Let the Merry Mayhem begin
Monster music moguls discuss addictions, relationships and things to come.
By Sarah Hankel
The man, the myth, the legend has finally forgiven us. We have paid our penance and the and for this Des Moines will be rewarded. On Dec. 2 Ozzy Osbourne will return to Veterans Memorial Auditorium along with his band of Merry Mayhem men - Rob Zombie, MuDvAyNe and SOiL.
Although Ozzy was required to postpone several dates on his tour due to a stress fracture incurred on Halloween night, confirmed via telephone from his home in Los Angeles that he will come back to Des Moines despite his "bat experience" at Vets two decades ago.
"God, has it been that fuckin' long?" Ozzy says. "What's the date today? It's Wednesday, the 21st. We'll be back on the road next week, so we'll be there."
And if that isn't reason enough to celebrate, the Dec. 2 show falls on the eve of the Great and Powerful Ozz's 53rd birthday. His only wish: "To just carry on. And for this fuckin' leg to get better."
"I couldn't believe it," he said, recalling the tour's opening night in Tuscon, Ariz. "I was taking a bath and I stepped out of the shower, and I thought I just sprained my leg. The doctor told me ice and heat, ice and heat. But finally, this one night, it felt the iceberg that sunk the Titanic was on my leg, and then I couldn't feel my foot.
"It's a really weird phenomenon. It started out as a simple fracture and turned into a spiral fracture in the little bone behind the big bone in the lower part of my leg. It's weird 'cause you can feel the pain, but you can do most of what you normally do, but by the end of the show it would really hurt God-almighty bad.
"Finally, that last show in New Orleans, and I knew I had to do something more," he said. That's when doctors discovered the progression of the fracture. Since then, he says, "I've been walkin' around with this fuckin' moon boot thing on me leg."
"But I'm dyin' to come back," he confirmed.
But Ozzy's never been that far away, brought even closer in recent months since the release of his latest solo endeavor, "Down to Earth."
In some circles it is rumored that the 11-track CD is a return to Ozzy's formative years. (One of his first bands he formed as a youth in Birmingham, England, was named Earth.) This undoubtedly appeases his oldest fans and is exposing his latest fans to something new.
All told, Ozzy has endured for three generations and continues to have a firm hold on the brightest star in the heavy metal music world.
With two Grammys and a star soon to be placed in the Hollywood Walk of Fame, Ozzy is not even close to calling it quits. "Every rock star wants to go gold and platinum and double gold and double platinum. And everyone wants a Grammy. I've always been kind of against the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, but who am I to say I should fucking be in there I guess," he says. "But the Hollywood Walk of Fame - that was a total fucking surprise. I thought it was just for film and television and such, but Queen's going in. That's something."
Well, in a way, Ozzy could be called an actor thanks to MTV. Keep in mind, Ozzy's career began long before videos were even a consideration.
"The Beatles were my first addiction," Ozzy says. "You can hear it in my music from song to song." And he should be the one to recognize an addiction. After repeated bouts of rehab for drug and alcohol abuse, Ozzy is cleaner now than he has ever been.
"You know, I quit smoking this year," he says with enthusiasm. "It was an act of God. I tried for a long time every way you can imagine to quit, but I finally got it in my head one day that the relationship was over."
But several relationships have persevered over the course of Ozzy's extensive career. At the top of his list: his wife and manager, Sharon. He says when they first got together some 20 years ago, he relished teasing her. "I'd tell her she should be like a wife. 'Why don't you go home and wash the dishes and have the babies?' And she'd tell me, 'Why don't you fucking go home and wash the dishes and see you try to have babies. But she's been managing me all these years. She's the best thing that ever happened to me."
Film maker Penelope Spheeris has also stuck close to Ozzy. In 1988 she gave rock and roll fans an insider's view to the scene with "The Decline of Western Civilization, Part II: The Metal Years." She went on to make box office hits "Wayne's World" and "Black Sheep" and just showed her most recent work "We Sold our Souls for Rock 'n' Roll" to audiences gathering at Sundance. The documentary that followed Ozzfest is due out any day.
Ozzy's also stayed tight with co-writing collaborators like Bob Daisley, Marty Friedrichsen, Mick Jones and Tim Palmer who worked with Ozzy on "Down to Earth."
The Ozzman has also formed a fast relationship with Merry Mayhem's co-headliner, Rob Zombie.
