State Champ Radio

by DJ Frosty

Current track

Title

Artist

Current show
blank

State Champ Radio Mix

8:00 pm 12:00 am

Current show
blank

State Champ Radio Mix

8:00 pm 12:00 am


metal

The extreme metal tour Chaos & Carnage has returned for its sixth year on the road with veteran death metal outfit Dying Fetus leading the 16-date tour of clubs and theaters alongside longtime British metalheads Cradle of Filth.

Explore

Explore

See latest videos, charts and news

See latest videos, charts and news

Both bands have long been staples of the black metal and grindcore scenes dating back to the early 1990s, and Chaos & Carnage is a touring project created by industry veterans Jason Malhoyt of Imperial Artist Management and agent JJ Cassiere, who launched indie booking agency 33 And West in 2018.

Dying Fetus and Cradle of Filth are joined on the 2025 Chaos & Carnage Tour by five support acts, including Italian symphonic death metal outfit Fleshgod Apocalypse, Australian progressive metal six piece Ne Obliviscaris, New York metal group Undeath along with newcomers Vomit Forth and Corpse Pile.

Trending on Billboard

Originally launched in 2018, Chaos & Carnage is slated to play its sixth tour this year as a showcase for the elite of heavy metal and black metal, with past headliners including Whitechapel, Carnifex, Suicide Silence, Cattle Decapitation, Lorna Shore, Humanity’s Last Breath and more.

Tickets go on sale Friday, Dec. 20, at 10 a.m. local time. VIP upgrades are available Monday, Jan. 6, at 10 a.m. local time, exclusively at ChaosAndCarnage.com.

Chaos & Carnage 2025 Tour Dates are below:

April 17 – Berkeley, CA @ UC TheatreApril 19 – Los Angeles, CA @ The WilternApril 20 – Phoenix, AZ @ The Van BurenApril 22 – Albuquerque, NM @ El Rey Theater 04/24 Dallas, TX @ Granada TheaterApril 26 – San Antonio, TX @ Vibes Event Center 04/27 Houston, TX @ House of BluesApril 29 – Nashville, TN @ Brooklyn BowlMay 1 – New York, NY @ Palladium Times Square 05/02 Richmond, VA @ The NationalMay 3 – Reading, PA @ ReverbMay 4 – Worcester, MA @ The PalladiumMay 6 – Montreal, QC CAN @ L’OlympiaMay 7 – Toronto, ONT CAN @ RebelMay 8 – Pontiac, MI @ The CrofootMay 9 – Chicago, IL @ RadiusMay 10 – Des Moines, IA @ Val Air BallroomMay 12 – Wichita, KS @ Temple LiveMay 14 – Denver, CO @ Fillmore Auditorium

When Slipknot first contacted Cedar Ridge Distillery, which is located 120 miles from the band’s hometown of Des Moines, Iowa, management was not interested in an alternative metal whiskey brand inspired by scary clowns. Until one of the owners forwarded the Slipknot email to employees. “Oh, my God, Slipknot — are you kidding me?” came the overwhelming response. “We have to do this.”
The result, Slipknot No. 9 Reserve Whiskey, which debuted in 2019, represents the shattering of a “glass ceiling” in the heavy metal business, according to Cory Brennan, Slipknot’s manager. Metal-branded products were once taboo; today, they’re no-brainers. “For so long, the gatekeepers were scared of anything aggressive and scared of metal and scared of their audiences. Over the past 15 years, that’s really changed,” Brennan says. “More and more people are open to the genre. They’re kids, adults. Some are grandparents at this point. And they’re loyal. They’re not going away.”

Artists from all genres rely financially on fan bases who buy product. Metal audiences tend to be loyal for years, even decades — and that loyalty translates into revenue for long-running legacy acts. Iron Maiden built a worldwide branded-apparel business out of its logo and skeletal Eddie the Head mascot.

Trending on Billboard

“Pop comes and goes. Metal stays consistent,” says Barry Drinkwater, executive chairman of Global Merchandising Services, which works with Iron Maiden, Guns N’ Roses and others.

The revenue proportions in the metal world are different from those of pop or hip-hop. Marketing and selling albums remain important for the bands’ labels. Brian Slagel, owner and chairman/CEO of Metal Blade Records, home of Mercyful Fate, Sacred Reich and many others, says the 42-year-old indie label makes 25% to 30% of its revenue from vinyl album and CD sales, and the rest from streaming, although only the genre’s biggest stars are racking up substantial royalties, such as Metallica and Black Sabbath, which have both crossed the 1 billion stream threshold.

Most metal acts, however, rely on touring and merch. “Merchandise on the road is probably the No. 1 source of our income,” says Keith Wampler, frontman for The Convalescence, a symphonic horror death metal band from Toledo, Ohio.

Drinkwater adds, “Eighty percent of it is a black T-shirt.” Metal merch sales boomed during the coronavirus pandemic, when fans stuck at home turned to online shopping. In July 2020, August Burns Red guitarist Brent Rambler found himself shipping hundreds of packages from the basement of his house to fans who were spending money on merch instead of live shows. “A lot of tape and scissors,” he recalls. The group soon hired a fulfillment company to help with the orders and built a thriving online store. “It has fully replaced the income almost of doing a full tour,” Rambler adds. “We say it’s the silver lining of the pandemic.”

The strength of merch sales has since helped bands weather the post-pandemic inflation that has hiked up the prices of buses, crew, hotels and gas and cut into the profit margins of groups with smaller fan bases.

Meanwhile, the genre’s marquee acts are thriving. Metallica sold 1.2 million tickets last year, grossing $125.8 million, according to Billboard Boxscore. And Cannibal Corpse drummer Paul Mazurkiewicz says, “We’re doing the best we’ve ever done. A lot of bands talk about the tough time touring and the costs and all that, but we don’t see any of that.”

New headliners are also emerging, says Hatebreed frontman Jamey Jasta, who bought the rights to the dormant Milwaukee Metal Festival and rebooted it in 2023. Knocked Loose, Lorna Shore and Slaughter To Prevail are among the bands that have drawn massive live crowds despite repertoires with “almost no melody,” Jasta says. “We had [all three] headlining on a Sunday. It was the biggest day and outdrew [more established bands] Lamb of God and Machine Head.”

And while metal acts have yet to master TikTok the way pop star influencers have, their fans’ social media posts often heighten their visibility and drive discovery. Slagel calls TikTok “vitally important,” and says metal bands that distance themselves from the app wind up dominating it anyway. “I went to see Cattle Decapitation and Immolation in Dallas. Both bands were telling me there were a lot of younger fans there that they haven’t really seen [before]. I said, ‘Well, it’s TikTok.’ And they said, ‘We’re not on TikTok!’ ” he recalls. “But your fans are on there,” he told them, “and they’re hashtagging Cattle Decapitation and posting videos.”

The key to long-term success, say veteran metal stars, is to keep touring and recording, as well as taking control of their masters. Testament, founded in 1983, made a deal with indie Megaforce Records in the mid-’90s to license its recordings rather than sign over the rights, and is awaiting the reversion of its earlier Atlantic Records masters after 35 years, according to U.S. copyright law. “The label’s like, ‘Have you ever looked at your numbers?’ We have close to 3 million listeners a month on Spotify,” frontman Chuck Billy says. “I was like, ‘Holy smokes!’ All the publishing rights, everything goes to us. We rode the storm out and stayed together. We’re still out there touring pushing the music — now we own it.”

