Diary of a Madman Tour

Background

After the Blizzard of Ozz Tour, the band took a one-month break before going to Europe to start the tour supporting the upcoming album, Diary of a Madman, which was scheduled to be released worldwide on November 7, 1981. Ozzy, Rhoads, Rudy Sarzo, Tommy Aldridge, and Lindsay Bridgwater reconvened at Shepperton Studios in England where they would spend the next two weeks rehearsing

Europe leg

On November 4, 1981, the band arrived in Hamburg, Germany to start the tour, opening up for Saxon in Europe. The band's first show at Ernst-Merck-Halle in front of a sold-out crowd. On November 7, Diary of a Madman was released worldwide and "Flying High Again", "Over the Mountain", "You Can't Kill Rock and Roll" and "Diary of a Madman" were released as singles. On November 13, after the band's performance at Upper Swabia Hall in Ravensburg, Sharon called off the rest of the Europe leg because of Ozzy's mental health issues because of his marriage with Thelma Osbourne having fallen apart. Sharon took Ozzy back to England and had him checked into a mental health clinic while the rest of the went on excursions throughout Germany and France before going back to England.

On November 22, the rest of the band reconvened at Shepperton Studios to begin pre-production rehearsals for the United Kingdom dates while Ozzy was in the hospital. The band rehearsed songs off of Blizzard of Ozz, the three Black Sabbath songs they had already been performing, "Over the Mountain," "Flying High Again" and "Believer" from Diary of a Madman. On November 29, with opening act Girl, the band performed at Colston Hall in Bristol. On December 2, the band performed its last show of the leg at the Royal Court Theatre in Liverpool. The rest of the European leg was canceled because of Ozzy's depression.

North American leg (December 1981–March 19, 1982)

After returning to Los Angeles on December 5, the band took a break for a couple weeks break and then began pre-production rehearsals. Lindsay Bridgwater departed at this time and Don Airey, former keyboardist of Rainbow was hired. In December, Entertainment Tonight taped some video footage of their rehearsals for a segment of the new show. On December 30, the band performed at the Cow Palace in Daly City, California. Rhoads received the Best New Talent Award from Guitar Player. The band headed back to Los Angeles for their last show at the Los Angeles Memorial Sports Arena. English hard rock and heavy metal band UFO and Starfighters were added to the bill as the opening bands. On January 7, the band played at Tingley Coliseum in Albuquerque. The local news filmed the first part of the show where the band performed "Over the Mountain" and "Mr. Crowley."

On January 20 at the Des Moines Veterans Memorial Auditorium a fan threw a live bat onto the stage and Ozzy, believing it to be a toy, bit the bat's head off and spit it out on stage causing him to be checked into a local hospital to receive rabies shots. On January 24 at Rosemont Horizon in Rosemont, Illinois, Ozzy lifted Rhoads up by his right leg during "Mr. Crowley" when a professional photographer captured the moment on camera and was used as the album cover for the live album, Tribute. On January 26, as the band played "Over the Mountain" at the Assembly Hall, Ozzy collapsed during the middle of the song, was pulled off stage by Sharon and the rest of stage crew while the band finished instrumentally, was rushed to the hospital and the remainder of the show was cancelled. Ozzy was given two days to rest and heal from sickness from the rabies shots while the band went to Chicago.

On February 2, before the band's performance at Civic Arena, Rhoads did a guitar seminar at the "Music City" Record Store in Greensburg, Pennsylvania. On February 11, after playing at the Market Square Arena in Indianapolis, tensions between Ozzy and Rhoads grew as Rhoads did not want to play on the live record that would consist of Black Sabbath songs as he felt it would be a major step backward in his career, but the record company forced Ozzy and Sharon to release the album. On February 16, the band performed at Fair Park Coliseum in Beaumont, Texas, where the soundcheck rehearsal that took place earlier that day was captured on video. On February 19, Sharon hid all of Ozzy's clothes so that he could not drink anymore, but Ozzy put on Sharon's nightgown, got drunk, urinated on The Alamo and was arrested. He was released hours before the show since Sharon warned the police that the concert promoters were worried that not releasing Ozzy from jail would cause the cancellation of that evening's performance and possibly incite a riot. After Ozzy was released, they performed at the San Antonio Convention Center Arena. Ozzy became "Public Enemy #1" in Texas and received death threats from parents, religious groups and political activists. On February 20, before that evening's performance at Reunion Arena, Rhoads agreed to play on the live album, one more studio album and tour with Ozzy, and then he would leave to go to the University of California, Los Angeles to get his master's degree in classical guitar. On March 18, the band performed in front of a sold-out crowd at Knoxville Civic Coliseum.

