Date: Sat, 21 Apr 2001 02:30:50 -0700 From: Administrator Subject: Ozzfest Newsletter #4 Ozzfest Newsletter #4 Friday, April 20, 2001 We've got a lot to cover this week, so screw the intro. OTV: The Beginning In the tradition of the 'Beat Club' clips from 1970 I endeavored to shoot a 'Beat Club' 2001 video when the Sabs rehearsed for the ESPN Action Sports and Music Awards April 5 in L.A. With a giant video wall behind them and full access to the band my crew and I captured a little chunk of history. I had goosebumps the whole time, especially during a quiet little blues interlude Tony, Geezer, and Bill fucked around with between takes. Incredible and magical! I believe they also played a few measures of one of the new songs. By then I had a chubby, yes! :) We're in the final editing stages of the 'Beat Club 2001' video and this first episode of OTV will be posted next Wednesday, April 25 by 5pm PDT at www.ozzfest.com. '[WE'RE] GOING THROUGH CHANGES' No One and Spineshank have been added to the second stage. Zakk Wylde's Black Label Society have been moved to the main stage--call it an executive decision! ENOUGH ABOUT THE AWARDS THE BEST PART OF THE SHOW WAS THE CHICKS The ESPN Action Sports and Music Awards took place a couple Saturdays back, and I don't think I've ever seen such a convergence of 'beautiful people' gathered in one place. It was a break-neck affair of lithe figures, shana punims, and wafting fragrances. I got a couple numbers and a nagging case of whiplash out of the night. Oh yeah, and Black Sabbath was there for their third-ever television performance. To recap... NOFX accepted their award for Favorite Snowboard Musical Artist, as voted by the snowboarders themselves, with a guffaw-inducing speech whereby, among other antics, Mexican-American bassist El Hefe, affecting a pronounced Mexican accent, thanked his brothers, his other brothers, his sisters, his other sisters, his cousins, et al. Incubus rocked the house with a performance of 'Pardon Me' and Crazytown played their newbie single 'Toxic' to an enthusiastic audience. The place ignited when the extreme O.G. himself, Evel Knievel, rode on-stage to speak about the dedication to the craft athletes must have to succeed, nay survive, in the treacherous terrain of the extreme world. But the best was saved for last when Sabbath stormed the stage with a searing rendition of 'Paranoid'. (The band rehearsed 'Sabbath Bloody Sabbath' but the producers insisted on the shorter 'Paranoid'.) Stage divers invaded near the end of the song and before you could utter the words 'GO FUCKING CRAY-ZEEEE!' at least ten bodies were frolicking and breakdancing (!) on Ozzy's turf. The madmen of Sabbath loved it and told me afterward it was a great way to kick off the year. And with a new album due to start tracking before year's end and the Ozzfest 2001 tour in their path it is sure to be a year to remember. Catch the rerun this Saturday, April 21 at 10pm EDT/7pm PDT on ESPN. GLAMOROUS YOUTH: CALL THEM PURE RUBBISH At 11, inspired by seeing the Ramones live (R.I.P., Joey), Derek Dunivan had his first guitar lesson from the Dead Boys' Cheetah Chrome. By 14, he'd formed Pure Rubbish and was touring the country with Nashville Pussy (during school vacation, of course!). Then came a jaunt opening for Motorhead, causing a normally critical Lemmy to rave: 'Pure Rubbish is the best band I have seen in the last ten years!' Hailing from the hot asphalt of Houston, Texas the boys, and they are still boys, of Pure Rubbish want nothing more than a van, a gig, and a guitar. With a slot on the Ozzfest second stage this summer they shall want no longer. During a series of showcases last week in L.A. I bore witness to the rebirth of rock 'n roll. Not Heavy Metal, not 'nu metal', not speed, death, or stoner; just 'rock 'n roll', plain, simple, and incredibly addictive. Like the cartons of Reds they inhale these four teenagers wield a potent, so-good-it-should-be-illegal product: driving, sexy, seductive rock 'n roll. Not unlike many bands but completely original all the same Pure Rubbish is at once an old favorite (think 'Appetite...'