The multigenerational consumer demand for metal and the avid loyalty of its fans may lead to multi-million-dollar catalog sales. Now that Mötley Crüe and KISS have sold their publishing catalogs for hundreds of millions of dollars, heavier bands are optimistic. Publishing companies have been “knocking on our door,” Billy says.

“I hear Judas Priest and Van Halen on car commercials, I hear bands that we grew up with on commercials,” he adds. “Ten or 15 years from now, it might be Testament.”

Knocked Loose frontman Bryan Garris is an ordinary-looking dude who screams all his lyrics. “I just can’t sing,” Garris tells me matter-of-factly. “I wish all the time that I could, but I probably wouldn’t utilize it for Knocked Loose. We just want to be an intense band. There’s never, ever been a conversation of softening.”

Explore

Explore

See latest videos, charts and news

See latest videos, charts and news

Even without toning down the mayhem, Garris and co. have scored one of 2024’s most commercially successful new rock albums from one of the genre’s most traditionally un-commercial corners. Knocked Loose play pummeling, metallic hardcore—the kind of stuff that’s forged in basements and DIY venues, fine-tuned for moshing and fan connection. 

You Won’t Go Before You’re Supposed To is 28 minutes of pure carnage, free from any commercial concessions. After dropping on May 10 through Pure Noise Records, the band’s third studio album debuted at No. 1 on three Billboard charts: Independent Albums, Hard Rock Albums and Indie Store Album Sales. The album earned nearly 24,000 units (including an impressive 18,000 in pure sales) in its first week, good for a No. 23 debut on the Billboard 200 dated May 25. Some context: it debuted ahead of a new studio album from Kings of Leon, a major label band with significantly more industry clout. (And among fast-rising newcomers, Knocked Loose came in five spots above Chappell Roan’s The Rise and Fall of a Midwest Princess during that particular chart week.) 

Trending on Billboard

“People were excited to buy this record,” says James Vitalo, Knocked Loose’s manager for Gold Theory Artists. “They carry themselves so well and are so intentional with everything they do. People want to see them win.” 

Historically, heavy rock bands tend to forge commercial inroads by making their sound more palatable: think Metallica serving ballads on The Black Album, or Bring Me the Horizon ditching their MySpace deathcore roots and singing big, shiny choruses on 2013’s Sempiternal. Instead, Knocked Loose dug their heels into the sound that made them.

The five-piece (which also includes guitarists Isaac Hale and Nicko Calderon, bassist Kevin Otten, and drummer Kevin “Pacsun” Kaine) formed in 2013 in Louisville, Kentucky. “We were thrown into the deep end of DIY touring,” Garris recalls of the early days. “You’re trapped in a basement, either fighting or getting beat up. Louisville was never very violent. Then [we were] going to bigger cities, seeing how hard people mosh.” 

Knocked Loose became one of the hottest names in hardcore thanks to their 2014 EP, Pop Culture. They signed to Pure Noise Records, a young indie label best known for breaking pop-punk bands like State Champs and The Story So Far. The pairing was an immediate win for both sides: Pure Noise boosted its cred with a buzzy band outside its typical purview, and Knocked Loose got a label with strong independent distribution (the Orchard distributed You Won’t Go).

Their 2016 debut album Laugh Tracks solidified their national following, particularly with the minute-long tune “Counting Worms.” Its earthquaking breakdown — punctuated by Garris barking, “ARF ARF” — was memed across the alt-kid internet, and gave Knocked Loose an early signature song. Three years later, they’d built such a strong following that 2019 sophomore album A Different Shade of Blue debuted at No. 26 on the Billboard 200, more than 100 spots higher than Laugh Tracks, which started at No. 163 in 2016. 

[embedded content]

As Knocked Loose planned its third LP, 2023 brought them an unexpected invite: Coachella. “We immediately said yes,” says Garris. Then the anxious waiting set in: “What’s this going to be? It could be bad, and that would be fine. It’s Coachella. It’s not our normal stage.” 

April 16, as their 8:10 p.m. set time approached, the setting looked surprisingly… familiar. “We pull up, go to our stage, and there’s no barricade. This has to be a mistake, they’re probably still setting up. Then our stage manager comes over, he’s wearing a punk shirt, and immediately introduces himself: ‘We’re really excited to have you guys, we know what you’re about, blah, blah, blah.’ I was like, ‘Are you keeping the barricade down?’ He says yeah. I’m thinking, This is insane.”

It was. Seriously, watch this. This was at Coachella: 

New eyeballs were on Garris. “Someone said Tom DeLonge [was sidestage], someone said Ethel Cain, which was a big one for me, personally. Then the video came out of Billie Eilish watching us play. I was just like, This doesn’t feel real.”

As Knocked Loose garnered new fans (including some famous ones), Vitalo sensed new interest in Knocked Loose’s scene from various factions of the music industry. “I’ve been working with metal and hardcore bands for 10 years, and over the last two, there’s been a lot of people coming into a space that’s been neglected,” he says. “A lot of record labels, booking agents, and managers are paying attention to something they haven’t paid attention to before. I’m not saying it’s a good or a bad thing, but it’s noticeable. Not letting that go to their heads proves Knocked Loose’s character.” 

Knocked Loose capitalized on the Coachella momentum. Three weeks later, they unleashed Upon Loss Singles, a two-song collection featuring their first work with Grammy-nominated producer Drew Fulk (Lil Peep, A Day to Remember). This new strain of Knocked Loose — widescreen and hi-fi, while somehow even more brutal—would become fully realized on You Won’t Go Before You’re Supposed To. Take the ominous little coda of “Moss Covers All” that segues seamlessly into the beatdown opening of “Take Me Home,” or the guest appearance from goth-pop artist Poppy, who screams with Garris while Kaine drums a reggaeton rhythm on “Suffocate.” The lattermost track hit the top 10 on Spotify’s Viral 50 chart in May alongside the album drop, and became Knocked Loose’s first entry on the Hot Rock & Alternative Songs chart, reaching No. 46 in May.

[embedded content]

Knocked Loose christened the new album at L.A.’s Shrine Auditorium in May with over 6,000 fans, their largest headlining show yet. Bands that get bigger by getting heavier are rare – but starting in August, Knocked Loose began touring with one of them. 

“Knocked Loose slams so hard, they’re gonna have bone problems later in life,” says Slipknot percussionist Shawn “Clown” Crahan, recounting a conversation from the previous night’s gig. “When people say these things out loud, you know they’re doing it.”

Strong words, coming from the guy who’s been slamming kegs and custom drum kits with metal bats in a clown mask for the past three decades. Slipknot is touring behind the 25th anniversary of its self-titled 1999 debut, and Knocked Loose was hand-picked to open the entire trek. “A tour of this scale comes with its own new set of benefits for a band like us,” Garris says. “This is all uncharted territory.”

On Aug. 12, the tour came to New York’s Madison Square Garden. The place was sold out, and this was clearly the headliner’s crowd: parents rocking decades-old Slipknot gear, kids in youth-size tees and replica coveralls. Still, the seats were nearly full in time for Knocked Loose’s opening set, and as Knocked Loose raged, the crowd responded. Fans in the nosebleeds looked up from their nachos. The mosh pit didn’t get as big as it would for Slipknot, but it was livelier. 

