Iron Maiden Egged at Ozzfest Finale, Publicly Jeered by Sharon Osbourne

Ah, the Osbournes. It's always something, isn't it? Always happy to bask in the gaze of the public eye. This week's Osbourne news bulletin revolves around Iron Maiden and their bizarre final performance at this year's Ozzfest tour.

As soon as the UK metal giants began their set at the Hyundai Pavilion in San Bernardino, California, on Saturday, the band was hit by a steady stream of eggs, bottle caps, and ice, which the Orange County Register newspaper reported "came from one specific area of the pit," going on to imply that the attack was initiated by Ozzfest insiders.

Further evidence that the band's set was being deliberately sabotaged included the sound system cutting out during three of their songs, a man with a jacket that read "Don't F*** With Ozzy" waving an American flag during the band's performance of "Trooper," and a voice loudly chanting "Ozzy, Ozzy" over the P.A. as Dickinson attempted to address the crowd.

Once the band had left, Sharon Osbourne took the liberty of insulting Maiden singer Bruce Dickinson from the stage, a diatribe she continued online at the official Ozzfest website.

"From day one," she wrote, "Bruce Dickinson started berating Ozzy and belittling the Ozzfest audience. Out of 200-plus bands over the last 10 years, he has been the only person who hasn't had the Ozzfest spirit. He thought he was at a battle of the bands, always making other comments about the other artists. Might I say, the rest of the band are gentlemen and have a great professional attitude. But how sad it was, after 10 years, that this little man tried to ruin it for everyone. Bruce is in fact a jealous p---k and very envious.

"It also offended me every night how he took out the English flag in America," she continued. "There are American boys going to war alongside the English boys every day. How dare he forget the American troops on their home turf. He has had no respect for the American audience he has been playing for."

Given Osbourne's accusations, Iron Maiden responded with a remarkably restrained message on their own website.

"Iron Maiden wish to thank all the 45,000 metal fans at Ozzfest in San Bernardino on Saturday night for sticking with us and giving us such a great response at the end of a difficult set," the message read. "It was obvious to all there that we had a 'series of unfortunate events' throughout! These made it difficult for us to keep our momentum, but your incredible support certainly helped us get through it. We guess it all adds up to a pretty memorable gig though!"

Iron Maiden manager Ron Smallwood was decidedly less diplomatic in his online rebuttal, writing that "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. 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."

Now, who could have been behind that egging, I wonder?