‘I was a beast': Ozzy Osbourne's most shocking moments
There was never any doubt what would be on his gravestone, according to the rocker himself: 'Here lies Ozzy Osbourne. He bit the head off the bat.'
The legendary frontman of heavy metal group Black Sabbath died on Tuesday at the age of 76 following a long battle with Parkinson's disease, his family said in a statement – just weeks after he gave an epic farewell concert.
Dubbed the Prince of Darkness, Osbourne was instrumental in pioneering the musical genre – and gained huge notoriety along the way for his outlandish stunts, many of them fuelled by a hedonistic lifestyle involving the lavish use of drugs and alcohol.
Here are some of his most shocking moments.
Ozzy Osbourne has died aged 76 following a long battle with Parkinson's disease. Picture: Jordan Strauss/Invision/AP
MORE: Fortune left behind by Ozzy Osbourne revealed
He bit the head off a bat … and a dove
Perhaps his most infamous moment was in January 1982, when a fan hurled what looked like a creepy rubber bat toy at him on stage. Osbourne put its head in his mouth and chomped – later recalling: 'Immediately, something felt wrong'.
There was a foul taste, and he felt the severed head twitch in his mouth. Next thing the singer knew, he was being rushed to hospital for emergency rabies shots. The teenage bat-thrower later insisted it was already dead, but Osbourne maintained he felt it moving.
'I can assure you the rabies shots I went through afterwards aren't fun,' he told US TV host David Letterman in 1982.
Whatever the truth, the incident grabbed global headlines and overshadowed a career of mind-boggling firsts.
The 1982 bat-biting stunt left Osbourne needing a rabies injection. Picture: The Sun/Supplied
Osbourne also once bit the head off a dove in 1981, while meeting with CBS Records brass.
The plan was simply to make a memorable impression by releasing two doves and flashing the peace scene, according to his autobiography I Am Ozzy. But the singer got 'p*ssed off' waiting for his cue from wife Sharon Osbourne, bit off the head of one of the birds, and spat it at a publicist.
'The (boss) of legal said, 'If you ever do that again, we will absolutely destroy you',' Sharon recalled in the 2020 documentary The Nine Lives of Ozzy Osbourne.
Osbourne also admitted to killing 17 of his family's cats while high on drugs.
'We had about 17, and I went crazy and shot them all,' he said.
'My wife found me under the piano in a white suit, a shotgun in one hand and a knife in the other.'
Osbourne 'was a beast, absolutely terrifying' at points during his 40-year marriage to Sharon. Picture: Chris Pizzello/Invision/AP
In 1978, a drunk and coked-up Osbourne shot chickens behind the house he shade with his first wife, Thelma Riley.
Around the same time, while on tour, someone in his crew kidnapped a couple of ducks from a nearby lake after a hotel clerk failed to secure a rubber duckie for Osbourne's bath.
'He left it in the tub for the maid,' journalist Sylvie Simmons, who was on tour with Black Sabbath at the time, recalled in The Nine Lives of Ozzy Osbourne.
Ozzy and Sharon on their wedding day. Photo: Sharon Osbourne/Instagram
'I'm sure she was surprised.'
He snorted a line of ants
The documentary recalled Osbourne hanging out at a poolside bar with Mötley Crüe when they toured together in 1984.
Reportedly disappointed over the lack of cocaine on offer, Osbourne leaned over a line of ants on the ground and sniffed them up his nose.
Asked to verify the outrageous stunt (which is detailed in the Mötley Crüe book The Dirt), he replied: 'Is it true that I snorted a line of ants? It's incredibly possible. Do I remember it? No.'
Osbourne poses with a prop at the Black Sabbath: 13 3D maze at Universal Studios Halloween Horror Nights in 2013. Picture: John Shearer/Invision/AP
Osbourne tried to strangle his wife
Osbourne and Sharon's marriage was put to the test through many ups and downs – the singer saying that he 'was a beast, absolutely terrifying' at points throughout their 40 years together.
The couple met in 1970, but they didn't get together until after Osbourne split from his first wife, with whom he shares three of his six children.
Osbourne married Sharon, now 72, and they quickly started a family together – but their relationship became jeopardised after Osbourne attempted to murder her and then had an affair.
Osbourne allegedly tried to strangle Sharon in 1989.
'It was probably the most frightened I've ever been,' Sharon said. Picture:for Showtime
While under the influence of drugs and alcohol, Osbourne allegedly turned to Sharon on September 3,1989 and told her, 'We've come to a decision that you've got to die', before lunging at her and trying to strangle her.