“You see people who get there early and go straight to the barricade, saving their spot for Slipknot,” Garris tells me. “At the start of our set, they couldn’t care less. Slowly but surely, they start to bob their head, put their hands up. Watching that firsthand is super rewarding.” 

[embedded content]

Knocked Loose has a way of winning over the unconverted. Maybe it’s in Garris’ voice. The stereotypical hardcore frontman is some big dude with a deep, guttural scream who sounds like he’s looking for an excuse to beat you up. When Garris screams, he’s high-pitched and a bit unhinged. He sounds like he’s been through some real s–t, not simply here to play the punisher. 

“I just got done telling Bryan and those guys about understanding that you’re in the zone,” Clown says. “You need a good team. A family around you, checking for isolation, substance abuse, depression, ego. You can’t just go rock out. Sharon Osborne checked in on me. I had Deftones bass player Chi [Cheng], who’s passed. He would check on me, because we were both family men. I’m checking in on [Knocked Loose] because I understand the realities.” 

Music this physical is not easy to play night after night. The rigors of the road affect any popular artist, but Knocked Loose are regularly at risk of hockey-style injuries– and the kind of maladies you can’t see. “I’m definitely not a teenager anymore,” says Garris, who will turn 31 on Sept. 6. “I’m listening to myself and taking care of myself. I can’t do this if I’m not mentally healthy.” 

There’s a lot more ahead. After the Slipknot tour wraps Sept. 21, Knocked Loose will embark on a 22-date U.S. headlining tour Oct. 4. It’s a mix of large theaters, amphitheaters, and even arenas. There will be several chances to break that attendance record they set four months ago.

Knocked Loose’s success feels intensely singular, nearly impossible to duplicate. They’ve been fighting the good fight for over a decade, a top-tier band in a genre known for loyal, highly-engaged fans. Many probably see a bit of themselves in Garris. The band’s support team is well-connected. Can Knocked Loose get even bigger? 

If another legendary metal band takes them on tour, that wouldn’t hurt. The Grammys have nominated fresh blood like Turnstile, Code Orange, and Deafheaven in the best metal performance category in recent years, if that’s an item Knocked Loose is looking to cross off their list. But really, the core to all this is pushing the envelope with each release, then going out and slaying shows. It’s not that complicated. 

“Every time we headline,” muses Garris, “it’s like, Where can we take it now? What’s the next step?”

By the mid 1990s, touring festivals were big business in the U.S. Encouraged by the success of the pioneering Lollapalooza, new names like Blues Traveler’s jam-oriented H.O.R.D.E. Festival and Kevin Lyman’s punk-focused Warped Tour became major players in the summer live music landscape.

Explore

See latest videos, charts and news

See latest videos, charts and news

But no festival served to both bolster and encapsulate a scene as wholly and perfectly as Ozzfest, the heavy metal juggernaut that slashed its way across America – and, in time, much of the world – from 1996 to 2018. Conceived by Sharon Osbourne, manager and wife of Ozzy Osbourne, as something of a middle finger to Lollapalooza, Ozzfest quickly defined itself as much more than mere payback. Rather, it was a roving nerve center for the multi-generational metal faithful, as well as a breeding ground and sometimes kingmaker for a wave of new (or, as some would label them, “nu”) metal superstars. “Anybody who was anybody played,” says Slipknot percussionist Shawn “Clown” Crahan. “Socially, culturally, it was the place to be.”

The cred was built in from day one: Sharon and Ozzy were metal royalty, and for the two inaugural Ozzfest dates in 1996, and most tours thereafter, Ozzy served as main stage (and, occasionally, second stage) headliner. The following year, Sharon engineered a Black Sabbath reunion – at that time, a Halley’s Comet-like event – as the main attraction. For metal fans, Ozzfest was a can’t-miss affair; for bands, especially newer ones, a slot on the bill was akin to being anointed. “The value that Sharon brought to the entire industry with Ozzfest can’t be amplified enough,” says Judas Priest singer Rob Halford.

Trending on Billboard

Ozzfest staged its final show, a one-off, in 2018, and its days as a touring concern ended years earlier. But its impact is still apparent today, whether in the success of gold- and platinum-selling, arena-dwelling metal bands – Slipknot, Disturbed, System of a Down and Lamb of God among them – that cut their teeth on the tour, or in the many metal-focused festivals and cruises, from Slipknot’s Knotfest to Lamb of God’s Headbangers Boat to 2023’s Power Trip extravaganza at the Coachella site, that emerged in its wake. Whether the tour will one day be resurrected, as is occasionally rumored, remains to be seen. Until then, here is the story of Ozzfest, as told by Ozzy, Sharon and many of the principals and players who were there.

In 1996, Ozzfest is born.

Rob Halford (singer, Judas Priest): Sharon was the first person to put together a touring festival of this magnitude for heavy metal. And what she created was opportunity – not only for new metal bands, but for all types of metal bands. All dimensions of metal were being displayed, from classic metal like Priest and Sabbath to nu metal, death metal, black metal… every kind of metal experience was shown from those stages.

Dale “Opie” Skjerseth (production manager, Ozzfest): There was Lollapalooza at the time, and there were a few other festivals. But this was a fully heavy metal fest. I’d never seen anything like that.

Sharon Osbourne (manager; cofounder, Ozzfest): So what happened was, in 1996 I said to my agents for Ozzy, “Ozzy should be on Lollapalooza.” They went and asked, and the response was, “Ozzy’s not relevant.”

Ozzy Osbourne (artist; cofounder, Ozzfest): They said, “Ozzy is a dinosaur.” Sharon got pissed off about that.

Sharon Osbourne: I said, basically, “F–k you – I’ll show you how relevant he is!” I was so furious at the way they disrespected him as an artist.

Ozzy Osbourne: “You know what I’m gonna do? I’m gonna do the Ozzfest.” I thought she’d f–king gone nuts.

Jane Holman (promotor liaison, Ozzfest): The prototype for the touring Ozzfest was in 1996, and it was just two shows – Arizona [at the Blockbuster Desert Sky Pavilion in Phoenix] and Southern California [at the Blockbuster Pavilion in San Bernardino, Calif.]. I had just moved to Los Angeles from Houston to work with John Meglen on creating PACE Touring, and we all went to the Ozzfest in San Bernardino and said, “Ooh, this is cool.”

The seven-band main stage bill that year was headlined by Ozzy Osbourne, with direct support from metal heavyweights Slayer and Danzig. A smaller second stage featured newcomers and cult acts like hardcore unit Earth Crisis, industrial-metal combo Fear Factory and L.A. “spookycore” troupe Coal Chamber.

Dez Fafara (singer, Coal Chamber, DevilDriver): In San Bernardino, Coal Chamber played the second stage – basically a makeshift thing in the center of a field, maybe 11:00 in the morning. But I looked to the left of me, and there was Sharon Osbourne. When I got offstage, she said, “Hey, when you cool off I wanna have a conversation with you.” Which of course made me a little nervous. But we talked and she said, “I’d love to manage you, and I’d love to put you on the rest of these Ozzfests. We’re gonna be moving this thing around the country next year.” I was a street kid from L.A., living with my whole band in a tiny studio. It changed my life.

