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 | Europe (1) • Germany (1) • United Kingdom (1) -> Europe (2) North America (2) • United States (6) • Canada (1) -> North America (7) Japan (1) Total: 10 Overall: 4 Major Legs |
| Number of shows | Europe (10) • Germany (7) • United Kingdom (3) North America (108) • United States (99) • Canada (8) Japan (5) Total: 122 Cancelled (40) Overall Total: 162 |
| 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 Germany, the United Kingdom, the United States, Canada, & Japan. This was Rhoads's last tour since he was killed in a plane crash at a small airport in Leesburg, Florida, near Orlando, on March 19, 1982 during the first leg of the tour. The band took a two-week break after his death, which also meant the cancellation of shows during that time. Ozzy and Sharon restarted the tour with ex-Gillan guitarist, Bernie Tormé on guitar, 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. Despite Randy's tragic loss, the tour was a major success along with the success of both of the albums, and that not only did Ozzy become a huge celebrity rock star but that Randy Rhoads had become recognized worldwide as the Hard Rock/Heavy Metal Guitar God/Hero/Legend among many hard rock/heavy metal fans & guitarists overall.
Contents
Overview
Background
After the Blizzard of Ozz Tour ended on September 13, 1981 at Peabody Auditorium in Daytona Beach, Florida, with success of Blizzard of Ozz having been sold worldwide in the millions as well as "Crazy Train" becoming a success along with "Mr. Crowley", "Goodbye to Romance", "I Don't Know", & "Suicide Solution", etc., 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. Then, on October 21, Ozzy, Randy, Rudy, Tommy, & Lindsay reconvened at Shepperton Studios in England where they would spend the next 2 weeks rehearsing for the upcoming tour.
Germany Leg (1981)
On November 4, 1981, the band arrived in Hamburg, Germany to start the tour opening up for Saxon in Europe. The band kicked off its first show at Ernst Merck Hall in Hamburg in front of a sold-out crowd. On November 7, Diary of a Madman was released worldwide, and it was a huge success. "Flying High Again" was released as a single, becoming the album's biggest hit. "Over the Mountain" would also be released as a single along with "You Can't Kill Rock 'N' Roll" and "Diary of a Madman." On November 13, after the band's performance at Upper Swabia Hall in Ravensburg on November 12, Sharon called off the rest of the tour in Europe due to Ozzy's mental health issues as a result 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 the Randy, Rudy, & Tommy went on excursions throughout Germany & France before going back to England.
United Kingdom Leg (1981)
On November 22, Randy, Rudy, Tommy, & Lindsay reconvened at Shepperton Studios to begin the pre-production rehearsals for U.K. Leg of the tour, while Ozzy was still in the hospital. The band had rehearsed the songs off of Blizzard as well as the 3 Sabbath songs that they had already been playing. As for the songs off Diary, Ozzy, who joined the band on their last day of rehearsals after was released from the clinic on November 28, chose to only do "Over the ?Mountain", "Flying High Again", & "Believer". On November 29, the band kicked off the tour in the U.K. with its first performance on this tour as a headliner with an opening band named Girl (which had future Def Leppard guitarist Phil Collen as well as future L.A. Guns, singer, Phil Lewis) at Colston Hall in Bristol. On November 30, they played at Sophia Gardens Pavilion in Cardiff, Wales. The show at De Montfort Hall (Auditorium) in Leicester on December 1 was cancelled, On December 2, the band performed its last show of the U.K. Leg at the Royal Court Theatre in Liverpool. The rest of the tour in the United Kingdom was cancelled because of Ozzy's depression, so the band returned to London the next day, celebrated Ozzy & Randy's birthdays, and then flew to Los Angeles to begin the pre-production rehearsals for upcoming United States Leg of the tour.
United States (Randy Rhoads Leg) (December 1981–March 19, 1982)
After returning to Los Angeles on December 5, the band immediately took a break for a couple of weeks, and then began the pre-production rehearsals of the tour in the United States. It was during these rehearsal sessions where 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 in the spring of 1980 (he could not tour with Ozzy due to having already signed a contract to tour with "Rainbow" between 1980 and 1981), had officially joined the band in November 1981 after Lindsay Bridgewater was released by Ozzy and Sharon to do the Diary of a Madman Tour. In December, Entertainment Tonight taped some video footage of their rehearsals for a segment of the new show. On December 30, the band went to San Francisco for the opening night of the tour in the United States the "The Cow Palace" Arena in Daly City, California, just 1-block south of the San Francisco/Daly City, though still on the Daly City side. After the sound check rehearsals were over, Randy received the Best New Talent Award (1981) from Guitar Player magazine. The show was an overall success even if the band didn't think so with all of the technical difficulties since everyone that was there that night was blown away because Ozzy's crazy stage antics, the band's musicianship & sounds, & most of all, Randy's phenomenal guitar-playing & badass soloing & techniques, with his shredding, sweeping, etc. & that he just sounded amazing overall. After the opening night, the band headed back to Los Angeles to their last show in 1981 at the Los Angeles Memorial Sports Arena, where that would also be the second and the last time where Randy's family and friends would see him play live in concert, but that night's performance was also outstanding as well as the fact that show was sold-out made it a huge success. English hard rock/heavy metal band UFO and Starfighters would be 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 where band performed "Over the Mountain" and "Mr. Crowley." Then, on January 20, the most infamous Ozzy incident occurred that would go down as one of the most craziest events in hard rock/heavy metal history at the Des Moines Veterans Memorial Auditorium where a fan had thrown a live bat onto the stage and Ozzy, thinking it was a toy bat, bit the bat's head off and spit it out on stage after realizing it was real. He checked in at a local hospital to get rabies shots, which he would have to take for the next couple of days. On January 24 at Rosemont Horizon in