'He dived on me and started to choke me. I felt for stuff on the table, found a panic button and pressed it,' Sharon said in The Nine Lives of Ozzy Osbourne.
'All of a sudden, the cops were here. It was probably the most frightened that I'd ever been.'
Osbourne was arrested for attempted murder, but Sharon did not press charges. He went on to spend six months in a medical detention centre.
Sharon forgivingly declined to press charges on the grounds that 'the person who all but choked me to death was so far gone on drink and drugs that it wasn't him'.
'Don't get caught by your missus'
In 2016, Sharon took an overdose of pills after finding out Osbourne had a four-year affair with his former hairdresser Michelle Pugh.
'I took an overdose and locked myself in the bedroom,' she told Loose Women.
'The maid tried to come in to clean the room and saw me.'
Ms Pugh described their relationship as 'life changing', claiming Osbourne made her feel like 'the most beautiful and worshipped woman in the world' and that it was 'a struggle every day' when it ended.
Sharon decided to end their (then) 34-year marriage but forgave him months later, and has stood by him for the rest of his life.
'As much as he's addicted to alcohol and drugs, I'm addicted to him,' she wrote in her memoir Unbreakable.
Osbourne, left, performs, January 17, 1985, at the Rock in Rio music festival in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. Picture: AP Photo
Osbourne later expressed regret for declaring the secret to his marriage was 'don't get with your mistress'.
'When I was a crazy f***er, I'm lucky she didn't walk out,' he told Rolling Stone in 2017.
'Now I'm coming on five years clean and sober, and I've realised what a f***ing idiot I was. I mean, I'm still nuts, but in control of it a bit more.
'When I said, 'Don't get caught by your missus', I'm not proud of all that sh*t. I upset my wife and I upset my family and I made a lot of shock and shame. I love my wife, and it made me realise what a f***ing idiot I've been.'
He publicly relieved himself in a Sydney hotel
After a hard-drinking dinner in Memphis in 1984, Osbourne disappeared for the night. As he recalled in The Nine Lives of Ozzy Osbourne, he woke up outdoors, felt nature calling and let loose – dousing an unmarked police car.
'When you're finished shaking that thing, I'm taking your ass to jail,' the arresting female officer told him – before making good on her promise.
He was also once busted for peeing on The Alamo in Texas – a cenotaph commemorating Texan troops who died while defending the site against the invading Mexicans – and relieved himself publicly at the Kingsgate Hyatt in Sydney.
'We were waiting for the lift,' Black Sabbath road-crew member Graham Wright told The New York Post.
'Ozzy said, 'I have to go.' He dragged over a potted palm from the lobby and peed in it until it overflowed. I think Ozzy had a weak bladder.'
Hitler 'had a charisma'
In 1982, Osbourne was asked during an interview with Night Flight who the influence for his music and concerts was – bluntly responding: 'Adolf Hitler.'
Asked to explain why, he continued: 'Adolf Hitler had a charisma, in a bad way, and I kind of admired him.'
'He was a freak, he was a lunatic, but he had summat (something) about him, you know,' Osbourne said.
'It was bad what he did, it was terrible what he did, he killed all of these people and whatever, but it was like, erm, he had something about him, you know.
German Nazi Party Leader Adolf Hitler circa 1930. Picture: Three Lions/Osbourne cited Hitler as a source of inspiration during a 1982 interview with Night Flight. Picture: YouTube
'I admired him, not for what he was, but for people; I suddenly stopped and thought, hang on a minute, if somebody put that in a positive way, for the good of mankind … whatever anybody says about me, I might be the biggest lunatic that you've ever met in your life guys, but I'm here for you guys, I'm here for people, I'm here for enjoyment, I'm here for giving people my life, my soul, my everything.'
The interview took place three years after Osbourne was fired from Black Sabbath over his substance abuse.
First marriage was 'a terrible mistake'
Osbourne's first marriage to Ms Riley was no less turbulent than his one with Sharon.
In 1971, aged 22, he married the nightclub attendant after a whirlwind romance – but quickly decided it was 'a terrible mistake'.
Fuelled by alcohol and cocaine, he would use a semiautomatic to shoot mannequins he tied to trees at their cottage in Ranton, Staffs.
Osbourne also later admitted to being physically violent toward Ms Riley, and confessed he had been a 'disgusting' father to their children.
When she was in labour with their daughter Jessica, Osbourne insisted on driving her to hospital despite being intoxicated and not holding a licence.
His volatile behaviour eventually saw the couple separate in the late 70s, and their divorce was finalised in 1982.
– Reporting with The Sun and The New York Post
Originally published as 'I was a beast': Ozzy Osbourne's most shocking moments
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