OZZY, KORN, PEPPER ROCK THE STREETS AT STRIP MUSIC FESTIVAL 2009

Hollywood celebrated the infamous Sunset Strip with the 2nd Annual Sunset Strip Music Festival September 10th-12th and the event marked the first time the city closed a significant portion of The Sunset Strip for a music event, and it allowed for outdoor stages and increased attendance. SSMF featured two concert stages with performances from Ozzy Osbourne, Korn, Pepper, Kottonmouth Kings, Fishbone, Cypress Hill’s B Real, LMFAO and Iglu & Hartley to name a few. Besides the street festival, the many historic venues on the Strip showcased live performances as well at such legendary venues like the Cat Club, House of Blues, Key Club, The Roxy Theatre, Viper Room and Whisky A Go-Go. West Hollywood’s Sunset Strip has been the location for the start of countless music and entertainment careers, and it continues to be a location that holds allure throughout the world as a destination with a vibrant and influential entertaining landscape.

Ozzy Osbourne, who was honored by the city of West Hollywood as they declared September 10th Ozzy Osbourne day, has been at the forefront of metal music for the past four decades and he’s seen The Sunset Strip change over the years. Ozzy even talked about recently visiting what used to be the old Hyatt House, which was nick named The Riot House in the 1960’s and 1970’s due to the wild parties and crazy antics from members of bands like Led Zeppelin, The Who, Black Sabbath and The Rolling Stones.

“That’s a fact. We just came in and my wife told me she would meet me at the hotel and I thought it would be a different hotel. We went to what used to be the Hyatt House and I had not been there since 1973. It’s not even called The Hyatt anymore. They’ve done it all up.”

On the red carpet at the kick off of The Sunset Strip Music Festival Henry Rollins talked about The Sunset Strip being the main vein of muisc culture.

“When some people think of Sunset Strip they think of The Doors and the great Whiskey riot or Black Flag and the second great Whiskey riot when Black Flag shut down the Whiskey and the cops came and everyone got their heads cracked open. It is a main vein of music culture and when you talk about L.A. you also have to talk about the world because the world comes to Hollywood and California for everything from IT to where culture is going. A lot of that culture comes from California and a lot of it specifically comes from Hollywood and inside Hollywood, one of the main veins is The Sunset Strip. It is eternal. It is a destination people come from all over the world just to look at The Whiskey because they remember who played on that stage.”

Pepper also talked about missing out on the Sunset Strip of the 80’s metal scene but how grateful they were to be performing with Ozzy Osbourne on the street of Sunset Blvd.

“Back in the early 80’s that whole scene was going on here you know what I mean. Dress up in leather and studs and all that and if you made it here and you sold out the Roxy you were famous kind of thing. We missed that boat. The drugs were good, women were easy and you could make it after one show. I missed those days. So that’s what we were hunting when we were on the plane. Little did we know we can’t hunt. We can’t hunt at all. But here we are, here’s the full circle of the story. We’re playing with Ozzy Osborne tonight. Thank you.”

A few of the other bands who performed at The Sunset Strip Music Festival in 2009 were Shwayze, Shiny Toy Guns, Unwritten law, The Donnas, The Ringers, Onesidezero, The Pricks and Nico Stai. Just a few of the many highlights was Ozzy performing with his new guitarist Gus G who takes over for long time guitarist Zakk Wylde, Korn’s energetic performance to a packed Sunset Blvd main stage, Iglu & Hartley keeping the crowd jumping at The Roxy after performing a secret show at The Viper Room earlier in the day, Pepper bringing their brand of Reggae music to the Strip, Simon Rex of MTV fame performing as his alter ego Dirt Nasty and Shwayze which features Cisco Adler and LMFAO tearing up the 2nd stage as the sun set on Sunset.