In his only interview for Swedish media in support of IRON MAIDEN's new album, "A Matter of Life and Death", vocalist Bruce Dickinson talked candidly to Close-Up magazine about last year's Ozzfest and the infamous egg incident.

Immediately after IRON MAIDEN's triumphant show at Ullevi stadium in Gothenburg on July 9, 2005, Dickison told Kerrang! magazine, "I'd like to go to America and say 'You're very good, but you're not as loud as 56,000 fucking vikings in a football stadium.'" The following week, the band went to America to play at Ozzfest, but the outspoken vocalist didn't have a lot of nice things to say about it.

"It was my usual love/hate relationship with corporate America," says Dickinson. "Ozzfest is a corporate rock event at which they sell the front 10-12 rows to corporate seats and not to kids. Most of the bands pay a lot of money to be on the Ozzfest, they get paid next to nothing. The whole way it's being portrayed as being some kind of altruistic holiday for all the bands is absolute nonsense, it's complete bullshit. Most of the bands are there because they paid to be there. That's the way it's run. We went out and we were like, 'Okay, why aren't there any people down the front?' Well, because it's restricted seating and because they don't have tickets. 'What?!' That's fucked, so we said so. I said so every night. Some fat cunt with greasy hair sat eating his hamburger with 50 seats empty all around him. Where are all the kids? They're held behind the barrier and they can't get any closer, because that's the way the venue is run. That sucks."

Close-Up: Did you expect Sharon Osbourne to take the measures that she took?

Bruce: "No, I think they were extraordinary, weren't they? Childish and uncalled for, and quite dangerous, really, when you consider there could've been a riot among the rest of the audience. Extraordinary! She is obviously completely mad!"

Close-Up: You kept quiet. Weren't you dying to fight back in the press?

Bruce: "There's no purpose of starting a soap opera. I mean, she IS a soap opera. That's what she does, that's what 'The Osbournes' is, that's what this 'X Factor' and all this reality TV bullshit is. IRON MAIDEN is IRON MAIDEN, we don't participate in that kind of crap. We don't do [MTV show] 'Cribs' or the celebrity garbage that is everywhere, that pervades people's lives and they think is important. We don't do 'I'm A Celebrity, Get Me Out Of Here', 'Big Brother', or any of that shit. So doing any more than stating the facts and let people make up their own mind is just playing to the press. It's just gonna create more crap. There was so much stuff on the Internet, there were so many people who saw exactly what happened. Let the people tell the story, we don't need to say anymore than 'Okay, this is what happened. If you don't believe us, you can find out.'"

Close-Up: An hour ago I was surfing the Net and did a search on Google on "IRON MAIDEN + Sharon Osbourne" and this comment from Blabbermouth came up: "I fucking hate IRON MAIDEN, but fuck Sharon Osbourne." You must've loved the aftermath of the egg incident. All of a sudden everyone, even people that weren't into IRON MAIDEN, were rooting for you.

Bruce: "I see what you mean. I think the key is that this was a collision between two completely different worlds. The world that Sharon lives in is of world of... She goes to fashion shows and her daughter is the new face of whatever it was, some make-up bullshit or something you put on your face. Vogue magazine and all that kind of crap. She's put herself in that world and done that by choice. And lots of people do [that] and they're supermodels. All those people have their picture taken on red carpets and appear in fashion magazines. That's not our world, that's not my world. I don't ever go to places like that. I'd rather have all my teeth pulled out and have nails hammered into my gums than go there, to a fashion show and hang out with supermodels!

"What we do is we are a heavy metal band and what we care about is our fans. That's it. So our strength comes from that simplicity. You know, what do I care if I never appear on reality TV? 'Fucking great, thank you! Can I have it in writing?' But in her world, that's really important. In her world, it's really important what you look like. In her world, facelifts are really important. In my world, I don't give a fuck. I get old and I get wrinkly. Who gives a shit?"