Throughout his long career, Ozzy Osbourne has epitomized the phrase "shock rocker."
His often drug-fueled escapades and wild road stories are the stuff of rock and roll legend.
Here are some of the craziest stunts Ozzy Osbourne ever pulled.
Ozzy and the dead bat
Ozzy Osbourne was in the midst of his Diary of a Madman tour on January 20, 1982 when
he appeared onstage in Des Moines, Iowa, at the Veterans Memorial Auditorium. It was a
day that would go down as one of the most infamous in rock and roll history. Prior to
the show, he appeared on a handbill wearing a cape and devil horns. Emblazoned across
the top of the advertisement were the words:
"Just when you thought it was safe to go back to a concert."
Parental guidance was recommended, and concertgoers were urged not to eat before attending. Little
did anyone know what was about to transpire that fateful night. Seventeen-year-old Mark
Neal smuggled a dead bat into the show with every intention of throwing it onstage. And
after he did, Osbourne bit the creature's head off.
"It wasn't batman, it was a bat, a real bat, you know."
The singer later checked into a local hospital for rabies shots. Decades later, Osbourne
continued to field questions about the incident, with people frequently asking why he did it
and how it tasted.
"Somebody threw a bat on stage. And I thought it was one of these toy bats. So I picked
it up, bite the things head off and suddenly everybody's freaking out because it's a real
bat."
May have poisoned his drummer
During an early 2000s interview with Rolling Stone, Ozzy Osbourne and Black Sabbath guitarist
Tony Iommi opened up about ingesting copious amounts of cocaine while making the album
Vol. 4 in Los Angeles. The band stayed at a house in Bel Air, and their recording sessions
were bookended by alcohol, drugs, and women. At one point, Ozzy Osbourne managed to accidentally
call the cops and proceeded to flush a bunch of drugs down the toilet. But that wasn't
the worst of their indiscretions.
At one point, Osbourne and drummer Bill Ward were urinating in the bathroom together when
the singer grabbed an aerosol can and sprayed the contents onto Ward's private parts. Only
afterward did Osbourne notice the labeling:
"Warning: Do not spray on skin — highly toxic."
In the same interview, Osbourne told the magazine that he, quote, "poisoned" Ward in his most
sensitive of areas.
Performed a mock 'execution'
Ozzy Osbourne enjoyed putting on a show when he performed for audiences in the 1980s. Concertgoer
Steve Newton detailed a June 10, 1982, performance in the Canadian newspaper The Georgia Straight,
based in Vancouver, about a week after the concert. Osbourne appeared onstage sitting
on a throne. The singer's voice was "not up to par" that night and he wasn't as energetic
in person as he was on his latest album. However, his showmanship didn't disappoint.
The stage was set up like a castle, and at one point, a little person dubbed "Little
John," who was wearing a black robe with a "ghoulish face," was tasked with removing
the debris teens regularly threw onto the stage. Newton noted that it appeared like
a dead bat was part of the debris, so "Little John" picked up the creature before Ozzy could.
Newton went on to note that "Little John" looked, quote, "a little hesitant and unsure
while he did it."
Not long afterward, a hooded executioner performed a mock hanging of "Little John" while Osbourne
belted out the lyrics to "Goodbye to Romance" from Blizzard of Ozz. Random!
Tried to kill his wife
Most fans know about the time Ozzy Osbourne tried to kill his wife, Sharon. He shared
details about the incident in the documentary Biography: The Nine Lives of Ozzy Osbourne.
Osbourne said of that fateful day in 1989,
"I felt the calmest I've ever felt in my life. It was like serenity. Everything was just
peaceful."
Sharon wasn't exactly shocked by his actions, saying in the same documentary:
"We'd had a couple of fights and you can tell it was building to something, you could just
feel it. I just knew it was coming."
Osbourne was heavily using drugs when he visited Sharon in their bedroom one night after she'd
put their children to bed.
"Suddenly he just said we've made a decision and I'm like, 'We've?' 'Yes, and you've got
to die.'"
Osbourne then lunged at Sharon and started choking her. The oddest thing about the incident
was that he appeared perfectly calm. Fortunately, Sharon was able to reach the panic button
the couple had installed near their bedside table, which alerted the police. When Ozzy
later woke up in jail, he didn't know why he was there. Sharon dropped all charges against
her husband, and Osbourne spent six months in a treatment facility.
If you or someone you know is struggling with domestic abuse, please call or chat online
with the National Domestic Violence Hotline at 1-800-799-7233.
Weaponized a hotel TV
Rock guitarist Zakk Wylde was warned about Ozzy Osbourne's erratic behavior before he
joined him on tour. Wild told the website BirminghamLive,
"People used to say, 'he's trying to trap you in his web, don't let him trap you in
his web.'"
In 2002, the pair started drinking on the tour bus, and it turned into a night-long
bender that nearly cost a man his life. The two were staying at the Four Seasons in Prague
when Osbourne was suddenly inspired to throw a TV out of the window. So he tore it off
the wall, and Wilde heaved it right out the window.
Osbourne later recalled of the incident:
"It landed on the floor and [...] exploded. It went like a bomb. Little did I know that
there was a guy smoking, and I shudder to think if that had hit him. I would have killed
him stone dead."
The incident caused tens of thousands of dollars' worth of damage because they broke the window
frame during the process. Osbourne footed the bill.
Bad behavior at The Alamo
On February 19, 1982, Ozzy Osbourne, as usual, had consumed a few too many drinks before
committing one of rock and roll's most infamous transgressions.
