By Bob Grossweiner and Jane Cohen
Ozzy Osbourne returns to the road on Oct.18 in Seattle, WA for a massive 40-date North American fall tour in support of “Black Rain”–his critically acclaimed first album of new studio material in six years — with special guest
Rob Zombie. Zombie’s hit film “Halloween” premiered number one at the box office this past weekend and broke all Labor Day Weekend records while grossing an estimated $31 million.
The tour, which winds down Jan. 24 in Cleveland, OH, is being promoted by AEG Live. Interestingly, Ozzfest, the traveling summer festival put together by Ozzy and his wife/manager Sharon Osbourne, has always toured under the SFX/Clear Channel Entertainment/Live Nation banner. This year’s edition was free to concertgoers. . .
These concerts will mark Osbourne’s first arena tour in six years in the U.S. and four years in Canada. The tour will include stops in Seattle, Vancouver, Salt Lake City, Oakland, San Diego, Las Vegas, Phoenix, Los Angeles, Denver, Chicago, Detroit and more, with a special Halloween show in Minneapolis. It will also mark his first time ever playing in a number of the tour markets, including Saskatoon, Rapid City, Billings and Stockton, and will be highlighted by his first show at New York City’s Madison Square Garden in 23 years.
Osborne’s latest studio album “Black Rain” finds the two-time Grammy Award winner and Rock and Roll Hall of Fame inductee as vital, creative and evocative as ever. The first single “I Don’t Wanna Stop” is his biggest rock song of his career, spending 20 weeks at #1 on the R&R Rock Chart and peaking at #1 on the R&R Active Rock chart. The song is also the lead track from EA’s Madden NFL ’08. His second single, currently at radio, is the powerful manifesto “Not Going Away.” “Black Rain” was released in May and entered the Billboard pop albums chart at #3 with over 150,000 copies sold the first week. Overall, Osbourne has sold over 100 million albums combined as both a member of Black Sabbath and as a solo artist.
Zombie, has sold over 15 million albums worldwide and is one of Geffen Record’s top selling artists, will unleash his first-ever live album “Zombie – Live” (Geffen Records/UMe), which is expected out on Oct. 23. He has directed dozens of high profile music videos including Osbourne’s “Dreamer” video, contributed recordings to soundtracks and is known for twisting the imagination and boundaries of both film and music. In 2005, he assaulted the film world with the critically-acclaimed, macabre and twisted masterpiece “The Devil’s Rejects”, the follow-up to his already cult classic “House of 1000 Corpses” (2004). As Halloween is well on its way towards cult status, Zombie once again takes his horror show back on the road.
General ticket on-sales start Friday Sept. 14.
Ozzy Osbourne/Rob Zombie itinerary:
Thu 10/18 Seattle, WA KeyArena
Sat 10/20 Vancouver, BC GM Place
Mon 10/22 Edmonton, AB Rexall Place
Wed 10/24 Saskatoon, SK Credit Union Centre
Sat 10/27 Winnipeg, MB MTS Centre
Mon 10/29 Fargo, ND Fargodome
Wed 10/31 Minneapolis, MN Target Center
Fri 11/2 Des Moines, IA Veterans Memorial Auditorium
Sun 11/4 Sioux City, IA Gateway Arena
Tue 11/6 Rapid City, SD Rushmore Plaza Civic Center
Fri 11/9 Billings, MT MetraPark Arena
Sun 11/11 Salt Lake City, UT The E-Center
Wed 11/14 Portland, OR Rose Garden
Fri 11/16 Stockton, CA Stockton Arena
Sun 11/18 Oakland, CA ORACLE Arena
Tue 11/20 San Diego, CA San Diego Sports Arena
Sat 11/24 Las Vegas, NV The Joint
Mon 11/26 Bakersfield, CA Rabobank Arena
Wed 11/28 Glendale, AZ Jobing.com Arena
Fri 11/30 Los Angeles, CA STAPLES Center
Tue 12/4 Denver, CO Pepsi Center
Thu 12/6 Oklahoma City, OK Ford Center
Sat 12/8 Wichita, KS Kansas Coliseum
Tue 12/11 Kansas City, MO Sprint Center
Thu 12/13 Milwaukee, WI Bradley Center
Sun 12/16 Chicago, IL Allstate Arena
Tue 12/18 Detroit, MI Joe Louis Arena
Thu 12/20 Pittsburgh, PA Mellon Arena
Sat 12/22 New York, NY Madison Square Garden
Thu 1/3 Portland, ME Cumberland County Civic Center
Sat 1/5 Washington, DC Verizon Center
Tue 1/8 Worcester, MA DCU Center
Thu 1/10 Philadelphia, PA Wachovia Spectrum
Mon 1/14 Quebec City, QC Colisée Pepsi Arena
Wed 1/16 Montreal, QC Bell Centre
Sat 1/19 London, ON John Labatt Centre
Mon 1/21 Toronto, ON Air Canada Centre
Thu 1/24 Cleveland, OH Quicken Loans Arena