MusiCares MAP Fund 2014 honors Ozzy Osbourne & Jeff Greenberg

MusiCares MAP Fund 10th Anniversary Benefit Concert

May 12, 2014

Club Nokia- Los Angeles, CA

Before we start talking about this legendary concert that made all the Monday blues go away, we will give you some background information on the awesome organization that brought the show to the fans. MusicCares Foundation is a non-profit which offers programs and services to members of the music community, including emergency financial assistance for basic living expenses such as rent, utilities and car payments; medical expenses including doctor, dentist, disease, etc. MusiCares MAP Fund allows access to addiction recovery treatment and sober living resources for members of the music community.

May 12, 2014 was the 10th anniversary of the MusiCares MAP Fund benefit show and this year honored Black Sabbath’s Grammy winning singer/songwriter, Ozzy Osbourne and owner/CEO of Village studios, Jeff Greenberg. Osbourne was honored with the Stevie Ray Vaughan Award for his dedication and support of the MusiCares MAP Fund and was recognized for his commitment to helping other addicts with the addiction recovery process. Greenberg was a recipient of the From the Heart Award for his unconditional friendship and dedication to the mission and goals of the organization. All proceeds of the event benefited the MusiCares MAP Fund so it can continue to provide access to addiction recovery treatment regardless of financial situation.

Shortly after the red-carpet, the event began at 8:00pm. The floor area of the venue was transformed to a nice sitting area with couches, sofas and tables for the celebrities and lucky fans to relax on; but the majority of fans sat in the upper balcony however, as those tickets were far cheaper and did not include a VIP buffet. Nonetheless, everyone at this show was in for a treat and there were some exclusive things, that are never to be seen again.

Partner of MusiCares and at the event, was the family of Adam Goldstein, better know as his stage name DJ AM of Beastie Boys. The audience in attendance got a special sneak peek from the upcoming theatrical documentary As I Am: The Life And Times Of DJ AM. The short trailer was captivating and gave us an insight to the film and to AM’s life. As the trailer concluded, Neil Portnow, president/CEO of The Recording Academy and Grammy Foundation came on stage and said a couple words before he introduced the host of the night, actor and comedian, Dax Shepard who filled the night with laughs, right off the bat;

“Hi, I’m Dax and I’m an alcoholic,” he said as the audience laughed.

He then went on to point out a fan in the audience who had “OZZY” written across his forehead, and suggested that Osbourne should do that in case he ever gets lost at the airport. He then proceeded to ask the fan who he was there to see that night.

“Ozzy will be honored by Joe Walsh for his sobriety…yeah those are the first people I think of when I think of clean living- Keith Richards, John Bonham, and Ozzy Osbourne…If Ozzy is the guy that goes and sends you to rehab, you must be really fucked up!”

The first musician of the night included Grammy nominated artist Beth Hart on vocals and was joined by 6 time Grammy winner, Chad Smith of Red Hot Chili Peppers on drums.

“I’m in recovery too… and it’s hard. When I was a kid my friend showed me this song and I heard it and I was like ‘who is that amazing voice?’ and he said it was Ozzy. And that songs was Changes.” She said as she went on to perform Osbourne’s song Changes and end her set.

Next up was 3 times Grammy winner, Keb’ Mo’ who kept it simple saying,

“I’m gonna play y’all a couple songs and then get the hell out the way.” The fans got into his country blues songs and clapped along till the end.

After Keb’Mo’s performance, TV host, comedian, writer, actor, director and producer Craig Ferguson took the podium. He recalled stories of Jeff Greenberg before he presented Greenberg with the From the Heart Award. As Ferguson left the podium, he made one last joke about how you can snort cocaine off the award,

“I don’t know if you’ll ever go back there, but you can chop shit up on there.”

As Greenberg spoke on the stand, he expressed his gratitude and appreciation because he is usually the “guy behind the scenes”. He told a few stories about his early life, his addiction, overcoming it and thanked Al Schmitt for saving his life. He then proceeded to talk about how great of an organization MAP Fund is for people in the music industry as how it is confidential and offers free support and help.