Zombie zoundz off
From Zombie's studio in Los Angeles, the master of monster-sized metal music took a break from an unexpectedly busy day. Although he was scheduled to be somewhere in the southeastern part of the country tempting the masses with cuts from his latest album "The Sinister Urge," Zombie found plenty to keep him busy when Ozzy was put on the injured list.
On a Friday earlier this month, Zombie was working on two videos - one for himself and one for Ozzy - along with a slew of telephone interviews. "I never have a day off," he commented.
Though Zombie is best known for his music, he is never short of projects to work on which include writing and directing a feature-length movie, producing the first CD created by his younger brother's band, Powerman 5000, and doing his own artwork for album covers. He is a multimedia mogul.
"This is our first tour since the summer of 1999 when we were on the road with Black Sabbath," Zombie says. "It can get hard sometimes if the tour goes on for a long time, but for the most part the whole band gets along really well and time goes by fast.
"But it's been really weird to stop right in the middle of a tour and then to pick it back up again," he says. "But it happens. As I've learned from my experience, everything is unpredictable."
That may be the case for the tour but as far as Zombie's popularity, that's a given.
A self-described fan of old horror flicks - a penchant he's harbored since his childhood in the small town of Haverhill, Mass. - Zombie briefly flirted with a career in television as a production assistant for "Pee-Wee's Playhouse," among other odd jobs.
In 1985, along with girlfriend Shauna Reynolds, guitarist Tom Guay and drummer Ivan de Prume, he formed White Zombie - the four-headed goth-child namesake of the 1933 Bela Lugosi film.
Through White Zombie, he found the perfect marriage and a genre all his own - horror music.
His gut-munching growl combined with heavy kicks drew attention from major filmmakers and soon he was contributing singles to box office hits such as "Judge Dredd," "The Crow: City of Angels" and "Beavis and Butt-head Do America."
"I don't write any new songs specifically for movies," Zombie says. "They usually come to you and ask if they can use a song. I get a dozen new requests every day."
Given his inclination for on-stage theatrics, Zombie is a favorite performer for special-effects aficionados as well as heavy metal fans. And with his ever-increasing popularity, his current show with the Merry Mayhem tour is undoubtedly the best yet.
"I've always been attracted the visual element," Zombie says, noting that effects are an essential element to a Zombie performance. "I remember the first time I saw KISS or Alice Cooper. I was probably in the second grade and I got super excited about them."
Now he's at the helm and has been for more than 15 years. But in the music he's making today, particularly that on "Sinister Urge," Zombie notes a marked difference.
There's still the adrenaline rush, the release angst-driven empathy. However, Zombie says, "(Sinister Urge) is more of a melodic record. We added a string section on a few songs and it gives it kind of a lush feel, something more alive. It was the logical next step."
Although Zombie's music has caught the attention of Grammy voters, he has yet to be officially recognized. "I've been nominated for a Grammy six times," he says. "But the way I look at it, it's kind of like any award program. It's a fun little thing. It doesn't really mean anything because they're not the ones buying and listening to the albums."
Zombie has better things to think about - the remaining tour dates for Merry Mayhem and then returning to the search for a distributor for his outrageous feature horror flick "House of 1,000 Corpses."
While fans eagerly awaited the release of the film that was finished this summer, Universal Pictures executives panned Zombie's cinematic debut, stating that the film was "too corrupt" for them to want to be associated with it. No matter how Zombie tried to edit the film, he was unable to get it past the Motion Picture Association of America with anything short of an NC-17 rating.
As Zombie told Rolling Stone, "While I was making this movie, I just kept thinking, 'This is so wrong.'"
"I knew it would be wrong for them but it was right for me," he clarifies. "Right now there are several distributors interested in carrying the movie, but I'm busy with the tour. It will probably come out sometime next summer."
After that? "I've been thinking about getting into producing some kind of children's television show, some kind of weird Saturday morning stuff," he says.
For now, tickets to Merry Mayhem will have to suffice. Prices are $65.75, $50.25 and $40.25 and are available through Ticketmaster at 243-1888 or Veterans Memorial Auditorium, 323-5400.
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Taking the Hiatt road
Goners not forgotten
By Sarah Hankel
If a person can be judged by the company he keeps, then John Hiatt is guiltily hip. With no premeditated plan to infiltrate numerous music genres, he has successfully snagged the devotion of hundreds of thousands of listeners, among them some of the biggest names in the biz.
