When I woke up on the morning of Jan 10th 1984 I was excited. Not because I knew that I would be attending my first ever concert (and one of the most imfamous tours of all time) that night, but because there was a blizzard and I had a snow day. Like any other snow day I was called upon to shovel the driveway of my father's boss. It was a large driveway and I needed help. I called my friend Efram. He was glad to help. Hoping that we could earn enough money to go to the Ozzy Osbourne concert that night. I didn't share his enthusiasm. I mean I was familiar with some of his music especially his work with Black Sabbath. Honestly I was more intrigued by the opening act, Motley Crue. I hadn't heard their music but I'd seen the posters for their new ablum "Shout at the Devil" plastered on the windows of Recordland. Still, I had other things I'd rather spend my money on. We finished the shovelling and now came time to negotiate our fee. I was a terrible negotiator and asked for less than we needed. It may have partially on purpose so that Efram wouldn't try to talk me into going if we did get engough for tickets. We left with a little cash in our pockets. Efram was probably pissed at me for foiling his plans.
Later that day I went out to the corner store for a snack. I saw Efram charging wildly towards me. "Ozzy's coming, Ozzy's coming" he yells at me as he approaches. I was a bit confused. He explained that he heard that Ozzy was coming to our neighborhood community center to have a meet and greet. Be there at 6 he says. I thought that he was full of shit, but the community center was directly across with street from my house, so the amount of effort to find out was minimal. I showed up at 6 and saw Efram and a crowd of other kids there. I asked one of the counselors if Ozzy was going to be there. He was acting weird and couldn't say and that he had no idea what was going on. We hang around another 10 or 15 minutes then the councelor comes out to make and announcement "Ozzy was going to come for a meet and greet, but because of the blizzard he didn't want to leave the venue. So, instead his manager has invited everyone who showed up to go to the concert for free and meet him there". He took all of our names down and told us to be at the Civic Center by 7 and Ozzy's mananger would meet us at the back loading dock entrance. We were stoked! I may have been reluctant to pay for the concert, but free tickets I was all in.
The Blizzard was still raging and the streets had barely been plowed. With my rubber boots on and a running start I slid nearly all the way down Munjoy Hill (If you're not familiar with the "hill" that's a pretty impressive feat). We made it to the back entrance and were greeted there by a frumpy looking british women. She's super pleasant and checks our names on the list. She thanks us for coming. I later realise that woman was Sharon Osbourne, Ozzy's wife!! We make our way to get in line outside of Ozzy's dressing room. My long hair is soaked from the snow and my glasses continue to fog up. Our time had come and we were ushered into the room. With my foggy glasses I can bearly see. Ozzy signed a tour pass and tried to hand it to me. I tried to shake his hand. I then tried to grab the pass, but he pulled it away and tried to shake my hand. We awkwardly go back and forth several times. Then Ozzy starts laughing manically. I saw Jake E. Lee sitting next to Ozzy and he was laughing hysterically. I quickly grabbed the pass and ran out. I left embarrassed but had my prize!
Then it was time for the show. We settled in for some good seats just left of the stage. "Shout at the Devil" era Motley Crue was the first
band that I ever saw in concert. (Actually, the opener was Waysted. They were lead by former UFO bassist Pete Way. But since that's the only thing that I remember them let's just forget that. It makes for a better story anyway). Vince Neil was lean and mean and shrieking up a storm. The band was at the peak of their powers. I was blown away. They played "Shout at the Devil", "Looks that Kill", "Too Young to Fall in Love", all songs that would become huge hits and be played on my boombox many, many times.
At the time the Crue were a tough act to follow, but Ozzy and his band were up to the task. Starting off with "I Don't Know" (I looked it up. My memory is not that good) Ozzy had the crowd captivated. He's the true showman of rock and roll. By the time they played "Bark at the Moon" I had been won over and have been a fan ever since. The show closed out with a couole of Black Sabbath tunes, "Paranoid" and "Iron Man". We left happy and ventured back into the blizzard. Ha!!! The Blizzard of Oz!!! Get it!!
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