Wednesday 30 July 2014

Band Interview: Miracle Man: the Ultimate Tribute to Ozzy Osbourne with Ace OZZbourne

Miracle Man:
the Ultimate Tribute to Ozzy Osbourne
Interview with: Ace OZZbourne
Band website: www.miracle-man.de
Band FB: Miracle Man
Country: Germany
Genre: Heavy Metal
Email Interview Conducted by: Lady Kat Chaos
Date: 2014

OCZ: Hails! Thanks for taken a few moments to respond to our interview. Please write brief bio about Miracle Man (Ozzy Osbourne Tribute Band)....

Miracle Man: No problem, it's great to be talking with you. the Ultimate Tribute to Ozzy Ozbourne was formed in 2011 by myself and my guitar player Max E. Lee.

We are in another band, but our bassist was missing so many practices that we could never book any gigs. I wanted to do another project with another bassist so we could get out and do shows.  So at one practice i approached Max with the idea of doing a full cover project. Max had the idea of doing a 'Tribute' band. Eventually we settled on the idea of paying tribute to Ozzy :-)

OCZ: Do you have one of your friends throw a bat at you, as it happened to Ozzy so many years ago?

Nope, I do the Bat thing myself.  I wanted to do the 'Ultimate Tribute' to Ozzy so it was important for me to have the bat as a part of the show. As Ozzy has a great sense of humor, I figured it would be a gag that he would understand and appreciate.

OCZ: What sets you apart from other Ozzy tribute bands? Any interesting obscure or chaotic road stories?

I think what sets us apart from any other Ozzy trib that I have seen on the internet is that I do not try to be Ozzy NOW. I am trying to be Ozzy back in the early 80's.

From what I have seen, all Ozzy tribs are trying to look like the Ozz man does now. I wanted to stand out a bit more and do Ozz when he was at his most insane...

Well, there was one festival we did called Rock for Animal Rights. It was organized by vegans and they were a bit shocked about my biting the head off of a bat. hehehehe Ozzy would have been proud.

OCZ: What's is the hardest aspect of re-creating a Ozzy show?

Money... We do not have the funds to do our show the way we want. But hopefully as time goes on, we will be able to build up our poduction. My dream is to have a stage set that looks like something between Diary of a Madman and Bark at the Moon. The actual show itself is more me tapping into my inner OZZ so people will buy that i could be him. so far it seems to be working.
But as far as re- creating an Ozzy show, for me it is important to give ourselves room to be flexible. That is why I tell everyone, we are a fantasy Ozzy Tribute. We are not restricting ourselves to what Ozzy is now. We are taking what he did with the medieval direction he started back in 81' 82' and running with that, sort of a where would he have gone had he stuck with that medieval look.

OCZ: Well it's more about the production, with the lights and presentation. Tell us about your full presentation for those who haven't seen you perform? How many sets do you perform?

As I said, it comes back to the money. We have only been together as Miracle Man for for about 3 years. The first year and a half was working on the set and getting the songs down so they would be right.

Then it was about booking shows. It is not easy over here in Germany in the Cologne area to get shows as an Ozzy trib. The music direction is not right, it leans more towards techno and pop. But we are working on getting more shows in the south of Germany where metal is still loved and appreciated.

Basically we only do one set. Our show is just under 2 hours long. If people want more, we are more than happy to build up our song repetoir.

OCZ: How often to you change up the set lists from one show to the next, and is it almost completely different every time. Are there any songs which you have never played? What new songs have you added to your set-list? What albums or songs do you cover?

Our set list is pretty consistent. We do have a shorter set list we do when we are asked to play with another band as an opener or when we do festvals. I might change the order of the songs once in a while, but we always start the show with the same 2 songs and end it with the same 3 songs. The newest song we are doing is No More Tears.
Here is our basic setlist:
Bark at the Moon
Crazy Train
Ultimate Sin
Flying High
I Don’t Know
Over the Mountain
Killer of Giants
Hellraiser
No More Tears
I Don't Want To Change …
Miracle Man
Mr. Crowley
Crazy Babies
Shot in the Dark
Center of Eternity
Suicide Solution
Rock and Roll Rebel
War Pigs
Children of the Grave /Paranoid

OCZ: Which songs do Ozzy fans request most at your shows?

Till now we have had no requests. I think that we have pretty much all the songs in our set that the fans want. We have made an effort to include most of his hits in the show, so i think they are happy right now. Maybe when we are playing more gigs, the fans will want to hear more variety.

OCZ: What are your personal favorite Ozzy songs to perform? Have you ever thought of putting together a festival of your own?

I have a few. Center of Eternity, No More Tears, Mr. Crowley, Children of the Grave, Rock and Roll Rebel, and of course, Miracle Man. I really love doing our complete set, but these are the ones that call to me always.

Yes, I have thought of putting together my own festival. It would be a benefit for Multiple Sclerosis Research. My wife and I actually talked to Metallica about the possibility of the playing for our festival. They are interested. But of course, it will be some time before we can make that happen.

OCZ: How important is it to try and maintain your Ozzy look?

