A little more information about the emerging battle between Sharon Osbourne and Bruce Dickinson of Iron Maiden!

Sharon has published an open letter to Iron Maiden’s manager, Rod Smallwood on the official Ozzfest website. Apparently, Bruce Dickinson has been using Iron Maiden’s slot on the Ozzfest tour to continually [berate] Ozzy and Ozzfest during his set. Here’s Sharon’s take on the situation with Dickinson:

Over the last 10 years of Ozzfest we have worked with over 200 bands. None of them were ever disrespectful to Ozzy or any of the other bands on the tour. But for 20 shows we were forced to hear Dickinson’s nightly outbursts from the stage: “When we come back to America, we’ll be back with a proper sound system?or “We won’t be playing the same old songs every night (like Sabbath),?”We don’t need a teleprompter (like Ozzy)” and “We don’t need a reality show to be legit (again, like Ozzy).” Night after night we heard his complaints from the stage about how “corporate” the venues were and how “outrageous” the ticket prices were. Strangely enough, if you want to get a general admission ticket to stand in a field to see Iron Maiden at Reading this weekend it’s going to cost you over $120. I would say that’s very pricey, wouldn’t you?

Later in the letter, Sharon mentions that the members of Iron Maiden were also embarrassed by Dickinson’s outbursts and Maiden founder Steve Harris actually apologised to Sharon at one point.

Apparently Maiden are now off the Ozzfest tour and Velvet Revolver are playing the remaining shows. There’s a bit more coverage of the story here.