-era Guns 'N Roses with streaks of Dead Boys, the Pistols, and Hanoi Rocks) and a new, lethal hot shot in the arm of an increasingly homogenous Rock scene. I took in shows at the Troubadour, Spaceland, and the Viper Room in L.A. last week and I, too, now have the monkey on my back. And I don't want to quit, I just want more. I shall have to wait not much longer. OZZMINISTRATOR GENERAL Los Angeles, Calif. The debut album from Pure Rubbish, 'Glamorous Youth' (Divine/Priority), will be out at the end of summer. Watch for the Pure Rubbish episode of Ozzfest TV next week. www.divinerecordings.com EXTENSIVE SABBATH INTERVIEW Last week journalist extraordinaire Martin Popoff popped off with Bill Ward and Geezer Butler about life as a Sab, their upcoming records, and the new material everyone's talking about. First, Bill gives us the lowdown on his forthcoming solo effort: 'I'm going to try finished it by May 3rd. I'm down to overdubs. I've got an accordion, a choir, a couple of 12 string guitars; we've got to put an orchestra on one song and a couple of vocals and pretty much that's it. I don't have a label right now. I'm not really bothered and haven't been thinking about it. I'm just trying to get the album done. With respect to the title ('Beyond Aston'), Aston is where we all grew up. There are some songs on there that are reflective of my life there, from being brought up in Aston and continuing on from there. And I wrote 'Beyond Aston' basically for Ozzy. But he hasn't heard the song yet, and I wrote it for him about ten years ago.' Regarding Bill's health, Geezer noted that there's no one 'waiting in the wings' should something happen to Ward: 'Oh for sure, there's only one Black Sabbath and that's the four of us together. [Bill]'s always had stamina; that was never a problem. I don't know where he gets it though (laughs).' What does Bill say? 'Yeah, I'm good. I totally stopped smoking cold. And I'm vegan now, although saying that on one hand, I still like to have a piece of cheese every once in awhile. And I like that Starbucks coffee too (laughs). Even though it's non-fat milk, it's not really vegan. I'm probably not exercising as much as I'm supposed to. But I do, yeah. I work out on the exercise bike and I walk. Yesterday I walked five miles.' And how are the chops these days? Have you added anything to your drum style in the last few years? 'I'm trying to (laughs). I think I have, actually. I'm trying different things. I think I've improved a little bit between my feet and my arms and my head. I'm trying to put extra little things in. By the time when we finished with the Sabbath tours and the Ozzfest tours in 1999, I felt pretty good about my drumming. I felt that it was starting to awaken. And I thought, well, you know, you're having a good time here because I was starting to put some jazz chops in between all the hard rock. So I was enjoying doing that. I don't think the audience could ever hear it, but I was having a blast doing it. It just kept everything nice. So when we start rehearsals for the coming tour of American and of England on May the 12th, I'm kind of hoping to come out of the gate pretty hard and heavy. We've been rehearsing for six weeks already so my chops aren't too bad.' And here's Geezer on the progress of his third solo album (one song title for you: 'The Ultimate Ghost'). 'I'll work more on my album when I get back from the tour. I've got about twelve songs done. It encompasses everything I've done. Right now Clark Brown has done all the vocals and I'm working with Pedro Howse again who was the guitarist on my last two albums.' Anything from your files that might make it over to the Sabbath camp? 'Yes, there's a really doomy one that Bill wants to snatch for the Black Sabbath album (laughs). As well, Tony likes one of them.' And here's Geezer with a few impressions of the Sabbath material. 'We just wanted to see what we could come up with. We came up with about six or seven songs. No song titles yet, but it's back to the roots, back to the old '70s, early '70s sound. It's nothing like the Reunion tracks. This time we did it exactly the way we did the first three albums, just sit in the studio and jam together and record everything and then listen back to it all and then take the stuff that we like and work on it. And Ozzy would come up with the vocal melodies which is never a problem. So it's very much a group effort. And I'm not the designated lyricist anymore. Ozzy might write something or Bill or Tony. We're writing the way we used to on the first three albums. We all have to like it. If only two of us like it, then we don't keep it.' Did you get these tracks anywhere near a finished state? 'Some of them, sort of. There are no real lyrics yet. That's always the last thing that we put on. But there are about three of them that we're probably ready to record. And all we need now is about twelve others as good as that and we'll be fine (laughs). There's one really strange one, sort of like a ballad, very radio-friendly, and that was the first one to be dumped (laugh), very commercial. We're not going to rush the album because if it doesn't sound right, if it's not up to scratch as an album, then we won't put it out.' And here's Bill's impression of the songs thus far. 