4thecollectors.x10hosting.com/?page_id=471
- ^ http://www.ozzy.com/us/reply-6684
- ^ http://www.ozzyhead.com/olddates/olddates.htm
- ^ http://www.lookatstubs.com/bands/ozzy_osbourne.htm
- ^ http://www.ultimaterhoads.com/viewtopic.php?t=2146
- ^ http://www.ultimaterhoads.com/viewtopic.php?f=24&t=6173
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