30 year anniversary of the Moscow Peace Festival August 13, 1989

The Magic Bus”McGhee christened the chartered Boeing 757 he hired “The Magic Bus,” and planned to fly all the festival’s acts over together, with a stop in London to pick up Ozzy Osbourne and the Scorpions.

All Photography by Mark “WEISSGUY” Weiss

Photographer Mark”WEISSGUY” Weiss was the official photographer for the Moscow Peace Festival.

Doc McGhee: We were just flying in to Moscow on a private jet. I had already said, “OK, we’re probably going to get arrested when we land here.

Rob Affuso – Skid Row: We were told no alcohol, no drugs on the plane, and of course, as soon as the plane took off the ground, everybody’s opening bottles. So it was just a big party all the way to Russia.

Scotti Hill – Skid Row: Pretty much everybody was drinking. Although [the concert] was “rock against alcohol and drugs,” there was plenty of alcohol and drugs!

Tommy Lee – Motley Crue: It was always a little dangerous there because [Mötley Crüe] were trying so desperately to be sober, so we didn’t really hang out a whole lot with the other guys.

Ozzy Osbourne: My wife, an L.A. Times journalist and I were the only sober ones on the flight.

Tommy Lee – Motley Crue: Everyone but us was fuckin’ wasted. Sebastian Bach was wasted. Geezer Butler from Black Sabbath was wasted.

Tom Keifer – Cinderella: The actual thought of getting onto a plane and going to Russia? I don’t think any of us knew what to anticipate.

Klaus Meine – Scorpions: I remember Ozzy going into the toilet and when he came out, it looked like he pissed on himself.

Rachel Bolan – Skid Row: You walk down an aisle, hang out, there’d be Nikki Sixx, and then there’d be someone that you knew better, like Tom Keifer and the Cinderella guys. It was cool and surreal at the same time.

Rob Affuso – Skid Row: So we landed there and I look out the window and it’s just dawn. There’s all these black limousines as far as the eye could see. Because I think there were two hundred of us coming off the plane.

Tom Keifer: Jon [Bon Jovi] and [Bon Jovi guitarist] Richie Sambora and I, we had some guitars out and we were strumming along and singing some songs and just kinda having a little bit of a jam.

Doc McGhee: Everybody was very enthusiastic. Why wouldn’t you: If you get to go play Lenin Stadium, the biggest show ever in the history of the Soviet Union, and be broadcast in 59 countries? Live, and live on Soviet television for the first time in the history of the world.

Scotti Hill: To see armed soldiers patrolling the stadium, and soldiers lining three deep in front of the stage, it’s like, “Whoa! Is that necessary?”

Sebastian Bach, lead singer, Skid Row “Check this out, motherfucker! I want to see some hands in the air!”

Scotti Hill: We thrive under pressure. And the underdog slot, we want to put a fire under everybody’s ass. I’d say we did good.

Jon Bon Jovi, lead singer, Bon Jovi : Thinking that Mr. Bush and Mr. Gorbachev are both going to be aware of who Ozzy is going to be pretty historic in its own right.

Stas Namin, co-organizer, Moscow Music Peace Festival: It was a diplomatic game: “How to trick [the] Soviet authorities” and not to let them understand that it was going to be a real rock festival. That’s why I called it Moscow Music Peace Festival, without using the word “rock.” After being forbidden for 17 years, Soviet authorities let me out of the country [for the first time], when I was already 35. I was invited, with my rock band the Flowers, for a 45-day tour around United States. Then an idea came to my mind – to put together a rock festival in Moscow where rock bands from different countries, including Russia, will play together. I started to share this idea with my new friends I met during the U.S. tour. … One of my first rock & roll impressions was the Woodstock Festival in ’69, and I was dreaming to put together [a] Russian Woodstock sometime.