Holman: I talked with Sharon after that show and she expressed an interest in making Ozzfest a touring property. So we launched in 1997 and just cruised for the next five, six years, 10 years.

Sharon Osbourne: I was like, “I believe in it, let’s go for it.”

Holman: We were pretty sold that it was going to work. And we liked the idea of staying true to metal. At that time Lollapalooza was kind of all over the board as far as genres go. But we said, “We are metal.” We stuck to that theme and the lifestyle around it.

Sharon Osbourne: In the U.K. and Europe all the festivals were very mix-and-match. I mean, Black Sabbath played with Rod Stewart. We loved that, but we wanted one genre. We wanted to do a heavy metal/hard rock tour.

Halford: The enthusiasm was just ginormous in ’96. And you’ve got to remember, this is in the advent of the internet days, so people are still looking at Metal Maniacs and all these magazines for information and listening to the ever-important radio for news about this thing called Ozzfest. Ozzy and Sharon have put it together, and there’s all these bands and… Ozzy’s going to play, too! And the kids were going, “We want this.” Because it was an experience. And it was not happening anywhere else.

Shawn “Clown” Crahan (percussionist, background vocalist, Slipknot): Slipknot was just starting out, and after practices we would watch that little VHS video tape they put out of the first year [The Ozzfest: Live] that had Earth Crisis, Coal Chamber, Neurosis, Slayer, a bunch of the bands. We’re practicing, practicing, practicing, we’re watching the tape over and over and over, just dreaming: “Wouldn’t it be cool if one day we could be accepted, and people liked us? We could be on this festival, we could play, and then, you know, go watch Earth Crisis!”

Fafara: I remember sitting on the bus that night after the San Bernardino show and having a conversation with my guitar player, Miguel, saying, “If this festival happens next year, it’s gonna be massive. And it’s gonna move heaven and earth for a lot of heavy metal bands that get the chance to be on it.”

Ozzfest kicked off in earnest in 1997 and did it in grand fashion. The tour’s first year as a moving festival boasted a co-headlining package of monumental proportions: Ozzy performing a solo set, followed by the long-awaited reunion of the original Black Sabbath (albeit with Faith No More and Osbourne solo band drummer Mike Bordin in place of Sabbath’s Bill Ward, who was not invited to participate). The remainder of the main stage lineup was star-packed, highlighted by Marilyn Manson, then in full Antichrist Superstar mode (at the time, Manson and his band were labeled “the sickest group ever promoted by a mainstream record company” by then Connecticut senator Joe Lieberman, and were routinely picketed by Christian groups at venues), Pantera and Type O Negative.

Holman: We launched with Black Sabbath in 1997, and that gave it a little bit more of a push.

Sharon Osbourne: There were still a lot of personal feelings between everybody in the band. It gets to that silly level where you start nitpicking at each other, but I was ready for that. The guys met a few times, sorted it out, and it was great.

Randy Blythe (singer, Lamb of God): It made sense to have them there because they’re the very first heavy metal band. And I’ll fight anybody that wants to argue with me about it.

Skjerseth: It was a huge deal having Sabbath there. It was important to everybody. And it was the beginning of them reuniting for a few Ozzfests over the years, eventually with Bill Ward again. Every single one of those bands had such respect for those guys.

Blythe: We’re all just like a bunch of younger moons orbiting around the planet of Black Sabbath.

On the day of the June 17 show at the Polaris Amphitheater in Columbus, Ohio, Osbourne lost his voice. Following Marilyn Manson’s set, an announcement was made that neither Black Sabbath nor Ozzy would be performing that evening, resulting in a riot at the venue.

Ozzy Osbourne: When you go on the road and you’ve gotta do two sets, it’s too much. It’s all right for a couple of shows, but that was too much for me. I took on more than I could deal with.

Holman: We knew early in the afternoon that Ozzy wasn’t feeling well, and that he wasn’t going to be able to make it to the show. But we got through Manson, and then we had to make the announcement: “We’re sorry. Ozzy’s not well. He’s not going to appear.” Pantera came out with guys from a couple of the other bands and they did some Ozzy songs, which was great. But these were people that had been out there all day, jazzed up to see Black Sabbath. The sh-t hit the fan.

Sharon Osbourne: There was chaos at the venue. We were stuck on a plane on the runway, trying to get a doctor for Ozzy, and I was getting all this information on the phone. It was like, “Oh my god, what do we do?” It was not good.

Skjerseth: The crowd went bananas. Tore the grass up and threw it at us, giant mud fights and bonfires out in the field…

Holman: The box office manager was hiding in the safe, as I recall. Because it was a lot of destruction. And that stuff builds on itself. There was a bomb scare. They ripped the air conditioner unit off the box office building. Destroyed a display car on the plaza. It was scary.

Skjerseth: Well, I worked for Guns N’ Roses before that, so honestly not much scared me anymore.

Over the next few years Ozzfest continued to stack the festival’s main stage with metal’s biggest names: Tool, Megadeth, Judas Priest, Iron Maiden, and return trips for Ozzy, Sabbath, Pantera, Slayer and others. But for many fans, the main attraction was the up-and-comers raising hell on the much smaller, often much wilder, second stage.

Ozzy Osbourne: I know what it’s like to start a band off. When Sabbath started, we couldn’t get a gig in f–king hell. So Sharon says, “We’re gonna have two stages, and we’re gonna have big bands, and also new bands.” Which is a great idea.

Sharon Osbourne: In a way that second stage was more important to us, because to give new bands the opportunity of playing in front of a large audience is an amazing thing to do. You want to pass the torch from one to another.

Fafara: Instead of spending four years in the trenches, traveling from town to town in a van and opening up shows in clubs, you could get out and play in front of so many more people and elevate your career with a quickness.

Shawn Crahan of Slipknot performing at Ozzfest in 2001.

J. Shearer/WireImage)

Ozzy Osbourne: I remember when Slipknot broke through. It was f–king great.

Mick Thomson (guitarist, Slipknot): Ozzfest in ’99 was our first-ever tour. Our first record didn’t even come out until halfway through it. If I was the one running things, I would’ve been like, “Hey, your record’s not out yet? Get f–ked!” Thankfully I wasn’t in charge of band selection that day.

Crahan: Slipknot, we owe the Osbournes a lot. They launched us. Because we were nothing. So we had to go out there and prove it. But the thing with us is when we’re together and we’re onstage, it’s us against everybody. Six songs, 25 minutes, we went hard that summer.

Fafara: I mean, it’s nine guys in masks. Like, what are you gonna do? I’m a huge KISS fan – I grew up in the KISS Army. And that generation’s KISS is f–king Slipknot, you know?

David Draiman (singer, Disturbed): We opened the side stage on the very first day of Ozzfest 2000. Way the hell early. There was, literally, 20, 30 people in front of us when we first got up there. By the time the set was done, there were about four or 5,000. It was a very surreal moment. Like, “This is the stage you wanted to be on. Now you’ve gotta show them why you belong up here.”

Skjerseth: We’d be ready for a band to start playing on the second stage at eight o’clock in the morning. And changeovers between bands were one to two minutes. The last three bands would be the headliners, and then the other second stage acts would rotate. So somebody different would get that sh-t slot at eight, 8:20 a.m. or whatever.