He was wearing his future wife's Sharon's dress when he decided to explore San Antonio,
Texas, just for the heck of it. Sharon had hidden Ozzy's clothing to keep him from wandering
away, but obviously that didn't work. Across the street from the Alamo building, Osbourne
relieved himself on the 60-foot Alamo Cenotaph, which honors the dead. The singer was arrested
and later released on a $40 bond. That night, he performed at the city's convention center
but he was later banned from playing in San Antonio until 1992.
"Yeah, but it took me like 15 years to be able to do a show there."
Upon his return, he publicly apologized for the incident and donated $10,000 to the group
that takes care of the Alamo property. Ozzy said at the time,
"I am deeply honored that the people of San Antonio have found it in their hearts to have
me back. I hope that this donation will show that I have grown up."
Ozzy and the dove
On March 27, 1981, Ozzy Osbourne attended Epic Records' annual sales convention at the
suggestion of his manager and future wife Sharon Arden. Osbourne was scheduled to talk
about the U.S. release of Blizzard of Ozz. The plan was for three doves to be released
after he finished, to impress the executives at the event. Unfortunately, Osbourne was
a little drunk on brandy and bored with the presentation, so he took matters into his
own hands.
As recalled by the singer in Mick Wall's Black Sabbath biography, Symptom of the Universe,
Osbourne noted that a PR woman was giving a long-winded speech about his music. When
she was finished, Osbourne went up to the woman and asked her if she liked animals.
In retelling the story to Wall, Osbourne went on to add:
"Then I pulled out one of these doves and bit its [...] head off. Just to shut her up.
Then I did it again with the next dove, spitting the head out on the table, and [the woman]
fell on the floor screaming."
Osbourne was thrown out of the event, but his continued legacy of animal cruelty turned
out to be a boon for his career. Blizzard of Ozz ended up selling millions of copies,
and he cemented his reputation as one of heavy metal's most notorious rock stars.
Ozzy and David Lee Roth
Ozzy Osbourne is famous for his drug and alcohol-fueled benders, which went on for decades. In 1978,
Van Halen served as the opening act for Black Sabbath and featured frontman David Lee Roth,
who also liked to party. Roth ended up participating in what could have been a deadly game with
Osbourne. Author Greg Renoff revealed the details in the 2015 book Van Halen Rising:
How a Southern California Backyard Party Band Saved Heavy Metal.
At the time, Black Sabbath as a whole was spiraling out of control due to drug use,
and Van Halen was riding high on its first world tour. Roth and Osbourne ended their
performance in Birmingham, Alabama, by snorting cocaine. They then challenged each other to
see who could do the most coke without dying. The pair snorted copious amounts throughout
the night while the tour buses headed to Nashville for the next show.
When they arrived in Tennessee, Osbourne never received the key to his hotel room and simply
disappeared. The police were alerted, and there were fears that he had either been kidnapped
or killed. Ozzy's manager asked Roth if he could fill in for him at the concert, but
Roth didn't know the songs. The concert was cancelled, and about 24 hours later, Osbourne
showed up in the hotel lobby. He had spent the time sleeping in a random room that was
being cleaned by a housekeeper.
If you or someone you know is struggling with addiction, please call the Substance Abuse
and Mental Health Administration's 24/7 National Helpline at 1-800-662-HELP. That's 1-800-662-4357.
Ozzy and the dead shark
In his book Iron Man: My Journey Through Heaven and Hell With Black Sabbath, guitarist Tony
Iommi opened up about life in the band and some of the crazy things that happened when
they were recording and touring together. Ozzy Osbourne was known for his heavy drinking
and drugging, which led to some insane antics. At one point, even drugs weren't doing enough
for Osbourne, so he had to find other ways to get a rise out of his bandmates. Iommi
explained:
"With drugs always you get bored, so you must do something to one another. Like Ozzy hauling
a shark through a window, dismembering it and soaking our room in blood."
Another animal slaughtered for fun, but at least there's some good news: Iommi and Osbourne
were both eventually able to get sober.
The incident with a vicar
During a 2020 interview with GQ, Ozzy Osbourne admitted he inadvertently drugged a vicar
from the local church. They commonly visit your home when you move into town to welcome
you to the neighborhood. Prior to his visit, Osbourne had made a cake with a, quote, "big
hunk of hash," and he told his wife at the time, Thelma Riley, that it was off-limits.
A few days later, Osbourne returned from a trip to the local pub and saw a vicar in his
home drinking tea and eating a piece of the cake. Osbourne didn't have a driver's license,
but when the man passed out, he dragged him into his car "by his hair" and drove him home.
Osbourne later recalled,
"I didn't see him for two weeks after that and I thought I'd killed him!"
Osbourne finally saw him at the pub on a Sunday morning. The vicar revealed he had flu-like
symptoms and hallucinated for several days, causing him to miss church services.
Plans to tour again
Now in his 70s, Ozzy Osbourne is dealing with a lot of health issues. He had spinal surgery
in 2019 that has resulted in chronic pain. In 2020, he revealed that he has Parkinson's
disease. Osbourne also has emphysema, which makes him particularly vulnerable if he catches
COVID-19. Since he doesn't like wearing a mask, he doesn't leave his house very often.
But that hasn't stopped him from making big plans for the future.
Osbourne is rescheduling his "No More Tours 2" tour in the UK and Europe. The tour was
announced in 2018 but was postponed several times due to his health issues. It was set
to resume in 2020, and COVID-19 hit. His wife Sharon told Planet Radio:
"The British tour, he'll be back in '22. You know, we just carry on as normal. We've been
doing loads of TV shows here and you've got to just keep going until Ozzy can go back
live."
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