The band had gotten onto the tour bus, which was supposed to be heading to Orlando, Florida for the Rock Super Bowl at the Tangerine Bowl on March 20, but a problem with the bus forced it to a depot called Flying Baron Estates, outside of Leesburg, Florida for repairs. Ozzy, Sharon, Rudy, and Tommy were all asleep while Randy, Don, tour manager Jake Duncan, Rhoad's hairdresser Rachel Youngblood, bus driver Andrew Aycock and his wife Wanda and the rest of the crew were awake. On the property, there was an airstrip and a hangar full of small airplanes. Aycock, who claimed to be an experienced pilot, took a Beechcraft Bonanza F35 plane out of the hangar and offered to take people up in the air. During one of the flights with Aycock, Rhoads, and Youngblood, the left wing struck the bus causing the plane to crash, instantly killing all on board. Once the investigation was over on March 21, the band returned to Los Angeles where they would spend the next two weeks trying to recuperate from the tragedy while trying to look for another guitarist.

North American leg (1982)

The band was in a severe state of depression, especially Ozzy, whose drug and alcohol addiction and mental state had grown worse. Originally, on the day of Randy's passing, Ozzy said that it was over and that he never wanted to play again, but Sharon got Ozzy back on his feet by finishing the tour for the fans since "You Can't Kill Rock 'N' Roll," which is what Ozzy said when he was interviewed on the Late Night with David Letterman one week after Randy's death. Rudy called his younger brother, future-Hurricane lead-guitarist, Robert Sarzo and asked him to audition and play the material the same as Randy and was hired. Another guitarist had shown up to audition, former-Gillan guitarist, Bernie Tormé, who had been hired and given an advance by Sharon's father, Don Arden, and even though his audition did not go smoothly, because he was not familiar with the material as well as his style, feel and way of playing being different from Randy's, Bernie ended up getting the job instead of Robert.

On March 28, the band flew to Bethlehem, Pennsylvania for three days of rehearsals to restart the tour. On April 1, the band restarted the tour at Stabler Arena in Bethlehem. UFO was back as an opening act in Bethlehem, and Magnum was added during the following five-show stint at Philadelphia's Spectrum. After the Philadelphia shows with Bernie, who was eager to start his solo career, Sharon found future-Night Ranger guitarist, Brad Gillis, though he did not feel ready to play onstage yet as he needed some time to learn the setlist, Bernie did several more shows with the band until Brad was ready. On April 13, Brad played with the band for the first time at Broome County Veterans Memorial Arena in Binghamton, New York. The band finished with Brad and Bernie left to get his solo career started.

On May 10, after the band's performance at Glens Falls Civic Arena in New York, Sharon put the tour on hold again as Ozzy's depression, mental illness, and drug and alcohol addiction had grown worse, so the rest of the tour's shows were postponed. The band restarted the tour on May 19 at Cape Cod Coliseum in South Yarmouth, Massachusetts with Magnum as the opening band for the east coast and midwest shows and the Canadian band, Santers, would be the opening band for the Canadian shows, and "Axe" would be the opening band for the west coast shows. On June 19, the band performed its 1st laser show at Oakland Arena in California. On June 25, the band performed at Irvine Meadows, where the live pro-video footage was used for Speak of the Devil Live, which was broadcast on MTV on Halloween.

On July 4, Ozzy and Sharon got married. From July 9 to 15, the band performed several shows in Japan. Later on August 6, the day before the band's show at the Rock N Roll Super Bowl (1982) at The Cotton Bowl in Dallas where Le Roux would open and supporting acts Loverboy and Foreigner, Ozzy's depression had grown even worse and not wanting to do more shows, he shaved his head completely. This did not stop Sharon from forcing Ozzy to get on stage with a wig, but Ozzy ripped the wig off his head and threw it on the audience.