Holman: I think that most often those rotating bands were paid. But they weren’t paid a heck of a lot. It was exposure. Some were supported by their record company, because you could still actually get record company money back then.

Sharon Osbourne: When you’re doing a festival, there’s press from all over the world at every gig. So if the record company wanted to pay, it was like, “We’ll take it.” But we would only book a band if we liked them. I wouldn’t put on a sh-t band just to take the money.

Ozzy Osbourne: Everybody thought we were making millions of dollars off it, which we weren’t.

Blythe: For us it was just huge crowds at the second stage. We had our fans that came, but then we were also getting a lot of exposure to old-school Black Sabbath fans. Judas Priest fans. Slayer fans. Because all those bands were on the bill, too. It was a real expansion of our base. I can’t even count how many times over the years I’ve heard, “I saw Lamb of God for the first time on Ozzfest ‘04 and instantly became a fan.”

Skjerseth: There was structure on the second stage, but we had to go out there and police it a few times because it got kind of… it became the Wild West.

Draiman: A pavilion has seats, and that has sort of an anesthetizing effect on a crowd. A side stage is not the same environment. You have to move the mass of bodies that are all up against one another. It’s a different type of energy that’s required.

Blythe: We just caused massive, massive amounts of chaos on that ’04 tour when we played. It was a take-no-prisoners, f–k everyone sort of vibe. But in a friendly sense, of course.

Crahan: Slipknot were playing Spokane, Washington, the Gorge [Amphitheatre], and I cut my head open onstage. I cut it on a mic stand – it’s a long story. I was totally unconscious, and they pulled me down the ramp and tried to take me away in an ambulance. I was like, “Hold on, I wanna watch the rest of ‘Wait and Bleed.’ ” And I just kept telling the ambulance people, “Look at that band!” I’m watching my band play, and they’re f–king out of control. They didn’t even know I was gone!

Sharon Osbourne: The adrenaline with that band, on that stage… they would bash into each other, it was wild. I’m going, “Oh god, one of these guys is going to get really badly hurt.”

Crahan: I went to the hospital and got stitches in my eyes. And when I got back I was told I had to go talk to Sharon. I was so scared. I got there and she just reprimanded me… the way that I needed to be reprimanded, honestly. I needed someone to remind me of my responsibilities. It was something to the effect of, “I’m not your mother, and I’m not gonna be your mother. You need chill the f–k out.”

Blythe: I developed a bit of a relationship with Sharon because I would get called to the office for whatever misbehaving I had done. Like, we weren’t supposed to stage dive because of insurance and all that, so that didn’t go over well. So I would get scolded. But it was always a little bit of a “You’re a naughty boy” kind of vibe. Like, “You shouldn’t be doing this, but it’s pretty funny.”

Sharon Osbourne: It was like going to the head mistress.

Skjerseth: We had people hijacking golf carts and driving them through the audience, all that kind of stuff.

Blythe: I don’t know if anybody knows how easy it is to steal a golf cart. You ruin the ignition jamming a screwdriver in there, but we were always stealing golf carts and rolling them and destroying them. Me and [late Slipknot bassist] Paul Gray, rest in peace, stole quite a few golf carts together and went on adventures. I remember one time at Isleta Amphitheater [formerly Journal Pavilion] in New Mexico, we rolled one of those things down a hill with, like, 10 or 12 people hanging off the side. I’m surprised nobody broke their neck, man.

Draiman: We’d have races, we’d go down hills with them. We’d do things that we really were not supposed to do with them by any sense of safety or decorum or anything else. It was nuts. But we were young and it was celebratory and we were all in our time.

Blythe: The second stage, we were all just a bunch of savage animals basically. It was a separate world. But there was a real feeling of community. I made lifelong friends.

Fafara: That was the first place I ever met Randy. He was hilarious. He used to walk around with a bottle of whiskey and a whip in his hand, whipping everything in the air. People would go in the porta potties he’d be whipping the porta potties. And I just remember going, “What the f–k has this guy got this whip for?”

Ozzy Osbourne: The spirit of the Ozzfest backstage was like a f–king campout.

Fafara: What was going on backstage and the that was going on in tour buses, you couldn’t do that now. People would go to court, to jail. It was insane both in its excess and its debauchery.

As much as the stacked Ozzfest lineups excited fans, the bills were similarly thrilling for the acts playing the shows. Bands could watch one another perform, and sometimes even play together, and younger musicians often got to meet their heroes for the first time.

Draiman: The Pantera guys were a huge part of teaching us the ropes on Ozzfest. [Drummer] Vinnie [Paul] and Dime [guitarist “Dimebag” Darrell], may they both rest in peace, were huge fans. When we were on the main stage [in 2003] they came out and played with us. We used to make that a tradition. They were a huge part of what made us fall in love with Ozzfest, you know, other than Ozzy himself, of course.

Maynard James Keenan (singer, Tool): Ozzy, I mean, that’s why I was there.

Draiman: I would always go watch Ozzy. I would always go watch Pantera. That first year I would watch Kittie. There were so many great bands, and I have no problem being the spectator. I love being the spectator. It inspires me. Watching other bands throw down, it made you want to play harder.

Crahan: I got to watch Bill Ward play, bro! And then everybody under Sabbath – Slayer, Rob Zombie, Deftones supporting White Pony, just one act after another.

Fafara: I remember catering was the most fun thing in the world on those tours. Because everybody was in catering. And I was wide-eyed. That’s the first time I met [Pantera singer] Phil Anselmo. I’d be having a conversation with Rob Halford. Or Ozzy’s sitting there – “Dez, come sit down!” It’s like, “Holy f–k – I’m eating with Ozzy!”

Crahan: All your peers were there. I would go watch everybody, and just sit and learn.

Draiman: You get up there and you’ve got, you know, members of Slipknot or Manson or whoever watching from both sides of the stage… and over in Stage Left monitor world, there’s Ozzy himself! We all felt like the spotlight was on us and we did our best to rise to the occasion.

Crahan: Ozzy would come out once in a while when we were playing and lean over the monitor board and kind of wave at us.

Ozzy Osbourne: I would occasionally try and go watch the bands. Sometimes I was doing other things. But Slipknot, that was f–king so entertaining. Korn were f–king great as well. So were Tool. Rob Zombie. Judas Priest, great. Motörhead, of course. I miss Lemmy [Kilmister] every f–king day.

Keenan: We got the Melvins on the second stage [with Motörhead, in 1998]. I was excited to watch them really annoy the f–k out of people. They have so many amazing songs, but they were like, “You know what? We’re just gonna play that one-note song for 25 minutes today…”

Blythe: I remember sitting side stage once in California for Black Sabbath, and James Hetfield was there. I didn’t really know him then, but all I could think was, I’m right behind James Hetfield, looking at him looking at Bill Ward playing drums with Black Sabbath. This is incredible!

Mark Morton and Randy Blythe of Lamb of God at OZZFEST in 2004.

Mick Hutson/Redferns

In its first few summers, Ozzfest emerged as an immediate triumph. Its debut traveling outing in 1997 was that year’s second-highest grossing touring festival, behind the similarly new Lilith Fair. Taking stock of its run between 1996 and 2003, Billboard Boxscore reported that Ozzfest grossed $147.4 million and sold 3.8 million tickets over 237 dates. In time, Ozzfest shows were staged everywhere from the U.K. and mainland Europe to Israel and Japan.

