Sharon Osbourne: Iron Maiden are Pricks

NEW YORK (Billboard) -- Iron Maiden's manager has condemned Ozzfest fans who pelted the band with debris during its performance at the hard rock festival's weekend stop near Los Angeles.

The British metal veterans also endured periodic outages of the sound system, and Ozzfest organizer Sharon Osbourne came on stage afterwards to call Maiden frontman Bruce Dickinson a "prick" for allegedly berating her husband, Ozzy Osbourne.

Sunday's dramatic show in San Bernardino, California, was Iron Maiden's last on the Ozzfest tour; Velvet Revolver has joined the lineup in its place.

"In 30 years in this business and after hundreds of gigs I have never seen anything anywhere near as disgusting and unprofessional as what went on that night," Ron Smallwood said on Maiden's Web site (http://www.ironmaiden.com).

"The scale, viciousness and concentration of the throwing made it obvious that this was a premeditated and coordinated attack. Assaulting musicians while performing by throwing bottle tops, lighters and eggs at them from just a few yards away is vile, dangerous, criminal and cowardly."

Without naming names, Smallwood says he knew who was responsible for attempting to sabotage Iron Maiden's set, audio and video clips of which have begun circulating online.

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