As a matter of fact, the list of artists who attentively listen to Hiatt's soulful lyrical tales reads a bit like a K-Tel special. Major recording artists such as Willie Nelson, Eric Clapton, Jewel, Iggy Pop, B.B. King, Aaron Neville, Joe Cocker and Bonnie Raitt have all covered Hiatt penned tunes.
Bob Dylan even called and asked him to craft three songs for
the "Hearts of Fire" soundtrack. (None of them were used, but Dylan did eventually record "The Usual" for one of his albums.)
But writing songs specifically for other performers isn't Hiatt's ideal job. "I don't necessarily write for other people. I've always written for myself," he said in a phone interview from his home in Nashville. "I guess (other singers) find something in my songs that resonates within them."
Although Clapton's version of "Have a Little Faith in Me" and Raitt's version of "Thing Called Love" are beautifully done, there's nothing like
hearing these songs straight from the creator's mouth. On Friday, Nov. 30 at 8 p.m., about 2,000 fans will witness Hiatt's confessional when he performs at the Val Air Ballroom.
But his solo acoustic tunes will likely take a back seat for most of the show, as Hiatt was recently inspired to reunite with his former bandmates from The Goners for a four month nationwide tour in support of their most recent CD. "The Tiki Bar Is Open,"
released Sept. 11, is the first compilation of songs put out by Hiatt's former group in 13 years, and the reunion brings together some of the most talented musicians in history, including guitarist Sonny Landreth, drummer Kenneth Blevins and bassist Dave Ranson.
The tour had just started in the first part of September when Hiatt had to cancel several dates in Europe.
"We were on the West Coast, and I doubled up for 14 hours of the worst pain I've ever experienced," Hiatt recalled. "We had an
in-store performance the next day in San Francisco, and right after that, I went to the hospital." An emergency appendectomy was performed and he was sent home to Nashville to recuperate.
Now, on the road again, Hiatt fans will get their first taste of the re-formed Goners, which has deviated a bit from solid roots and blues. But with a band like this, nothing's impossible. They're survivors. Proving that point, Hiatt explains that he and the band were in New York City the day of the terrorist attacks, the same day "Tiki Bar" was released.
"We were there on Sept. 11 to tape a TV show," Hiatt says. "Seeing New York's heart get broken was just shocking. It bound us as a band and crew. I wasn't anticipating a good first week (for CD sales), but it was actually better than the last album. I remember (hearing that) and hanging up the phone and immediately feeling guilty."
Maybe it's this tangible empathy that makes Hiatt's music so easily accessible. However, many of his songs deal with his own hardships. His first wife committed suicide not long after
their first child was born. He's battled alcoholic tendencies and even risked surgery to remove a cyst from a vocal cord. Fortunately, his one-of-a-kind idyllic and distinguished sound was not hindered.
"Everybody has hardships," he says. "But your mistakes are often your biggest opportunities. Personally, I'm like a mule. I gotta really run my head in to something before I get it. It's like I said in 'Hang Around Here,' I'm proud of my mistakes and I never meant to hurt anyone."
With such elaborate lyrics set to complex guitar lead music, it's easy to forgive and identify with Hiatt, who could be called self-serving in his art, he says he gets the biggest thrill from performing for an audience.
"When I perform I have the opportunity to get out of myself," he says. "It's kind of like an out-of-body experience. I imagine there's this arc that forms between me and the audience, and we meet somewhere in the middle. I like it up there."
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STAGE
Street corner slackers deliver convenience store philosophy in 'subUrbia.'
By Sarah Hankel
Nine talented, local actors created a few moments of clarity last Thursday (Sept. 27) when they gave a preview performance of "subUrbia." And through their 2 1/2-hour presentation of Eric Bogosian's story, which was published in 1994 and made into a movie in 1997, it was revealed that some scripts are best suited for the stage.
Set in the parking lot of a nondescript convenience store, a group of five young adults who have been friends for years, gather on a nightly basis to carry on weighty, witty, non-conformist conversation, drink beer, smoke pot and annoy the pants off the store owner and his wife.
Doused with indoctrination - ranging from alcoholism to Zen Buddhism - there is much to identify with in the script, a lot to laugh at and even a few things to think about. And because each character is so unique, a plot line is doomed to develop.
