In a new conversation with Baby Huey and Chasta of San Francisco's 107.7 The Bone, Chevelle drummer Sam Loeffler opened up about a chaotic chapter in the band's history involving Ozzfest 2003 — and a heated financial dispute with Ozzy Osbourne's wife and manager, Sharon Osbourne.
Loeffler recounted how Chevelle had been confirmed to play Ozzfest's main stage that year, alongside Marilyn Manson, Disturbed, Korn, and Ozzy Osbourne himself. But before that trek began, the band was offered a handful of sold-out support slots opening for Foo Fighters in Europe.
"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?' … 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 shows each, so it was 30 grand."
Things took a turn when Chevelle flew overseas. "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?' … 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."
According to Loeffler, Sharon offered a simple — if not brutal — solution: "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. … 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]"
In the end, the band, their agent, and their label each chipped in $10,000 to cover Sharon's demand, which Loeffler now chalks up to bigger behind-the-scenes disputes between Osbourne's camp and their then-label, Epic Records: "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.
"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."
Despite the ordeal, Loeffler looks back on Ozzfest 2003 with humor: "[But] it was a really fun tour. We got into a lot of trouble. It was great. Totally worth it. Yeah."