Following the acceptance of the award, Metallica was introduced and all the hard core fans started cheering at the top of their lungs. The guys did an acoustic set- yes you read that right- Metallica doing an acoustic set. They performed 4 songs, all of which were covers; they included I Just Want to Celebrate by Rare Earth; When a Blind Man Cries by Deep Purple; In My Life by the Beatles and Diary of a Madman by Ozzy Osbourne. Although it was something new and never seen from them, many of the fan’s were disappointed that they did not play any of their original songs. Fans chanted in between songs different song names but their requests were left unheard and unanswered.

Soon after, Dax Shepard was back on stage, making some more jokes and entertaining the crowd as the stage was being made for Ozzy.

“Donald Sterling was supposed to host this event tonight but had to drop out at the last minute when he heard about Metallica’s Black Album”

It wasn’t long after, when the room turned black and all the TV screens displayed 1 video of none other than Ozzy Osbourne. There were clips of him performing; clips of him talking about getting the award saying that when Sharon [Osbourne] told him he was getting an award for his sobriety, he asked if he was really THAT bad before to be getting an award for being sober. Sharon and Osbourne’s children shared their personal experiences with getting sober and shared their pride and respect for him even both before and after he became sober.

After the video, Harold Owens of MusiCares spoke to the audience about the organization and gave them personal experiences and his own problems and how the MusiCares MAP Fund team is the best at what they do at helping people. He proceeded to introduce Joe Walsh, singer/songwriter of The Eagles who tried to keep it short and spoke about his early 20’s, experimenting with drugs and alcohol and how overtime those things convinced him that he couldn’t live without them.

“30 years later, I became a Godless, hateful thing… it’s hard to explain the fear, terror, sadness that you have when you realize that you can’t stop. I was lost. I was an addict and alcoholic. I had nowhere to go and no one to call. I’m so glad to be here tonight and be apart of this and that MusiCares is here. There is now a place for musicians to go and it will save many lives.”.

As he tried to introduce Osbourne, there seemed to be some problems so Walsh continued to stall by telling the crowd a joke,

“There are 2 guys who are on top of a building and the first is a normal guy and he says, ‘I’m gonna look into my lunch pail and if I have another PB&J sandwich, I’m going to jump off the roof’. He opens his lunch pail, finds the sandwich and jumps. The second guy is an alcoholic and says ‘I’m gonna look into my lunch pail and if I have another PB&J sandwich, I’m going to jump off the roof’. He opens his lunch pail, finds the sandwich and jumps. At the funeral the first guys wife says, ‘I don’t understand, if he would have just told me he wanted something else I would have made him something else.’ The second guy’s wife says, ‘I don’t get it, he made his own lunch’.

Osbourne finally appeared on stage and made his acceptance speech short and simple so he could get to doing what he does best. On stage as a backing band, Osbourne had Dave Navarro on guitar, Blasko on Bass and Tommy Clufetos on drums. All of the other performances were watched while sitting down and Osbourne was going to have none of that,

“Are you gonna be sitting down all night or get off your ass!?” He asked as everyone in the audience jumped to their feet. He proceeded with I Don’t Know; Suicide Solution; Iron Man and Crazy Train until he introduced guitar legend, Slash for the final song. Billy Idol guitarist, Billy Morrison also came too and the band performed Parnoid, ending the set. Having the pit area transformed into a classy seating area did not stop Osbourne from doing what he does, throwing water from a bucket onto the crowd, which mostly ended up getting his children, Kelly and Jake Osbourne, soaking wet.

As one would imagine, as soon as Osbourne and the band left the stage, the chanting began and it felt like a actual rock show, not an award show; the fans didn’t get an encore though. Jax Shepard came back on stage one last time,

“Normally you’d all be drunk by now and I’d say drive safe, but you’re all sober so drive like assholes”.

And just like that the event ended. It was truly a memorable and inspiring event for addicts and non addicts alike. Whether people were there to support a great organization or just enjoy some amazing music, everyone got what they wanted and more. We can’t wait to see what year 11 has in store!

Review by: Nicole Lemberg

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