Maddenoliday Goes Down In New York City, Ozzy On Hand To Rock Times Square
NYC did its part to welcome in Maddenoliday last night. With Times Square lit up like a giant Madden/XBOX 360 Commercial, thousands of Madden fans were ready to take part in the midnight sale at Toys R Us (Where supposedly Tiki Barber was selling the first copies).
With an afternoon of rumors swirling about the performance, Ozzy Osbourne took the stage above the Hard Rock Café at 9:45 and belted through a three song set. The performance was shrouded in secrecy since making it public would have required getting a permit to shut down Times Square, which would literally have cost millions. The Ozzman led off with “I Don’t Wanna Stop,” which is featured in the Madden game. After some typical Ozzy-isms (“I can’t f**kin hear you New York!)”, he went into “Crazy Train,” which everyone in attendance knew except for a confused journalist next to us (Him: “What’s this called?” Us: “It’s called ‘Crazy Train.’ Him: “Crazy Brains?”). The set finished with Black Rain’s opener, “Not Going Away.”
Since Jon has purchased every yearly installment of the Madden series this was a particularly nerdy and cool experience for him to be a part of. As we stood on Military Island (where 7th Ave & Broadway meet) watching Ozzy, we kept thinking, we still can’t believe that Jamal Anderson (former Atlanta Falcons player – had a dance called The Dirty Bird) introduced Ozzy Osborne.
After Ozzy’s set, former NFL stars Eric Dickerson & Eddie George played Madden on the huge screens above of the ABC Studios.
A lot of celebs and current and former athletes were at the ESPN Zone afterparty. We met and talked to former Yankees cult hero Jim Leyritz about the 1996 World Series and last nights Yankees victory over the Orioles (which they squeaked out 7-6).
Some other folks we either bumped into at the party were Tiki Barber, Lil Jon, Stephon Marbury, Jamal Anderson, Warren Moon, Eddie George and Nick Cannon.
Fun story of the night – After seeing Islanders goalie Rick DiPietro at the party and pointing him out to our group, Epic Records Marketing guru Scott Greer says, “Oh, that guy is on the Islanders? I was playing him at Madden earlier” – haha.
I can’t wait to get home from work to play this game!