Halford: The start of the 2000s, Ozzfest was just larger than life. It was the event that everybody looked forward to. Everybody was eager to find out, you know, “On this date, Sharon and Ozzy are going to let us know who’s gonna appear on the fest this year.” There was a tremendous, tremendous amounts of energy around it.

Holman: As I recall, 2000, 2001, that period, were the bonus years. I think we were either the highest or the second highest-grossing festival for a couple of those years.

Skjerseth: It was running very well. And in that time, what was the other one? Warped Tour was out there. And then there were a few others that were moving along. But Ozzfest was one of the biggest, because of what it was achieving and what we were making happen.

Fafara: Sharon knew it was a smart idea to put a on a heavy metal, that’s-all-that-we’re-playing-today festival. And that if she made sure that that genre had its comeuppance, and had its day in court, everybody would come. And surely everybody did.

As much as Ozzfest functioned as a showcase for burgeoning acts on the second stage, it was the festival’s ability to line up colossal metal legends next to one another on the main stage – sometimes for the first time ever – that made it an experience unlike any other for fans of the genre. One such bill came in 2004, when Ozzfest was headlined by a fully reunited Black Sabbath, with metal icons and fellow Birmingham, England, natives Judas Priest – also in the midst of an historic reunion moment, with the return of singer Rob Halford after an eleven-year absence – in direct support. (The main stage was rounded out by Slayer, Dimmu Borgir, Superjoint Ritual and Black Label Society.)

Halford: To get Priest and Sabbath, the originators of heavy metal, side by side? That was a really big deal.

Holman: I thought a highlight of the whole thing, maybe other people disagreed, was the show [on Aug. 26, in Camden, New Jersey] when Rob Halford came out and did all the Black Sabbath songs. Which was freaking awesome.

Halford: That was an extraordinary day. I got a call from Sharon at my hotel, saying, “Ozzy’s not feeling too well. I don’t think he’s going to be able to perform. Would you help out?” I said, “Yeah, any time. When do you want me to do it?” She goes, “Tonight.” This is, like, about five hours before showtime.

Sharon Osbourne: I knew that Rob wouldn’t let us down. First of all, the friendship goes back so many years.

Ozzy Osbourne: Priest, my mates.

Halford: Sharon said, “You can do it. You can do it.” So I asked her, “Can you quickly send me the show?” They couriered a VHS tape to the hotel, and on the way from the hotel to the venue I put the VHS on in the bus and just sang along with the Sabbath performance. When I got there, I did the pre-show, had a shower, and then went out and did the Sabbath gig 20 minutes later.

Holman: I mean, this is a once-in-a-lifetime event. I thought people should pay double for it.

Sharon Osbourne: It was fantastic for everybody involved, for the audience, for everyone there. Rob saved our ass, because we didn’t want to let the fans down.

Halford: I’ve made it known throughout my years as a metal singer that the two biggest bands in my life are Priest and Sabbath. There’s just an affinity between us. So it felt like not only the right thing for me to do, but the natural thing for me to do. And it was an absolute thrill.

The following summer, Ozzfest lined up another must-see British metal twosome: Black Sabbath headlining again, this time preceded by Iron Maiden. Unlike with Judas Priest, the pairing was not copacetic. Throughout the summer, reports surfaced of Maiden vocalist Bruce Dickinson taking public shots at Ozzy, including mocking him for appearing in a reality television show [the then-popular The Osbournes], and criticizing aspects of the tour itself.

Holman: Having Iron Maiden on Ozzfest, although it was good for ticket sales, probably wasn’t a very good idea. There had always been bad blood between Sabbath and Iron Maiden. And I’d rather not go into specifics on that. But I don’t think Sharon was crazy about having them there.

Sharon Osbourne: It was just the singer. The other guys in the band are great, great people. No problem at all. But when you’ve got a singer that is so eaten up with jealousy for the headliner, it never goes well.

Ozzy Osbourne: He would go on the stage and turn to the audience and say bad things. Be disrespectful. “I didn’t condone the f–king lights,” and all this. If you don’t want the gig, just say, “I don’t want the gig.” But it’s pretty f–king stupid if you accept the gig and all you do is complain about it.

Sharon Osbourne: I just kept saying, “Let him do it. Let him do it. He’ll get it.” And on the last day, he did.

Holman: It did not end well, on any level.

On Aug. 20 in San Bernardino, Iron Maiden’s final show of the tour, Sharon took revenge. During Maiden’s set, audience members began hurling eggs and other debris at the stage. Mid-set, frontman Dickinson responded: “You may have noticed a few wise asses that decided they would go down to the supermarket and buy a few f–king eggs and start throwing them at us down in the front. I guess they thought it would be funny. Well, this is an English f–king flag and these colors do not f–king run from you a–wipes!” Eventually the band’s power was cut.

Sharon Osbourne: I had been having cancer treatments, and all the nurses that I had met over my year in chemo came to the show and they said, “Can we do anything for you?” And I’m like, “Yes, you can.” I loaded them up with cans of bean soup, vegetables, eggs, and I said, “Pelt the singer.” And that’s what they did.

Crahan: Slipknot played that show. And I was very close to the front of the stage and saw it all start to happen. I saw people come out and I could feel something was going on. And I also felt, “There’s a lot of English stuff happening here.” It just felt very personal and very serious. I thought, I probably shouldn’t be here… So I got out of there.

Sharon Osbourne: It was like, “You wanna talk? You think you’re clever? Well, watch this – you’re gonna get covered in tomato soup in L.A.”

Blythe: Sharon is a no-nonsense lady.

Holman: I love Sharon to death. She’s absolutely great. But if I did anything that she didn’t like, I have no doubt that she would murder me.

Sharon Osbourne: I just thought, “You’re taking the money to be on this tour, and you’re disrespecting the namesake of the tour. You’re disrespecting him by knocking him every night to the fans.” I don’t like that. It’s not in the spirit of what we do.

Ozzy Osbourne: If you feel that bad about the tour, f–king leave!

In 2007, Ozzfest organizers took a radical approach to ticketing in an effort to keep excitement around the festival at a peak. That year, Ozzfest announced a first-of-its-kind “free” tour, dubbed “Freefest,” with tickets given away to fans.

Holman: Everything has a shelf life. Look at Lollapalooza, before it came back in the 2000s. Scenes change. Generations change. By 2007, we wanted to try something new. That’s when we thought, “Well, why don’t we make it a free show?”

Per a Live Nation press release from June 14, 2007: “More than 428,000 tickets in all were given away through LiveNation.com, marking the largest number of free tickets distributed in the United States in the history of the concert business. The tickets were completely free without surcharges of any kind.”

Sharon Osbourne: It had never been done. And you explain to me, it was free… and it didn’t sell out! Can you believe that? Because everybody was going, “Well, what’s the twist here?”

Fafara: I just said to myself, “How the hell are you gonna pay anybody?”

Blythe: We got paid.

Skjerseth: We were on a tight budget. But we adapted. You just had to work a little harder to make things right.

Holman: It was, “Let’s go out and get the most sponsors that we can,” things like that. But financially it was just one of those things. Because a lot of the tickets ended up going to scalpers, which… don’t get me started on scalpers.

