SAM LOEFFLER Recalls CHEVELLE Nearly Getting Removed From 2003 OZZFEST By SHARON OSBOURNE

In a new interview with Baby Huey and Chasta of the San Francisco radio station 107.7 The Bone, CHEVELLE drummer Sam Loeffler spoke about legendary BLACK SABBATH singer Ozzy Osbourne who died in July at the age of 76. Asked about CHEVELLE's experience touring with Ozzy as part of Ozzfest in 2002 and 2003, Sam said (as transcribed by BLABBERMOUTH.NET): "Well, I'll tell you this. We had a couple of experiences with him. Obviously we didn't know him very well, but we went to his house one time. It was him and David Draiman [DISTURBED] and Marilyn Manson and us, and he was absolutely the kindest, nicest man, for sure. He just jumps right off his chair, shakes your hand, gets you a drink, and you're, like, 'No, no, no. It's okay. We're at your house, man.' And he's, like, 'No, no. Let me get you a drink.' And then we just ran into him a few times at the shows over the years. He was always grateful and always nice. And again, we didn't know him that well. Lots of people did know him very well, but I'll tell you, he was the kindest man and it was really nice to be part of that whole thing because it trickled down to a lot of their crew and people like that. They were always very kind and nice and accommodating. So it was a really good thing to be part of. That was a long time ago, but it was definitely nice."

Sam went on to recount a "funny story" involving Ozzfest and Ozzy's wife and manager Sharon Osbourne. He said: "We were confirmed to do Ozzfest the second time, to do the main stage [in 2003]. It was us, Manson, DISTURBED, KORN and Ozzy. I think that was what it was. We had to go to Europe to do some shows right before that. And our agent called and said, 'FOO FIGHTERS is doing these four shows. They're all sold out, but they need somebody to open. Would you guys wanna do it?' And they weren't very big shows; they were, like, four- or five-thousand-seaters. And so our record label calls supposedly Sharon and said, 'Hey, is it okay, since these guys are booked to do Ozzfest, is it okay if they do these shows? It's not gonna affect ticket sales.' Ozzfest was all sold out. The FOO FIGHTERS shows were sold out. It didn't affect anything. She's, like, 'Yeah, that's fine.' And they paid us $7,500 to do the four [FOO FIGHTERS] shows each, so it was 30 grand. So we do the shows. We go to Europe and we're in Europe, and our manager calls and says, 'You got kicked off Ozzfest for doing those FOO FIGHTERS shows.' And we're, like, 'What are you talking about?' And apparently somehow it happened where, I don't know if she didn't remember that they had talked to her about it or if when somebody did talk to about her about it, it was someone else that gave the message or whatever. But so we were in this terrible situation. We were, like, 'Well, God, what are we gonna do? We just got kicked off the tour,' and it was nine weeks, whatever. And so our label guy gets a hold of Sharon, and she goes, 'Well, how much money did you make at FOO FIGHTERS?' [He was,] like, 'Well, $30,000.' So we were getting paid 10 grand a show to do Ozzfest. And that would've been — what? — 2003? Yeah, 2003. So Sharon goes, 'Pay me the $30,000 that you made at FOO FIGHTERS and you can be back on the tour.' Yeah, they didn't pay us the last three shows [at Ozzfest], which was 30 grand. [Laughs]"

Elaborating on the reason Sharon insisted on taking money from CHEVELLE after initially saying that it was okay for the band to play the shows with FOO FIGHTERS, Sam said: "In hindsight, I would say that probably there was some shit that we didn't know about that was going on between her and her people and probably our label or something like that. And specifically the guy [at our record label], maybe she was fighting with him, because that guy was also Ozzy's label rep, 'cause we were on the same label. It was Epic Records. So there was probably more to do with it than us, and maybe it even came down that we were just sort of collateral damage. But that's what actually happened. So, our agent paid 10 grand, our label paid 10 grand and then we paid 10 grand of the 30. But there probably is more to it. I mean, I guarantee there's more to it."

Sam added: "[But] it was a really fun tour. We got into a lot of trouble. It was great. Totally worth it. Yeah."

CHEVELLE's latest album, "Bright As Blasphemy", was released on August 15. The follow-up to 2021's "Niratias" marked CHEVELLE's first release through Alchemy Recordings following a long run with the Epic label. Alchemy Recordings is a record label created in partnership between Dino Paredes, former American Recordings vice president of A&R, and Danny Wimmer, the founder of Danny Wimmer Presents, the premier production company for rock music festivals in the United States.

Photo credit: Steve Thrasher