TRIVIUM's COREY BEAULIEU: Touring With OZZY OSBOURNE As Part Of 2005 OZZFEST 'Helped Us A Tremendous Amount'

In a new interview with The Mistress Carrie Podcast, guitarist Corey Beaulieu of Florida metallers TRIVIUM reflected on his band's participation in the 2005 installment of Ozzfest, the traveling metal and heavy rock circus curated by Ozzy and Sharon Osbourne. Asked if he and his bandmates got to meet Ozzy when they toured together, Corey said (as transcribed by BLABBERMOUTH.NET): "We never got to meet Ozzy, but being on Ozzfest was a massive thing for us. Basically, Ozzfest and Ozzy, when that tour was going on, it was the tastemaker tour. If you were on that tour, it was a big deal, and there was always a band or two that kind of got launched off that touring thing, 'cause it had a lot of influence, and being on the tour definitely got you in front of a lot of people. So that definitely helped us a tremendous amount. So we're always thankful for being on that tour."

As for how Ozzy's catalog with BLACK SABBATH and as a solo artist influenced him as a musician, Corey said: "Like with any guitar player that's come up, you're influenced by Ozzy or a guitar player from Ozzy's band in some form, if you like it or not. You could try, but there's always something that's gonna trickle into influencing you or inspiring you. And that was great. Ozzy always had amazing guitar players — basically, amazing musicians in all facets of his lineup."

He continued: "We were in the U.K., not far from Birmingham, not long after [Ozzy died], and we were playing a festival over there, and obviously we were getting questions about SABBATH, Ozzy, and all that kind of stuff. And I was just saying, yeah, when I was growing up, when I first got into metal, my introduction or my era of metal that was my kind of introduction to the whole thing was more of the early '80s, like METALLICA, MEGADETH, SLAYER, IRON MAIDEN kind of era, and SABBATH and all that stuff [that came out] before that, I got into [those bands] more later on. Obviously, I knew SABBATH and knew all the big songs and DEEP PURPLE and RAINBOW and all that kind of stuff, but it wasn't really like my go-to stuff at the time when I was younger, 'cause I was very into the fast thrash stuff and everything. But in a sense, even if you didn't really listen to SABBATH and dove into the records and really listened to 'em, their influence on just music in general and metal, it was so big that even if… I listened to METALLICA, but SABBATH influenced METALLICA, so in any kind of sense, me listening to METALLICA, I'm still getting like the DNA of the SABBATH sound into my playing or into my head in that way. And same thing with [how] THE BEATLES influenced those bands before 'em, and I didn't really listen to THE BEATLES, but I'm sure there's something where I could go back and be, like, 'Oh, yeah, that kind of reminds me of this' blah blah, blah part in this song. And when I listen to the METALLICA stuff and especially 'Kill 'Em All', or MEGADETH and SLAYER, you can hear, when you really know the music well, you can be, like, 'Oh, yeah, I can hear where they got the influence for this part' or this kind of vibe of this thing. And definitely as the years went on, I've gone back and dove into more of especially a lot of the '70s stuff that was kind of the blueprint for the stuff that was my era. You can kind of go back and [be], like, 'Oh, yeah, I can hear where all my influences got kind of their influences from,' and then obviously it was kind of like discovering another kind of genre that can help inspire [what you are doing now]."

Back in 2009, TRIVIUM bassist Paolo Gregoletto was asked if it was true that his band had to apologize to the Ozzfest organizers in order to be able to take part in another installment of the travelling festival. Paolo responded: "Everybody knows about the IRON MAIDEN thing [in 2005 when Sharon Osbourne and other people threw eggs at the band], the eggs and all that shit. We were really young when we did that tour. Of course, we were smartasses and we put IRON MAIDEN shirts on and IRON MAIDEN flags on our amps. They didn't like that. We didn't give a shit, we still don't give a shit."

He continued: "We had to formally apologize or something, [and] it's, like, fuck you! How about this? How about I formally say fuck you to Ozzfest. Formal. We don't want to play your shitty festival."

TRIVIUM released a new three-song EP, "Struck Dead", on October 31 via longtime label Roadrunner Records. It was produced by TRIVIUM and recorded with Mark Lewis at the band's Hangar Studios in Orlando, Florida. It was mixed and mastered by Josh Wilbur.

Late last month, TRIVIUM embarked on the "Struck Dead" tour, which will run through December 14, with an epic hometown show in Orlando. Special guests JINJER appear, while HERIOT serves as support.

Earlier in October, TRIVIUM parted ways with longtime drummer Alex Bent and replaced him with Alex Rüdinger.

Rüdinger is sitting behind the kit for TRIVIUM during the band's fall 2025 North American tour. He will also be part of the writing sessions for the next TRIVIUM album.

During "The Poisoned Ascendancy" tour, TRIVIUM and BULLET FOR MY VALENTINE celebrated the 20th anniversary of "Ascendancy" and "The Poison" albums, respectively, by playing them in full.

Produced by Live Nation, the North American leg of "The Poisoned Ascendancy" kicked off on March 30 at PNE Forum in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada, making stops across North America in Las Vegas, Chicago, New York and more before wrapping up in Raleigh, North Carolina at Red Hat Amphitheater on May 18.