Met Ozzy and Zakk Wylde at the Houston show.

bishop5150

Fractal Fanatic
The crazy train came through town last Friday night and it was an amazing day and concert. As most of you know I play in an Ozzy tribute band so to say I’m a fan is an understatement. I was blessed enough to be able to get my wife and I meet and greets for Ozzy and Zakk. It was an incredible day.
It started out with all the VIP guest getting to watch soundcheck and during that Zakk walked out into the crowd while they performed Sabbath’s Snowblind. Zakk walked right up to my wife and I and ripped the outro solo behind his head standing right in front of us. It was incredible. Next we did the Ozzy meet and greet. They basically herded us all in and out like cattle and just got to say hello to Ozzy and take our pics but it was still very cool.
Next up was Zakk. I was really excited about this one. Part of the VIP package with him is you get a stage played guitar from him that he plays that night during the show along with signing the guitar and getting a signed poster. They emailed a couple of weeks prior to the show with a choice of 2 guitars to choose from and I chose the Hellfire Barbarian. I got the Zakk meet and greet for myself but he let my wife come with me which I thought was very cool of him. Our VIP chaperone Steve led us backstage to meet Zakk in his dressing room and he was one of the nicest guys you could ever meet. If you didn’t already know he was a guitar god you would have never known. I was expecting him to be taller. I’m 6’ 3” so he was probably 6’. We hung out with him for 20-30 minutes and just bullshitted talking about anything and everything. I was pretty star struck. That day happened to be the 30th anniversary of his first album with Ozzy No Rest For The Wicked so it was cool to reminisce with him about that. Towards the end he pulled out the case with my guitar and signed the case and the back of the headstock and signed my poster. We took a few pics and said our goodbyes and then Zakk told Steve to take us up on stage to check out his guitars and get a pic with “The Behemoth”! I was blown away! Steve led us up on stage and we checked out his guitars and pedalboard and I got to hold his doubleneck guitar called “The Behemoth” that he plays on Mama I’m Coming Home which was so awesome. It was incredibly heavy.
Steve led us out of the backstage area and told me where to meet him after the show to pick up my guitar and poster and my wife and I headed to the VIP area for some food and drinks before the show started. At this point you couldn’t wipe the smile off my face and the show hadn’t even started yet!
We had amazing seats for the show. 5th row dead center. I’ve seen Ozzy with Sabbath 3 times over the last few years so I know his voice is not the best live anymore but for a nearly 70 year old guy I thought he sounded great. He was full of energy and put on a great show. Zakk was just killing it. His playing was spot on and he was literally all over the place. He went out into the crowd for his extended solo spot and the place went nuts. Ozzy sprayed us down with the foam and it was awesome!
Once the show was over we met Steve and got my guitar and poster and went out drinking with our friends for after show festivities. It was an amazing night that I’ll never forget.
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That is so cool @bishop5150! I had the pleasure of meeting Billy Sheehan and having a beer with him back when he played with Talas. They came through our town and played a local club. I got to know the sound guy during sound check and he introduced me to Billy after the show. He was just like Zakk. Very gracious and a heck of a guy. He even took me on stage and gave me a tour of his rig which was way cool! Congrats on the experience! It was well worth it!
 
Sounds like such an awesome experience! I'm glad to hear meet & greet are really worth it.
Some are , some not so much.....Todd’s experience here is obviously on the high end of the scale..I’ve attended a few over the years..they are often just a quick pic and shuffle off...
 
Some are , some not so much.....Todd’s experience here is obviously on the high end of the scale..I’ve attended a few over the years..they are often just a quick pic and shuffle off...

I reckon its because to some artists its just a means to make some extra ca$h in the no CD sales era, and some understand that you really need to engage your fans if you want to remain in this business for the long term. Good word of mouth is the best PR, and judging by his experience Zakk got some good word of mouth today.
 
Wow man, what an experience! Was there anyone else doing the VIP thing or was it just yourself and your wife?
There were 2 other guys that did the Zakk VIP and they did theirs while we were doing the Ozzy meet and greet. Zakk only offers like 5 VIP packages per show. He said they did make an exception and did 6 for a show recently. He has to keep it limited so he can play the guitars during the show. He opens up the show with his bullseye Wylde Audio guitar, and he plays War Pigs and his extended solo on whatever his preferred guitar is and he plays Mama I’m Coming Home on “The Behemoth” so that only leaves about 10 songs for him to play the VIP guitars on.
 