Rosemont, Illinois (just outside of Chicago), during beginning of the outro solo to Mr. Crowley, Ozzy lifted Randy up by his right leg as he was shredding his ass off on the fretboard of his Polka Dot Flying V, and at that very moment, a professional photographer captured that moment on camera, & it was that very image that was used as the album cover for Tribute. On January 26, as the band played "Over the Mountain" at the UIUC 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 then 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 during that time. On February 2, before the band's performance at Pittsburgh 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 only 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 and the fact Randy did not want to play on it disappointed Ozzy. The tension between them would last throughout most of the rest of their time together on the tour. On February 16, the band performed at Beaumont Fair Park Coliseum in Texas, where the soundcheck rehearsal that took place earlier that day was captured on video. On February 19, another infamous Ozzy incident that would go down as one of the craziest events in hard rock/heavy metal history occurred when Sharon hid all of Ozzy's clothes so that he could not drink anymore, but Ozzy took put on Sharon's nightgown, got drunk, urinated on The Alamo and was arrested and taken to jail. He was released just 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 in front of a sold-out crowd. Ozzy had become "Public Enemy #1" in Texas as he received many death threats from parents, religious groups especially and political activists. On February 20, before that evening's performance at Dallas Reunion Arena, Randy agreed to play on the live album consisting of only Black Sabbath songs, one more studio album and tour with Ozzy, and then he would leave the band to go to UCLA to get master's degree for classical guitar. On March 18, the band performed in front of a sold-out crowd at Knoxville Civic Coliseum, but this would be Randy's last show ever. The band had gotten onto the tour bus, which was supposed to be heading to Orlando for the Rock Super Bowl XIV at the Tangerine Bowl on March 20, but something was wrong with the bus, so the bus headed to a bus depot called "'Flying Baron Estates'", outside of Leesburg, just outside of Orlando, 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), & his wife Wanda and the rest of the crew were all awake and on the property around 8 to 10am. On the property, there was an airstrip and a hangar full of small airplanes. Aycock, who claimed to have been an experienced pilot, took a Beechcraft Bonanza F35 plane out of the hangar and offered to take some 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 and 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 ended up hitting the bus, which woke up everybody that was sleeping inside the bus, causing everyone in the bus to scatter out of it. After hitting the bus, the plane had gone out of control as it hit a nearby pine tree and as it turned, it nose-dived into the garage of a nearby mansion on the property, immediately killing Aycock, Rachel, & Randy. As the investigation went on, the band had to spend the next two days in Leesburg mourning the loss of their friends as the all of the 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 from the tragedy while trying to look for another guitarist, even though they had all been still mourning the loss of their friends long after that.
Post-Randy Rhoads Leg (1982)
After having returned to Los Angeles on March 21, the band was in a severe state of depression, especially Ozzy, whose drug and alcohol addiction as well as his mental state had grown even worse. Originally, on the day of Randy's passing, 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 & 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 the Late Night with David Letterman one week after Randy's passing. Rudy called up his younger brother, future-Hurricane lead-guitarist, Robert Sarzo and asked him to audition and played the material exactly the same the 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, considering he was not familiar with the material as well as his style, feel and way of playing being different from Randy's, Bernie ended up getting the job instead of Robert. On March 28, the band flew to Bethlehem, Pennsylvania for 3 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 & Midwest shows as the Canadian band, "Santers", would be the opening band for the Canada shows, & "Axe" would be the opening band for the West Coast shows. On June 19, the band performed its 1st 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 later that year 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. Then from July 9 to 15, the band did several shows in Japan for the Japan leg of the tour. Later on August 6, the day before the band's show at the Rock N Roll Super Bowl (1982) at The Cotton Bowl in Dallas where they'd have Le Roux opening up as well as supporting Loverboy & Foreigner, Ozzy's depression had grown even worse than before & since he did not want to do more shows, he had shaved his head completely. Of course, this didn't stop Sharon from forcing Ozzy to get on stage to do the show as she had Ozzy put on a wig, yet when after the 1st couple of songs until right before going into "Crazy Train", Ozzy ripped the wig off his head and threw it on the audience, thus shocking everybody & making the show even more exciting. On August 8, Ozzy did the same thing as he did before as the band did its last show of the tour at Superstar Sunday (1982) at Tad Gormley Stadium in New Orleans. Overall, the despite the tragic loss of Randy Rhoads, the tour was still a major success, and even though the world would never be the same without him being here physically, he's still very much alive today through his great legacy through his great music, which still stands as the greatest music of all-time, along with who he was as an all-around great person, as an amazingly-talented musician, and the greatest & most phenomenally badass guitarist of all-time in the hearts, minds, & souls of the his family, friends, & fans who continue to uphold his legacy & keep him alive as we still play his music, & therefore, we will never forget him since legends never die. Long live, God bless, & rest in peace Randy Rhoads (1956-∞).
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
[1][2][3][4][5][6][7][8][9][10][11][12][13][14]
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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