In 1983, Ozzy Osbourne's Brown County arena show was banned, then it wasn't and then ... (original) (raw)
Editor’s note: This is the fifth in our Arena Flashback series, stories looking back at memorable moments in Brown County Veterans Memorial Arena history. The building that opened in 1958 will be demolished in May to make way for a new $93 million expo center.
Ozzy Osbourne ignited a firestorm of controversy in Green Bay in 1983, and his "Crazy Train" hadn't even made it into the city limits.
When he played Brown County Veterans Memorial Arena in Ashwaubenon two years earlier, he was “a pudgy fellow” who “needs tattoos and ghoul-like eye makeup to keep from looking ordinary,” as described by Green Bay Press-Gazette reviewer Warren Gerds. A crowd of 4,437 was there for a night of “thumping rock,” including one fan who jumped from a mezzanine railing to the concrete floor. “Osbourne’s shows do not attract the scholarly,” Gerds wrote.
Hardly a glowing review, but fairly benign stuff for the ’80s.
What a difference two years — and a bat — made.
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When it was announced a 34-year-old Osbourne was coming back for a stop on his Speak of the Devil Tour on March 23, 1983, this time controversy erupted over the Prince of Darkness. It might have had something to do with the night of Jan. 20, 1982, when he bit the head off a dead bat while onstage in front of 5,000 at Veterans Memorial Auditorium in Des Moines, Iowa.
Amid concerns of satanism, cruelty to animals, degradation of human beings and mental illness, a Green Bay woman, supported by Brown County Supervisor Guy Zima, sent a letter to the County Board asking that Osbourne be banned from playing the arena on March 23.
It set off a blizzard of Ozzy letters to the editor in the weeks leading up to the concert.
One writer advised the community to keep its young people at home that night. “He admits he’s a maniac, yet you support him,” wrote another, claiming Osbourne had bragged about sawing a live sheep’s head in half.
On the flip side came cries of censorship and First Amendment rights. “I ask you Green Bay, how many times have you hosted musical performers who weren’t unorthodox in one way or another? Ted Nugent, Alice Cooper, KISS. Did you turn away Liberace?” read one letter. “Congratulations are in order to all the tyrants, dictators, boorish people and church groups of Green Bay ... If we let this continue, what will be next?” from another.
Those were the days when there was an Ozzy Fan Club at Ashwaubenon High School. The club president wrote in to remind people “none of Ozzy’s songs that he has composed on his own (without Black Sabbath) are about Satan.”
The contract to have Osbourne perform at the arena had already been signed and failure to honor it would invite a lawsuit, said arena manager John Dederich. Back then, the Green Bay Area Visitor & Convention Bureau operated the arena under contract to the county.
The Brown County Arena Committee eventually voted to seek cancellation of the concert “based on the contention he (Osbourne) does not meet the standards of the community.” WAPL-FM had collected 5,600 signatures in support of the show to go on.
A week later, facing serious legal problems, the committee reversed its decision. It would not pursue banning the show.
It turned out to be all for naught.
On the night before Osbourne was to play Brown County arena, he became ill while performing in Rockford, Illinois. The concert was cut short, and he was taken away on a stretcher with chest pains.
His show the next night in Green Bay was canceled. He had 5,700 ticket buyers waiting for him.
The following day, the Brown County Arena Committee recommended requiring reserved seating for arena concerts to cut down on alcohol and drug use. The committee also announced it would seek legal advice on creating a contract with promoters that would deny access to the arena for “illegal or immoral” acts in the future.
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Contact Kendra Meinert at 920-431-8347 or kmeinert@greenbay.gannett.com. Follow her on Twitter @KendraMeinert.