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On August 14, 2004, the Wisconsin village of East Troy was a beautiful place to get married. The sky over the Alpine Valley Music Theatre, an outdoor amphitheater nestled among lush hills, was clear and blue. The temperature peaked, records show, around a pleasant 72 degrees Fahrenheit. For David Dennis and Kerri Howard of Rockford, Ill., the massive, 37,000-capacity venue held another attraction that day: Ozzfest, the annual touring music festival devoted to hard rock and heavy metal, during which the happy couple took the stage to say “I do” right after a characteristically aggressive set by horror-masked Iowa band Slipknot.
Marriage proposals aren’t rare at concerts, metal shows not excepted, but weddings are another matter. The Dennises were something of an anomaly, securing their public ceremony through a loose connection to an employee at events giant Clear Channel (since renamed Live Nation). But the two, who met cutting hair at Pegasus Hair Styling—David’s business back in Rockford—weren’t the only ones interested in tying the knot at Ozzy and Sharon Osbourne’s traveling hesher circus. In 2010, six years after David and Kerri became man and wife there, Ozzfest started offering the “Unholy Matrimony VIP Package.” The $266-per-person price included 10 pit tickets (for the bride and groom, plus an eight-person wedding party), a champagne toast, a cake, and a backstage tour led by Ozzy’s stage assistant, “Big” Dave Moscato—who’d also gotten ordained to officiate the nuptials.
Moscato, calling from Black Sabbath’s recent Australian tour, tells me he only remembers doing “about three or four” weddings during Ozzfest’s 2010 installment, which was an abbreviated six dates. Still, he describes the decision to offer a VIP wedding package—reached within the 60 seconds it took him to sign up online and become a reverend—as a response to an occasional demand that’d emerged since the festival’s 1996 beginning. “Metalheads are a different breed,” he says. “They are such huge fans, and that’s one way you could be a part of it.” It didn’t hurt, he reasons, that an Ozzfest wedding allowed an escape from parents and other meddlesome loved ones who might interfere with how the event should be run.
David and Kerri were engaged in 2004, but hadn’t set a date. Kerri had a customer at the salon whose daughter lived in the Los Angeles area, and the daughter’s roommate worked for Clear Channel. Ozzfest was coming soon, and Kerri was a huge Ozzy fan. “I kind of joked and said, ‘Let’s get married in the parking lot at Ozzfest,’” David remembers. “Kerri’s customer called her daughter, her daughter talks to her roommate, and her roommate says, ‘I can get you married onstage.’” Dave was a widower, and a nephew of his first wife—who’d died from cancer—conducted the ceremony. They didn’t meet Ozzy, and David describes throngs of sweaty, predominantly male Slipknot fans screaming at Kerri, who’s “a good-looking girl,” to “take it off.” Trojan had a booth at the fest, so the newlyweds were also showered with condoms. All in all, though, he says, “It was a good time.” The two held a separate ceremony about a month later at his farm south of Rockford, and they’re still married to this day.
Laura Russum and Joshuah Bogus of Dover, Delaware—who were hitched at the 2010 Ozzfest stop in Camden, New Jersey—had a different experience. “It was the worst rain of the entire tour,” Ozzy’s assistant Moscato says. Laura says her husband—they, too, have remained together—is a music lover, and when traditional matrimonial planning wasn’t getting them very far, they decided to have a backyard ceremony for family and friends and an Ozzfest wedding just for fun: “Who doesn’t want to feel like a rock star for one day?”
The Boguses were supposed to exchange vows on the outdoor stage, right before a performance by Zakk Wylde’s band Black Label Society, but they ended up inside, on the main stage, due to the storm. The weather wasn’t the only disappointment: Getting a marriage license in New Jersey was a hassle, they didn’t meet anyone famous, and they spent all day waiting around in the not-so-exciting VIP area; plus, Joshuah volunteered his time playing guitar in a church band that kicked him out when the choir leader and priest learned he’d be trading rings amid devil’s horns. (The bride and groom didn’t even attend the church.)
Not surprisingly, Laura doesn’t recommend the overall experience. But she does advocate that other engaged couples do what they want and not worry about everyone else. “I still love our backyard wedding the most,” she admits, “but the Ozzfest wedding makes for a good story.”