Sounds like such an awesome experience! I'm glad to hear meet & greet are really worth it.
Some are , some not so much.....Todd’s experience here is obviously on the high end of the scale..I’ve attended a few over the years..they are often just a quick pic and shuffle off...
Yeah, I’ve done a few in the past that were just photo OP’s and while it was cool to get the pic with them there wasn’t much interaction. This was by far worth every penny. I had to max out some credit cards to do it but what the hell. I’ll pay them off one day. This was a once in a lifetime opportunity for my wife and I. We’ve both been huge Ozzy fans since we were kids and I’ve been a fan of Zakk since that first record with Ozzy.
I told myself about a year ago after seeing Sabbath that if Ozzy came back solo I would do whatever it takes to do the meet and greet with him. He’s not gonna be around forever he’ll be 70 in December. So when he announced the tour earlier this year I said well time to put up or shut up. Then when he announced Zakk was coming back for the tour that was the icing on the cake. I got an email through Zakk’s website regarding the VIP package. When I first saw it I thought this is way overpriced no way but then I read the details and that you actually get a stage played guitar from him I was sold.
 
The crazy train came through town last Friday night and it was an amazing day and concert. As most of you know I play in an Ozzy tribute band so to say I’m a fan is an understatement. I was blessed enough to be able to get my wife and I meet and greets for Ozzy and Zakk. It was an incredible day.
It started out with all the VIP guest getting to watch soundcheck and during that Zakk walked out into the crowd while they performed Sabbath’s Snowblind. Zakk walked right up to my wife and I and ripped the outro solo behind his head standing right in front of us. It was incredible. Next we did the Ozzy meet and greet. They basically herded us all in and out like cattle and just got to say hello to Ozzy and take our pics but it was still very cool.
Next up was Zakk. I was really excited about this one. Part of the VIP package with him is you get a stage played guitar from him that he plays that night during the show along with signing the guitar and getting a signed poster. They emailed a couple of weeks prior to the show with a choice of 2 guitars to choose from and I chose the Hellfire Barbarian. I got the Zakk meet and greet for myself but he let my wife come with me which I thought was very cool of him. Our VIP chaperone Steve led us backstage to meet Zakk in his dressing room and he was one of the nicest guys you could ever meet. If you didn’t already know he was a guitar god you would have never known. I was expecting him to be taller. I’m 6’ 3” so he was probably 6’. We hung out with him for 20-30 minutes and just bullshitted talking about anything and everything. I was pretty star struck. That day happened to be the 30th anniversary of his first album with Ozzy No Rest For The Wicked so it was cool to reminisce with him about that. Towards the end he pulled out the case with my guitar and signed the case and the back of the headstock and signed my poster. We took a few pics and said our goodbyes and then Zakk told Steve to take us up on stage to check out his guitars and get a pic with “The Behemoth”! I was blown away! Steve led us up on stage and we checked out his guitars and pedalboard and I got to hold his doubleneck guitar called “The Behemoth” that he plays on Mama I’m Coming Home which was so awesome. It was incredibly heavy.
Steve led us out of the backstage area and told me where to meet him after the show to pick up my guitar and poster and my wife and I headed to the VIP area for some food and drinks before the show started. At this point you couldn’t wipe the smile off my face and the show hadn’t even started yet!
We had amazing seats for the show. 5th row dead center. I’ve seen Ozzy with Sabbath 3 times over the last few years so I know his voice is not the best live anymore but for a nearly 70 year old guy I thought he sounded great. He was full of energy and put on a great show. Zakk was just killing it. His playing was spot on and he was literally all over the place. He went out into the crowd for his extended solo spot and the place went nuts. Ozzy sprayed us down with the foam and it was awesome!
Once the show was over we met Steve and got my guitar and poster and went out drinking with our friends for after show festivities. It was an amazing night that I’ll never forget.
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What do you think of the Barbarian? Played it yet, or afraid to touch it?
 
What do you think of the Barbarian? Played it yet, or afraid to touch it?
Played it at rehearsal on Sunday. Plays and sounds great. Thick neck like a Les Paul. 6100 fret wire. I will be gigging the guitar. It’s already tuned and setup in C# standard so I’m going to use it for the downtuned Sabbath stuff we do like Into the Void, Children of the Grave, Snowblind and Sabbath Bloody Sabbath. I’m going to take the strings off and store them somewhere. One day when I’m done gigging I’ll put them back on and display the guitar in my house. I won’t be wiping down the guitar though. It is covered in Zakk’s sweat DNA! :D
 
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