[September 20th, 2006]
^Crazy Train
Portland's premier Sabbath cover band makes one last stop before chugging into the sunset.

[TRIBUTE ROCK] I interviewed Crazy Train six months ago for WW's planned "tribute band issue," an idea that has yet to materialize. I expected ridiculous caricatures of rock stars; burnt-out metalheads reaching for an impossible, vicarious dream. The three very stoked members of the Ozzy/Black Sabbath tribute group (the entire band minus drummer Jeff "Crusher" Johnson) that sat down with me at Sabala's Mount Tabor couldn't have been further from that stereotype. Crazy Train turned out to be four normal guys from the Sabbath generation who all happen to love Ozzy. "We said we'd do it as long as it was fun," frontman (and Ozzy lookalike) Tim Tugg told me at the time. "It's still fun."

Apparently sometime in the past six months things became not fun. After close to a four-year run, Crazy Train celebrates its final show Friday at Outlaws Bar and Grill, sending Tim Tugg's Ozzy routine back to the drunken nights and Halloween parties from which it came. I guess that makes it time to divulge the frontman's secret Ozzy origin.

In the early '70s, Tugg took his girlfriend to see Black Sabbath. When Ozzy threw one of his trademark cross necklaces into the crowd, it was Tugg's girlfriend who caught it. "She gave it to me the next day at school, bless her heart. I've had it for 30-some years now." Perhaps, as Crazy Train's conductor suggests, the necklace has magical properties because with a little help from a long black wig and the bright stage lights, Tugg does a pretty convincing job of transforming into Ozzy Osbourne.

Asked what was so appealing about playing another band's songs rather than originals, Crazy Train bassist Rick Lapinski was quick to respond. "In the tribute world," he said, "we're able to play something that comes from our souls, whether we wrote it or not." The stress level is low, he says, but the reward level is high. Besides, "It's just more fun."

Thanks guys, it was a lot of fun to watch, too.

--CASEY JARMAN. Willamette Week

Friday, August 11
Crazy Train rules!
Tim Tugg fronts this decade-spanning Ozzy Osbourne/Black Sabbath tribute band as a pretty believable current-day Ozzy, and the rest of his band (appearing as themselves but playing like Sabbath) rock like dudes half their age. These guys work all the angles that a band with no CDs for sale can work: Tugg has appeared on the Judge Mathis show in full Ozzman get-up, and the band is (appropriately) sponsored by Off the Rails Brewery (run by another local Osbourne enthusiast), meaning they get a lot of free beer. The best thing about seeing Crazy Train isn't the illusion of Ozz: It's that the dudes behind that illusion are sick with a lifelong rock-'n'-roll fever, and that shit is contagious. CASEY JARMAN-Willamette Week

Tuesday, September 20, 2005
Last modified Thursday, September 8, 2005 12:32 AM PDT

Concert benefits surgeries

By Patrick Lair
The Entertainer
SWEET HOME -- In an effort to raise money for a kidney and pancreas transplant, friends of John Picco have organized Piccofest, an all-day, 10-band concert on Saturday, Sept. 17, at the Rockin' Red Ranch outside of Sweet Home.

The headlining act will be Portland-based Ozzy Osbourne impersonators Crazy Train. The hard-rocking cover band's music has received rave reviews for its authenticity and likeness to the original Osbourne metal classics. Sharon Osbourne even complimented the band on television. Crazy Train plays a rousing selection of Black Sabbath and Ozzy favorites, including "Fairies Wear Boots," "Sweet Leaf" and "Mama I'm Coming Home."

Copyright © 2005 Corvallis Gazette-Times

Friday, January 14, 2005
All aboard Ozzy clone.
Snow was predicted last Saturday night. What hit was a blizzard of Oz.
Put that "Oz," in quotes, though. The real Ozzman didn't cometh to Conan's on Hawthorne, but when Ozzy Osbourne-fronter Tim Tugg scooted toward the stage, bull-fingered fists flew up faster than . . . well, Ozzy.
"Fists go in the air, man, and they chant Oz-zy Oz-zy!" Dan Bates, Guitar player for Crazy Train, had said earlier in the evening. Tim Tugg, guitarist Dan Bates and bassist Matt McCourt -- has been publicly playing musical tribute to the lovable, bat-nibbling metalhead since this summer. VH1 take note: These are photogenic rockers with enough stories for two to 10 seasons of "Where Are They Now?"
What started as a performance for laughs at a friend's party for Tugg and initial guitarist Robbie Lee soon escalated into open-mike nights at Ickabod's Tavern in Beaverton. After Sharon Osbourne held up a photo of Tugg wearing his signature silver cross (picked up at a Black Sabbath concert) and proclaimed him "one of the best Ozzy impersonators around" on her talk show, Tugg set the wheels of Crazy Train in motion, losing Lee but acquiring the current lineup. The band's been hitting casino gigs and will play Saturday night at Bossanova.
"We're not just another tribute band, but a celebrity impersonator with a great back-up band,"
Dan Bates said.
The man behind the little black spectacles takes a Zenlike approach to inhabiting his icon:
"I just kind of close my eyes and do it," Tugg said. Although he said he digs Horatio Sands' Ozzy on "Saturday Night Live," Tugg's illusion has more depth to it. Tugg's got the chops, the foot-scoots, the mumbles and the perhaps-over-Prozac'd perma-grin down pat. And there's that famous, cool-creepy Ozzy cackle. Tugg released his first dead-on cackle just after calling "All aboard!" for the band's namesake song, then layered the laugh with spine-tingling vocal dexterity throughout the rest of the set. Ozzy-hungry fans feasted on the sight and sound, grabbing for the Ozzman's hand.
"It's like Disneyland, man," Tugg said. "You know Mickey's not real but you want to touch him!"
Crazy Train plays Saturday at Bossanova, 722 E. Burnside St.; 503-233-7855; doors open 8 p.m.; $7; 21 and older. For more info on Crazy Train, log onto www.ozzyband.com
--Lee Williams,
Special to The Oregonian

PORTLANDMUSIC.COM
DECEMBER 2004

Review by Bob Cooper
   The City of Hillsboro got an ample dose of ass kicking when it's sleepy environs were ruptured by the sound of OZZY! Well, Tim anyway. Yes, I am speaking of perhaps the most authentic replication of Ozzy Osbourne, in the form of CRAZY TRAIN. (So authentic in fact that Sharon herself gave Tim honorable mention during her show). Crazy Train has been around in different forms for years, with Tim always at the helm, just like the real Ozzy. They are so close that one cannot distinguish them from the original, save for the fact that Tim probably gets more chicks. But seriously, CT dishes up a tasty selection of Ozzy hits from throughout his career. They won't play every Ozzy tune, because they know their limitations and frankly if the song doesn't say Ozzy, then it don't say Tim either and they will not insult our intelligence with anything less than the best. Their repertoire includes of course Crazy Train, War Pigs, I Don't Know, and a slew of others guaranteed to make your evening a memorable one.

   Anyway, by now you are probably kicking yourselves for missing this show, but fear not- this entire lineup will appear at Conans on January 8 so you can redeem your rock and roll souls at that time. See you there!