'I think that they're pretty melodic, definitely hard rock. I think that they're a good start in a sense that they are from four guys getting together who haven't actually written anything together for a long, long, long time. I feel that the beginning shows incredible potential and promise. There are some slower songs which actually have some jazz and real melodic feels and there's a real melodic one that I was going to say is almost like 'Changes', but in a rhythm sense it's nothing like 'Changes'. It really compliments Ozzy's kind of lament voice. I don't know, there's something that is just totally awesome about his voice when he sings sad songs; it just turns out great. So we have something in that range, and then we have something that is just so tight and uptempo and total fucking metal, so the range is quite wide. We've just started to tap the mother lode. I don't know, but there's potentially enough material to go fo! r a long, long time, not just for one album. But it's very exciting. There are a lot of different ideas.' In terms of producers, Geezer offers that 'we've talked to Rick Rubin. He wants to do it. And that's all we've spoken to so far." In terms of obscurities we might hear from the band on their Ozzfest jaunt, Geezer says that "we'll likely play one of the new ones. As well, we're working on 'Hand Of Doom', 'National Acrobat' and 'Back Street Kids', but that one's not working out so well.' Work will continue on the Ozzfest album in November with Rick Rubin at the helm. THE BUTLER WAS IN! Gloomy Geezer Butler chatted with fans last Monday, April 9 and, kudos, you asked some great questions. Read some of the more fascinating questions below. from Alan Kausy, at 9:07pm ET A lot of the other great bands have done it, so when is Black Sabbath going to release a Christmas album? Geezer, you should find that funny. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Geezer Butler at 9:07pm ET When the snow starts turning black! (Laughs). In the next left time when we're in hell! -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- from larry, at 9:07pm ET Do you skateboard? -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Geezer Butler at 9:08pm ET Well, Larry, I tried it once and almost broke my back. When I was younger, when it first came out, I tried it. I'm not very good. I can water ski, though. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- from clyde, at 9:13pm ET Geezer - you are an inspiration. Who do you listen to now when you put in a CD? -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Geezer Butler at 9:15pm ET Lately, I've been listening to some jazz albums. I love the new Pat Metheny album. John Coltrane. As far as bands - Snake River Conspiracy's "Sonic Jihad" is my favorite album now. I still like good metal, though! -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- from adam_sherban toronto,canada, at 9:16pm ET Geezer, when on the road, which sports (or sports teams) do you follow? -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Geezer Butler at 9:18pm ET I LOVE soccer. That's all I ever watch. I watched it for eight hours today. I'll watch it all day if I can. I love it. But I'm too bloody old to play now. Also, I've been to a St. Louis Rams game, though. When I'm in New York, I'll see the Knicks. But nothing comes close to soccer. My team is Astonville in England. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- from brocc, at 9:21pm ET Geezer, is Ozzy the craziest person you ever met? Sabbath rules on forever! -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Geezer Butler at 9:22pm ET Without a doubt, Ozzy is the craziest person I've ever met. Son of Sam is a close second. I've seen him take a crap on some guy's car. For no reason. He's crazy. That was two days after I'd met him. And, he's not mellowed with age. He's just more subtle now ... ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Due to all the cool stuff to report this week NEXT week I'll bring you what I promised last week: an update on Ozzy's 'Black Skies' video game and a sneak peek into this year's staging designs. See ya, OZZMINISTRATOR GENERAL Los Angeles, Calif administrator@ozzy.com All words and images copyright 2001, Ozzfest.com. 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