Tim (Clint Curtis) portrays the angry young man, honorably discharged from the air force after purposefully cutting off his little finger while on kitchen patrol. Now, at 22, he spends his days imbibing incessantly, raving about white power and why the world owes him a living.
Best buddy, Jeff, (Jeff Rohrick) tends to keep Tim on a leash, reining him in with logical statements despite his despicable generalizations and caustic temper. Jeff reasons for tolerating Tim's volatile temperament: He's honest.
Buff (Billy Kirby) is the perfect comic relief. A stoner, a drinker, a ladies man, pizza lover and wannabe surfer. Buff is the "class clown" that every group of friends has.
Sooze (Susan Gilbranson) is a bird in a gilded cage. Dying to escape her suburban hometown to pursue a career in performance art in New York, her dreams are further inspired by high school chum turned rock star, Pony (Mark Harbeke).
Pony, a.k.a. "Neeeeil Moy-ni-ham" as Jeff and Tim whine him, is an enigma revered by Buff and Sooze and despised by Jeff and Tim because of his fame and fortune and his sappy belief that his hometown is the epitome of inner peace and harmony.
Nazeer and Pakeez Chaudry (Waqar Shaikh and Dolly Kanjani), the convenience store owners, are the clan's collective focus for all their hatred whether racially biased or the Pakistani couple's drive to achieve the American dream.
The clan is rounded out with Bebe (Kelsi Crivaro) - a quiet, unobtrusive young woman and the only one with a "real" job - who hangs with the crew just to get a glimpse of Pony. For the most part, she sits and listens to her slacker friends bitch and berate, but breaks form for a romantic rendezvous with Buff. However, as the play unfolds, much more is revealed about Bebe and in many ways, she becomes the most "real" character of all.
Erica (Amanda Lloyd) illuminates the other end of the spectrum. Employed as Pony's publicist, Erica was born with a silver spoon engraved in Bel Air. Just for the experience, she tags along for an evening out with Pony and his high school friends.
But "subUrbia" isn't all talk. There's plenty of action - fight scenes, spittle flying in anger and an inspirational striptease. It all comes together in one night, with a few twists of fate that changes everyone's lives forever - taking each character from their quarter-life crisis into full adulthood.
So to all those Gen-Xers and -Yers, skip the cineplex and the video store this weekend and take a trip to "subUrbia" instead.
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SCREEN
Disabling dada
Ignore the obvious, enjoy the story
By Sarah Hankel
Realists, beware. The Sean Penn-Michelle Pfeiffer indie flick "I Am Sam" that deals with a mentally disabled father trying to retain custody of his daughter has a whole lot of explaining to do. However, if you're able to suspend time and place, and can get lost in grown up version of "Rain Man", then bring the Kleenexes.
From the start, it becomes apparently clear that Sam Dawson (Penn) is a perfectionist when it comes to sorting condiments, but when it comes down to discernment of character his sorting techniques fail miserably.
A kind-hearted, retarded man who resembles Dustin Hoffman in "Rain Man" and Leonardo di Caprio in "What's Eating Gilbert Grape," Sam believes the best about everyone he meets including a homeless woman who takes advantage of his meager living conditions and rewards him with a daughter. The birth of Lucy Diamond Dawson, named after Sam's favorite Beatles song, quickly makes him America's most dysfunctional dad �??�?�¢?? in some ways. In other aspects, Sam becomes the premeir paternal role model.
With absolutely no inkling of an idea of how to care for a baby, Sam turns to his agrophobic neighbor Annie (Dianne Wiest) for help. (It's a good thing his apartment complex accepts Title 8.)
Flashes of her infantile development show Sam and Lucy (Dakota Fanning) laughing and loving, playing in the park and folding lots of origami swans. Sam has a new playmate, much to the dismay of his five closest friends who predict that his new roommate will bring about the end of weekly movie nights and trips to IHOP. But it's all fun. Sure he struggles with his first diaper which is adorable but what about immunizations? what about potty training? what about that first major head wound that causes all first-time parents to rush to the hospital for stitches? (Remember folks, even if this isn't a "major" motion picture, we're still dealing with Hollywood.)