Skjerseth: I didn’t feel that year was successful in the sense of, when you give something away for free, that’s all it is to people – free. You give something away, people are like, “Oh, it’s raining out, I’m not going.”

Fafara: It definitely worked. I mean, it was insane. [DevilDriver]’s merch numbers were crazy. Our show was amazing. And the Jägermeister tent was kicking hard.

Blythe: It was successful. I can’t remember the business of it, but I was like, “Whoa, I don’t know how they pulled it off.” And we were grateful to be there. God bless them for somehow pulling off the free Ozzfest. We had a good time.

In 2010, Ozzfest staged its final tour. In subsequent years, the Ozzfest brand came back for one-off shows: in Japan in 2013 and 2015, and in San Bernardino in 2016 and 2017, in tandem with the Slipknot-led Knotfest, for two-day events dubbed Ozzfest Meets Knotfest. A 2018 show on New Year’s Eve at the Forum in Inglewood, Calif. — headlined by Ozzy — currently stands as the last-ever Ozzfest show.

Skjerseth: The last year Ozzfest toured was the one with Mötley Crüe. After that they would do a show here and there. I was in and out. I did the Knotfest one, which was great. It was one night of Ozzfest and one night of Knotfest.

Ozzy Osbourne: Knotfest, we passed the torch on.

Crahan: When we were coming up with Knotfest, a lot of the embedded ideas obviously came from Ozzfest. Like, second stage, with a great band to headline it, other bands doing it, different things going on, all these nuts and bolts were all driven home by Ozzfest. And so when we did that joint thing, it made sense. I mean, that’s our lineage.

Holman: We did a 20-year reunion at the Ozzfest Meets Knotfest show in San Bernardino in 2016. We had a lot of the veterans from previous Ozzfests come out, which was great. Because you become a family. You’re getting together every year, like freak Thanksgiving.

Sharon Osbourne: I just remember the last Ozzfest we did [in 2018] was Ozzy’s very last show. He had two-and-a-half years of dates booked after that. Who knew that he would have a major accident that would end it all. Who knew? [In 2019, Osbourne suffered a fall at his Los Angeles home, aggravating injuries from an earlier ATV accident and requiring multiple surgeries.]

Halford: I hope that Sharon is thinking about bringing the Ozzfest back. Because people want to go to an Ozzfest experience. And what she did was generate an enormous amount of interest beyond the Ozzfest experience. She brought a lot of people to the table, and that’s often overlooked.

Fafara: She changed people’s worlds. I don’t think System of a Down, I don’t think Deftones, I don’t think Slipknot, I don’t think Cold Chamber, I don’t think DevilDriver would’ve been who we are without Sharon Osbourne coming up with the idea for the Ozzfest. I think everybody owes her a great debt. She’s a f–king shot caller and she gave me the shot. She gave me the shot twice.

Crahan: We did Ozzfest three times, did it differently all three times. And it was life-changing all three times.

Blythe: As far as the metal festivals here in America, they’re all kind of “Son of Ozzfest.” That was the first, and to my mind, so far, it’s the best.

Draiman: It was a proving ground. And it was an incubator for the next generation of headliners. The Osbournes created a community with this traveling circus of sorts, and it was an amazing idea.

Ozzy Osbourne: It must’ve been a good idea! Because everybody seems to be doing their own fests now.

Sharon Osbourne: There’s more and more every year. Isn’t it fantastic?

Blythe: I keep waiting for Sharon to resurrect it and bring us all back together one more time.

Halford: I’m sure if she did it, it would be successful.

Fafara: I think there’s so many bands right now that could benefit from it and that need a tour like that. So I’ll just say this now, and it isn’t just me being selfish: I would love nothing more than to have that festival come back. And if it does, put me on the main stage!

Ozzy Osbourne: I’d love it to happen again, yeah. Even if I couldn’t do a gig there myself.

Sharon Osbourne: We get asked about [Ozzfest returning] all the time. And I honestly don’t know. After Ozzy’s accident, I don’t look into the future much. I would love the name to carry on for my husband, but I can’t plan long term right now. I just live in the day.

Keenan: Credit to Sharon for putting it together and doing her best to manage the whole thing.

Sharon Osbourne: I just said, “Let’s just give it a shot,” you know? “I’ve got nothing to lose, let’s try and make it happen.” I went full steam ahead and I was going to have nothing stop me. I was just concerned about doing it and making a statement. And that’s what we did.

After conquering all terrestrial continents, Metallica are headed to Fortnite later this month when the metal veterans will become the first band to play appear across all Fortnite experiences. After launching Metallica-themed gameplay starting Thursday (June 13) in Fortnite Festival, Battle Royale, LEGO Fortnite and Rocket Racing, the Bay Area rockers will play a series […]

C.J. Snare, the lead vocalist and a founding member of Firehouse, has died. He was 64.
The band shared the news of Snare’s passing on Sunday (April 7) in a statement on the official Firehouse Facebook page.

“Today is a sad day for Rock N Roll,” the message began. “It is with great sorrow we are letting the world know we have lost our brother: CJ Snare, the rock and roll warrior, lead vocalist, and a founding member of Firehouse.”

The statement says the singer — who was expected to return to touring this summer, following recovery from abdominal surgery Snare said was planned in the fall — “passed unexpectedly” at his home Friday night (April 5).

Explore

Explore

See latest videos, charts and news

See latest videos, charts and news

In October, Snare updated fans on Instagram that he’d underwent surgery, and that it was “time to recover and get back to the stage.”

On March 27, Snare wrote, “I’ll be back on stage with FireHouse before you know it. Health is first so making a FULL recovery before my return.”

Trending on Billboard

“We are all in complete shock with CJ’s untimely passing,” the group wrote on Saturday, highlighting Snare’s vocal talent and noting he’d been on the road with FireHouse “non-stop the past 34 years.”

After signing with Epic Records in 1989, Firehouse had two top 10 hits on the Billboard Hot 100 in the early ’90s with power ballads “Love of a Lifetime” in 1991 and “When I Look Into Your Eyes” in 1992.

Firehouse’s statement on Snare’s death ended with condolences “to the entire Snare family, Katherine Little, friends, and all our beloved fans all over the world. ‘Reach for the Sky’ CJ! You will be forever missed by family, friends, fans and your band mates. You’re singing with the angels now.”

[embedded content]

[embedded content]

Metallica may be the last, true Monster of Rock: one of the few massively popular rock bands whose tours aren’t self-consciously nostalgic. The group’s Black Album (1991’s Metallica) is the best-selling album in the U.S. since 1991 (the beginning of what was then called the SoundScan Era), and the outfit is popular, successful and independent enough to buy its own vinyl pressing plant. These days, young fans are more apt to discover the band from the Stranger Things scene that used “Master of Puppets” than radio airplay. But acts that stream many times as much can’t play multiple nights at stadiums, let alone in a way that brings back many of the same fans.