Now that is the one thing I think sets me apart from the other tribs. When I am on-stage, I am Ozzy. I try to do everything as Ozzy would. But when I come off of the stage, I am me.  I do not want to be Ozzy all day long, I want to be Ozzy on stage. It is kind of like being an actor in a movie; You are the character when you are on set, but when you go home, you have to be you again. I do not feel the need to be Ozzy off-stage. Nobody can do that right except the Man himself. I am giving tribute to him on-stage as he is one of my favs and has had an impact on me. But I will not try to be him off-stage. Most other Tribsingers  try to be Ozzy all the time. I am proud of who I am. It is who God made me to be, He just gave me the gift to be able to help people believe I am Ozzy for a couple of hours  and that works for me. Maybe for some pictures I can put on the Ozzy persona, but offstage, I am me. And the fans like it that way.

OCZ: Have many times have you seen Ozzy in concerts?

Sadly and strangely enough, Never. I really would love to, but I always missed him when he came round.

OCZ: How often do you rehearse?

Band practice is generally 1 to 2 times a week. If we have a show coming up, we might practice more. But as I said earlier, we spent the first year and a half working on the songs and show in the practice room before we ever did a live show. The point was so we would only need to practice to keep in shape or to work on new ideas.

OCZ: What was your favorite, and least favorite, Miracle Man gig?

Oddly enough my least favorite and most favorite took place in the same venue within 8 months of each other. The least favorite was in Troisdorf Germany at the JKC. We had organized the show and got some friends of ours to open for us. We were the only ones doing promotion, and the opening band already had a certain number of friends that commited to coming. Unfortunately, on the same weekend we had booked the show, there was aready a big function going on in Bonn just down the road. There was an open air with an AC/DC trib, a Ramstein trib and a Judas Priest trib, all for free. So, as you can imagine, only a few people showed, all friends from the opener and us. As soon as the opener had finished, they left for the free party with their friends. In a way it was stupid as their friends already payed entrance by us. But we were left with an almost empty house.

Ironically the best gig was in the same place just last month in February. We played on my birthday, and we had a really good turnout, and everyone sang happy birthday to me in the middle of the show.

OCZ: What goals do you wish to achieve as a Ozzy tribute band?

Our goal is to do more shows. We love to play and would love to Bring the Madness to anybody that will have us. My personal goal is to try to make ur production bigger and better so we can really put on a great visual show for the public.

OCZ: How is the Ozzy's tribute band business?

At the moment it is a bit slow. As I said, it is not easy doing a tribute band over here. But we are trying to get a manager to help us to organize better gigs so we can achieve our goals.

OCZ: Do you work with a contract? How can one contact you if they are interested in booking you?

We do try to work with contracts. It is better and safer for everyone all around.
If any one wants to book us, they can contact me at:
 ace@miracle-man.de or
011-49-2241-849-3499
Our website is: www.miracle-man.de
Facebook: www.facebook.com/miracle.man.ozzy

OCZ: Who created your new backdrop?

I did. I made it on Microsoft Office word 2007. When I was done witht the design, I send it to a friend who made the file big enough to be made into a 3 meter by 2 meter banner, then I sent it off and had it made.  Not bad huh?  ;-)

OCZ: Has Ozzy ever seen you perform?

No he hasn't. I really would love for him to see  us.  I think he would really enjoy our show. Everyone that has seen us has loved us, even if they were not Ozzy fans, so I think we must be doing something right.

OCZ: What's in the future for Miracle Man?

To continue to do more shows and pay tribute to the Ultimate Madman of Rock and Roll in the best way we can.

OCZ: Are any of the members in other bands?

Well, we are all in other bands. Our bassist Jens Daisley, is playing in a Karneval band in our area. Anyone who knows the Cologne area of Germany knows that the karneval season is huge. it starts on 11.11 (November 11)  at 11.11 in the morning and goes till Rose monday (technically it goes till Ash Wednesday)

Our drummer Joe Castillo is in a band with Max and myself. Our other Band is called Pink Slip Cologne. We are a Hard Rock/ Heavy Metal band. We write our own material, but we also cover everything from AC/DC to ZZ Top. We tend more toward the Glam/Sleaze scene, but it is fun and we really enjoy it.

OCZ: Any last comments, advice, or thank yous before we lock our metal gates behind you "Crazy Babies" as you head out singing "Mamma I'm Coming Home".......

On a personal note, I would like to ask your readers to please help us to do what they can to help us find a cure for Multiple Sclerosis.  My wife has had MS since she was 16 and so it is a really personal thing for us. Please go online and find out what ye can do to help, and support the research...  come to my MS page and give us a like: www.facebook.com/pages/MSR-Musicians-Supporting-the-Research. We try to keep everyone updated on the sites MS news both from the American and German medical Research organizations.

And to finish off, we want to thank all at Obscure Chaos Zine for being so great. Thanks for your support. We would also like to thank the people who have supported us and believe in us over the years, our family’s and friends. Most especially we want to thank Ozzy for being Ozzy. A great entertainer and true Madman.

Thank You and we Love you all.... ROCK AND ROLL....



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