Who is Rick and why do I have his photos?

fuckin' go fo it... you're only young once

I first met Rick Salazar at the end of his junior year in high school. My son, Conrad, introduced me to him. Rick and Conrad used to have weekly jams every Friday or Saturday night. When Rick graduated in 2003 we bought him a ticket to that summer’s Ozzfest... Conrad and I already had our tickets. We even made Rick a big, really fuckin' cool, custom designed Ozzfest ‘NO ACCESS’ backstage pass as part of his ‘Ozzfest package’ graduation gift... click here to see Rick wearing his backstage pass, along with me and Conrad in 2003... good times.

Rick was supposed to go to Ozzfest with us this year... in fact he bought my ticket for me. Instead, he got himself a job with one of the Ozzfest contract vendors. Lucky Rick. He said he wasn't really sure if he should do it... he already had a job. I think Rick knew what he was going to do from day one. But he asked his family and friends anyway. Most, if not all of us, told him to go for it. He quit his job and joined the tour. He would call me from the cities he was in to rub it in that he was hearing it live... and I... wasn’t. I was happy for him.

Rick took his camera with him. He phoned me and told me that he had some fucking awesome pictures of Ozzy and Zakk and the other bands. Rick only had a vendor pass... but they didn’t look hard when he went backstage during the shows. He talked to a lot of the members of the bands during the day and nobody gave him a second thought when he went backstage during the shows and started taking pictures. Unfortunately, by the time he got to Pittsburgh he discovered he’d lost his camera... with all his pictures of the tour up to that point. Rick said he had his camera in Chicago but it was missing by the time he got to Pittsburgh. He thinks it fell out of his backpack because he didn’t close the flap right... or something like that... Rick can correct me. Anyway, he buys another camera for the rest of the tour.

The photos of Rick’s that I have posted are from the Pittsburgh and Detroit shows. Unfortunately, Rick got kicked off the tour right after that... for taking pictures of Ozzy. Up to that point the Ozzfest people apparently thought Rick was part of the show... one of the roadies... one of the acts. It wasn't until Detroit, Rick says, that they looked close enough at his credentials to realize he wasn't where he was supposed to be. Rick’s boss didn’t fire him… Ozzfest management told him to leave. So... Rick pissed off Ozzfest and hopped a plane home. It was a good fuckin’ ride while it lasted... Rick, I salute you.

When Rick got back he showed me his photos... they were fucking great. I would like to see the ones he lost. He used a Sony digital camera... with something like a 7.2 mega-pixel lens… and the exposure set to the highest resolution. These images have been drastically cropped and downsized from the original images so they would load in a timely manner... regardless of your connection speed. Rick was really cool about giving me a copy of his Ozzfest photos that I now share with you.

Thank you, Rick.