Sure, there's the issue of finding child care for Lucy while Sam continues his 8-year career with Starbucks, but that's easily remedied by his homebound neighbor, Annie, who also teaches Lucy to play piano. And, of course, there's a hint of money problems, but it has more to do with Sam's inability to understand monetary value. It's not until Lucy begins school does it become apparent that Sam's little girl, at six, is quickly surpassing him in intelligence and judgement. (One would think that school faculty would have detected a red flag when he went to register her for classes, but they don't go there. Instead, they leave it up to Data from Star Trek's Next Generation to provide a judgmental pause as Sam and his buddies collectively buy Lucy's shoes.)
After nearly seven years Sam's and Lucy's situation is finally outed when, once again, Sam befriends an unsavory woman. He is arrested, in comes the social worker and down come the tears �??�?�¢?? from Sam, Lucy and the viewing audience.
Undoubtedly Sam has no clue what the judge is telling him when she says he must "secure legal counsel," but somehow he figures it out. Leafing through the Yellow Pages he lands on a high-profile, "four person" named law firm which leads him to cutthroat, bitchy, compulsive Rita Harrison (or lovely Rita, meter maid, as Beatle-obsessed Sam calls her).
Under pressure from her co-workers, Rita finally accepts, kicking and cursing, to take on Sam's pathetic case. And because she is also obsessive-compulsive and a perfectionist, she becomes committed to helping Sam in the fight to try and win back his daughter from bitchy foster mom Randy (Laura Dern).
Although "I Am Sam" is as full of flaws as Sam is as a parent, it's also just as endearing. Tears flow if you let them. (The ticket taker said she was dehydrated from crying so much.) If not the crying kind, at least give the movie industry a thumbs up for including two real-life mentally-disabled actors making a big screen dream. However, the biggest highlight of this movies is the soundtrack - a dozen of the Beatles best-known songs, recreated impeccably by artists like Ben Folds, Sarah McLaughlan and Eddie Vedder.
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VISUAL ART
Patriotism in posters
A partnership of more than 25 Des Moines area communications firms has launched an artistic enterprise to create a renewed sense of pride in being an American. "Art Fights Back," a collection of posters inspired by world events since Sept. 11, will be introduced to Des Moines in a special exhibit benefit Dec. 7-9 at Veterans Memorial Auditorium.
Opening the weekend event will be a special tribute to the 60th anniversary of the attack on Pearl Harbor on Friday from 4 to 8 p.m. Tickets for the preview are $25, which includes refreshments and a special presentation.
The exhibit will be open free of charge on Saturday from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. and Sunday from noon to 4 p.m. Donations will be accepted.
The entire set of 25 posters will be on display and visitors will have the opportunity to purchase original prints and reproductions. A commemorative book containing photographs of the posters is also available.
Proceeds will benefit relief efforts and Iowa men and women serving in the armed forces.
For more information, log on to www.artfightsback.org or call 279-2922. - Sarah Hankel
Photographer comes home
It's been awhile since she's been in town but local arts aficionados remember critically acclaimed photographer and Des Moines native Anna Gaskell. Her latest work will be on display at the Des Moines Art Center, 4700 Grand Ave., from Dec. 8 through March 2. However, those attending the museum's monthly Arts After Hours on Friday, Dec. 7 will get a preview and special treat when Gaskell lectures at 6:30 p.m. in Levitt Auditorium.
The evening will be rounded out by a performance from Berklee College of Music graduate Kevin Bachelder, who will play from 5:30 to 8:30 p.m. A cash bar will be open throughout the evening, and Zanzibar coffee will be served. Admission is free. For more information, call 277-4405. - Sarah Hankel
Cost-effective art
Artists are often perceived to be tortured souls, introverted and struggling to make ends meet but local painter Scott Alan Wright is breaking that mold. Currently several of his colorful abstract creations are on display at Morning Lights Books and Tapes, 1251 73rd St. in Windsor Heights, but on March 23 he's hoping to sell as many as possible during a fund-raising auction to benefit Goodwill Industries' Day Activity Program. The reception begins at 7 p.m. and the public is welcome. A $5 admission donation is requested and will also benefit the organization. Classical chamber music quartet Sata Rupa will perform. For more information, call 255-9256.
If you're looking for good prices and want a wide selection of artwork to choose from, Friday, March 22 offers a spring show by 218 1/2 Paintpushers. Opening at 5 p.m., the public is invited to the Kirkwood Hotel to peruse pieces by 13 local artists who specialize in various mediums. The venue will be open until 11 p.m. and re-open Saturday from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. - Sarah Hankel