Explore

Explore

See latest videos, charts and news

See latest videos, charts and news

Metallica’s M72 World Tour – which started in late April in Amsterdam but began in earnest on May 17 in Paris and runs through September 2024 – rewards the faithful with two-night stands at stadiums, and a “no repeats” promise not to do the same song twice in each city. Two-night ticket packages went on sale first, and a quick look around during the Friday (May 26) show at the Volksparkstadion in Hamburg, Germany, made it clear that this wasn’t the first show for most people there – and in more than a few cases, not one of their first half dozen. A substantial number of fans came from elsewhere in Germany to see both shows – some for one of six “enhanced experiences,” like a meet-and-greet or special seating. It was an audience that was eager but not easy to impress.

The staging for Metallica’s tour is built to do just that, though, on the kind of grand scale well-suited for football stadiums. The band performs in the round, on a big stage in the shape of a ring that surrounds fans with tickets to the VIP “snake pit.” That means anyone on the floor isn’t actually all that far from the band – but also that the traditional video screen setup doesn’t work. So the band put the screens, and most speakers, on eight massive towers to allow anyone to see them. During some songs, the colors were bleached out, making the footage one-hued to underscore the drama. Most bands would seem dwarfed by the scale, but Metallica rose to the occasion. More space just means more space to conquer.

The band opened with some ’80s favorites – “Creeping Death,” then “Harvester of Sorrow” and “Leper Messiah.” Only then did frontman James Hetfield actually say anything – the kind of welcome you give to an audience you’ve seen before. “Here’s a song you might not know,” he said. “I hope I know it.” It was “Until It Sleeps,” from Load, and he need not have worried – it sounded familiar to everyone. The band played three songs from its vital new album, 72 Seasons – the title track, “If Darkness Had a Son,” and “You Must Burn!” – but the focus was on early, heavier songs and classics from the Black Album. Some acts have eras, but Metallica has epochs, and every single one of them is heavy in its own way.

The only drawback to the band’s over-the-top staging was that the same scale that made it so spectacular drained a bit of the band’s chemistry. With multiple microphones and several drum sets for Lars Ulrich – one would disappear beneath the stage and another would come up so he could play while facing another part of the crowd – everyone could see everything, but not always at the same time. The ring was so big that “Wherever I May Roam” (stark and dramatic as ever, toward the end of the show) could have been self-referential. But Metallica wanted to out-do itself, and it did. This kind of maximalism is only silly if you can’t carry it off – and Metallica does.

By stadium standards, the band keeps the music fresh, too. Sure, it has enough classics to spread over two nights – “One” and “Welcome Sandman” on May 26, “Blackened” and “Master of Puppets” two days later – but it also pulled out “Whiskey in the Jar,” a traditional-by-way-of Thin Lizzy song that sounded very human even at this gigantic scale. For at least a few minutes, the stadium felt like the world’s biggest bar – if you can imagine a bar with eight 14-ton video towers – and if any crowd deserved a drinking song it was this one.

After “Whiskey” the band turned to “One” and then “Enter Sandman,” ferocious metal song that has acquired the patina of classic rock. There would be more surprises in two days at the next show, and the crowd pondered the possibilities as it filed out of the venue – more classics, a rarity, who knows? Like the best big rock shows, it would feel familiar but sound fresh. It was live but also, somehow, much bigger.

Lizzo showed off her knack for German by covering Rammstein on a tour stop in Hamburg, Germany, last week.
“Du, du hast/ Du hast mich!/ Oma!/ Du, du hast/ Du hast mich!” the star playfully chanted onstage at the European city’s Barclays Arena, in a reference to Rammstein’s 1997 single “Du Hast” from their sophomore album Sehnsucht. “Nein! Oh, Hamburg, I’m having fun, bi–h!” she then declared in her sparkling, rainbow sequined dress.

“Germany = Rammstein,” a TikTok user captioned the fan-captured video, adding, “She had just learned how to say ‘Oma’, that’s why she incorporated it.”

Lizzo’s ardent fandom certainly appreciated her knowledge of the German metal rockers, flooding the comments section with elated reactions. “Lizzo knowing Rammstein is everything I ever needed,” one wrote, while another ecstatically typed, “Just imagine her and Till on stage together I bet it would be hilarious.” Of course, several others called for a Lizzo/Rammstein collaboration.

At another concert during the week, Lizzo also re-created Ariana DeBose’s viral opening number from the 2023 BAFTA Awards, complete with the West Side Story breakout star’s shimmy of the shoulders and impassioned delivery of “Angela Bassett did the thing!”

Currently, the European leg of The Special Tour is slated to continue through the middle of March, with stops in Berlin, Milan, Paris, Dublin and London before Lizzo heads back to the U.S. for a second North American leg beginning April 21 at Thompson-Boling Arena in Knoxville, Tenn.

Watch Lizzo nail her German pronunciation with a bit of Rammstein’s “Du Hast” below.

Twenty years after the release of Meteora, Linkin Park is revisiting their mega-selling sophomore album: Meteora 20th Anniversary Edition will be released through Warner Records on Apr. 7, the band announced on Friday (Feb. 10), and will include multiple previously unreleased songs in addition to several other fan-friendly collectibles.

Explore

Explore

See latest videos, charts and news

See latest videos, charts and news

One of those unreleased songs, “Lost,” arrives today as a fleshed-out, fully realized showcase for the band’s Chester Bennington, who passed away in 2017. Linkin Park recorded “Lost” for Meteora but the track didn’t make the final track list; while scavenging through hard drives for the 20th anniversary of the album, the group rediscovered the song and Bennington’s intensely riveting vocals that serve as its highlight.

“Finding this track was like finding a favorite photo you had forgotten you’d taken, like it was waiting for the right moment to reveal itself,” the band’s Mike Shinoda says in a press statement. “For years, fans have been asking us to release something with Chester’s voice, and I’m thrilled we’ve been able to make that happen in such a special way. I think they’re going to be floored when they hear and see all the incredible unreleased songs and video footage in Meteora 20.”

“Lost” will be among six unreleased songs on Meteora 20, in addition to demos, live shows, B-sides and previously unaired footage with the band. The project will be available in multiple variations, including a limited edition super deluxe box set, deluxe vinyl box set, deluxe 3-CD and digital download.

The 20th anniversary reissue of Meteora follows the 2020 release of Hybrid Theory: 20th Anniversary Edition, which toasted Linkin Park’s diamond-selling 2000 debut. “It’s a nice time to pause and think and focus on what it took to make that record, the impact it had, and the opportunity it allowed us to continue with our careers,” the band’s Joe Hahn told Billboard at the time. “For me, it’s a testament to the camaraderie between all the guys in the band, to our friendship, to our work ethic, to the values in how we approached not just making music, but the business of making music, and the way we interact with our fans.”

Released in March 2003, Meteora includes some of Linkin Park’s most enduring hits, from “Numb” to “Breaking the Habit” to “Faint” to “Somewhere I Belong” to “Lying From You” — all of which topped Billboard’s Alternative Songs chart — as well as essential fan favorites like “Nobody’s Listening” and “Easier to Run.” Meteora has earned 8.5 million equivalent album units to date, of which 6.5 million are in traditional album sales, according to Luminate.

To celebrate the Meteora 20 announcement and the release of “Lost,” Linkin Park will relaunch their official Discord on Friday, with a Q&A on the Discord Stage. The band is also teasing “more surprises” leading up to the April release.

Watch the official video for “Lost” — which was produced and animated by by pplpleasr and Maciej Kuciara’s Web3 studio, Shibuya — below: