An excellent-quality audio recording of
JUDAS PRIEST frontman
Rob Halford singing the
BLACK SABBATH classic
"War Pigs" with
SABBATH members
Tony Iommi,
Geezer Butler and
Bill Ward on August 26, 2004 at the Camden, NJ stop of
Ozzfest has been posted online at the
JUDAS PRIEST fan site
The French Metallian. Download the MP3 file at
this location (10 MB). Also available for download is an audio file (
MP3) containing the announcement by a local radio DJ and
SABBATH drummer
Ward that
Ozzy would not be performing with the group at the show due to an attack of bronchitis.
BLACK SABBATH's set list for
Ozzfest on August 26, 2004 in Camden, NJ:
01.
War Pigs02.
N.I.B.03.
Fairies Wear Boots04.
Into The Void05.
Black Sabbath06.
Iron Man07.
Children Of The Grave08.
Paranoid (with
"Sabbath Bloody Sabbath" intro)
Check out photos from the historic concert at
SabbathLive.com:
Page#1,
Page#2,
Page#3.
The following are some of the previously published statements from
Halford and the members of
SABBATH about the Camden performance:
Rob Halford: "That was a remarkable moment in itself. I mean, that just came out of the blue one day. It was the day after my birthday, actually. I was in Philadelphia and we had a show that evening in [New] Jersey. And I got a call from
Sharon [
Osbourne]. And I thought she was calling me to say, 'Did you get the gift that
Ozzy and myself sent you?' which was like this really beautiful hand-made luggage with, like, skulls and crossbones all over it — typical
Osbourne material. But then she said
Ozzy wasn't feeling too good and he got a really bad case of bronchitis and he couldn't sing, so 'Can you help us out?' And I said, 'Sure, what do you want me to do?' 'Well, can you sing tonight?' 'You're kidding me!' I'm about two hours away from a
PRIEST show. [And she said], 'We really need your help, because if we can't have you kind of helping out, stepping in for
Ozzy, then
SABBATH will have to cancel,' which would have been nothing short of a riot had that happened. So I said to
Sharon, 'It's a bit short notice, but send me a tape of everything that they do' — I'd seen most of the shows standing on the side of the stage, being the
BLACK SABBATH fan that I am — but she sent me a video of the performance and I was singing along with
Ozzy in the back of the tour bus going to the show. Got off the bus, did the
PRIEST show, took a shower, [and] 10 minutes later I was back out fronting
SABBATH. And it was such a whirlwind. I mean, I got back to the hotel room that night and my whole body was, like, humming. Like it was this [makes buzzing noise] going on for two days. As I said, being a huge
BLACK SABBATH fan, it was just an ultimate moment for me. But yeah, you do what you can. I mean,
Ozzy and I, we're mates. We've known each other forever, we're from the same neighborhood in Birmingham. The originators of metal are
SABBATH and
PRIEST, so it was a spectacular evening."
Bill Ward: "When [
Ozzy] fell sick, we had a very difficult situation to deal with, and before going any further, I want to salute every single audience member at the now infamous Camden, NJ gig. I love playing Camden, and my heart went out to that audience.
Rob Halford deserves a medal for coming in like he did.
Rob was great. There is no doubt. I think that night, everybody —
Tony,
Geezer,
Rob and myself — worked our nuts off. We were very sorry that the Camden audience was disappointed, and at such a late hour in that day. We poured it out, and now I think there's a live bootleg somewhere, of that show."
Tony Iommi: "One thing that sticks in my mind [about last year's
Ozzfest] was the day in New Jersey when
Ozzy couldn't perform so we had
Rob Halford sing, which was the second time he saved the day for us." [
Halford had previously joined
SABBATH for two gigs to support
Ozzy on his last shows for the
"No More Tours" tour in November 1992 in Costa Mesa, CA after
SABBATH's singer at the time,
Ronnie James Dio, refused to take the stage.]
"At first we were worried, because people expect
Ozzy, but if
Rob hadn't helped us out, there wouldn't have been a show at all. When our manager told me
Ozzy had bronchitis and couldn't sing, he asked me what I thought about
Rob doing it. I said, 'I think it's a good idea as long as you tell everybody beforehand so they know.' Of course, they told the audience right before we went onstage, so I thought, 'Oh, no.' But the crowd received him really well."