More OzzFest news...

Here's something from MTV: OZZFEST has officially outlasted all of the other Summer Music festivals. With Lollapalooza, Lilith Fair, and H.O.R.D.E. in drydock, OZZY OSBOURNE and his cohorts seemed to be heartily enjoying the last laugh when the now reigning summer festival champ unveiled this year's edition in West Palm Beach, Florida. "Metal never dies," STATIC-X frontman Wayne Static said of the tour's staying power. "Sometimes it's not on the radio and sometimes it's not at the forefront, but heavy rock or metal or whatever the hell you want to call it has always been around and will always be around. Metal fans are the most hardcore, loyal fans. There's always going to be an audience for this kind of event." Bolstering that point, a sell out crowd of some 19,000 braved searing sun, stifling humidity and a brief but very heavy downpour at West Palm's Mars Music Amphitheater for the first date of the annual metal trek, which this year offers Ozzy, PANTERA, GODSMACK, INCUBUS, STATIC-X, P.O.D., SOULFLY, and 12 others. What those fans found were a collection of heavy music's finest celebrating their success on the main stage, and a new breed of up-and-comers optimistic about turning their second stage spots into career-making gigs. Of course, Pantera was all business during its opening night set, coming across like men on a mission in serving up the bare-knuckled, straight-up metal found on "Reinventing The Steel" to a U.S. audience for the first time. "God damn it feels good to be playing Florida right now," frontman Phil Anselmo declared as the sheer force of new tracks like "Hellbound," "Goddamn Electric," and "Revolution Is My Name" seemed to beat the rain away. Such was the sentiment for much of the day on the main stage as the Ozzfest 2000 crop settled in for a two-month party. "I'm so happy to be here playing to you lovely Floridians instead of sitting in some f***ing jail somewhere," TOMMY LEE declared during METHODS OF MAYHEM's set. Of course, no one seemed to get a bigger charge out of Ozzfest 2000's coming out party than Ozzy himself, who lurched, hopped, and swayed his way through an hour and a half of material, smiling like a Cheshire cat the entire time. Ozzy slammed together plenty of BLACK SABBATH nuggets ("N.I.B.," "War Pigs, "Paranoid"), solo hits ("Crazy Train," "Suicide Solution," "Flying High Again"), and the latest in water gun technology for a set that was part heavy metal karaoke, part water park attraction. ZAKK WYLDE is offering a $1000 reward and a set of three BLACK LABEL SOCIETY patches to the person who returns the missing instruments. E-mail RandyCanis@yahoo.com if you have information. According to singer RYAN COOK, HAIR OF THE DOG, temporarily back in Los Angeles after a successful road trip in support of Rise, plan to head out again in August with Wylde. CINDERELLA had to put work on its first studio album for Portrait Records aside to prepare for and go on the road with the POISON tour this summer. "The tour kind of came along in the midst of preparing to make the record so it put the record on hold," says TOM KEIFER, but he and the band plan to use any time off to keep writing songs and will continue to do so after the tour, with an eye toward recording by year's end, releasing in the spring, and touring again next summer.